김찬국의 신학에 나타난 ‘하나님의 의’

Abstract

The respectable professor Chan Kook Gim had lived as a pastor, scholar, and prophet in Korea from 1927 to 2009. This paper pursues Chan Kook Gim’s theology of God’s righteousness. The previous study shows that Chan Kook Gim’s social involvement started with the Min-Cheong-Hak-Ryun affair in 1974. This study argues that Chan Kook Gim’s social consciousness started started when he was In his 20s. This fact is well attested in his two master’s theses: “Debate on Covenantal God’s Redemptive Righteousness in the Old Testament”(Graduate School of Yon Hee University, 1954), “The Origin of Ședeq in Isaiah 40-55”(Union Theological Seminary in New York, 1955). This paper aims to demonstrate how his understanding of God’s righteousness attested in two master’s theses developed in his academic writings with a focus on the prophetic literature. I argue that Gim tried to understand God’s righteousness from God’s characteristics and the paradigm of redemptive history. In his thesis of “Debate on Covenantal God’s Redemptive Righteousness in the Old Testament,” Gim debated God’s righteousness connected with five major topics: covenant, judgement, redemption, and salvation as well as the concept of righteousness. I induced a theological paradigm through Gim’s debate in the thesis: covenant and judgement-forgiveness and redemptionrestoration and salvation. Gim’s most academic writings are concentrated on the prophetic literature. It is notable that the prophetic literature suits Gim’s theological paradigm of salvational history well. In this paper, I categorized the prophetic literature into three stages according to Gim’s theological scheme of salvational history. First, it was the 8th century prophets who delivered the message of judgement based upon the Mosaic covenant. Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah delivered the message of judgement, because Israeli people violated the law of social justice in which God’s righteousness is expressed. Second, the prophets before and during exile proclaimed the message of forgiveness and redemption. Jeremiah and Ezekiel before the fall of Jerusalem delivered the message of judgement in the same line with the 8th century prophets. However, after the fall of Jerusalem their messages were transformed into forgiveness and redemption. It was the second Isaiah in whom Gim had the deepest interests, because the second Isaiah announced God’s righteousness with plentiful prophetic imaginations such as creation and exodus etc based upon various previous traditions. Third, Gim explained Israel’s restoration and salvation in the eschatological vision of prophetic literature. His understanding on God’s righteousness was extended to human rights, feminism, and the third world which were considered to be practices of God’s righteousness in the contemporary context of Korea. In comparison with current research on God’s righteousness, it is noteworthy that Gim’s theology on righteousness is holistic. His deep emphasis on righteousness as Yahweh’s character and on protection of the weak should be received as an inheritance and developed as a valuable theological heritage of Korea.