민중신학에서의 민중 용어의 작용에 대한 연구

Abstract

This paper examines how the term Minjung works in the discourse of Korean Minjung theology. The term helped Minjung theologians focus on witnesses rather than theories and concepts. In terms of Minjung Messiah, soteriology of Minjung theology, the term Minjung opened the possibility to understand salvation as the effects in the “field” constructed by Minjung reality. As seen in the “confluence of two stories”, while Minjung theology has the tendency to serve as a discourse supporting the Korean democratization movement, it also deconstructs existing discourses when new interactions between Minjung reality and people are detected. Recent Minjung Theologians reinterpreted the theory on Ochlos and the discussions about Paul’s statement of justification in early Minjung Theology, and developed a tendency to explore the exclusion of non-citizens by Korean post-democratization regime in which citizens take the initiative and have more confidence about their own legitimacy. This tendency recognizes that non-citizens who are excluded from the regime are experiencing lack of language to represent themselves. Therefore, the prospect of understanding the term Minjung should be constructed on the necessity of exploring the interactions between Minjung reality and people attracted into the “field” constructed by the reality, which are not explicitly represented in language.