한국 교회의 권위주의 문화에 관한 목회상담적 고찰 - 자기(Self) 변화와 회심의 심리적 역동 -

Abstract

The serious problems that the Korean churches are facing in these days are the ones that they have been aware of for a long time. They have attempted so hard to resolve the problems in vain because of the authoritarian culture within them. The symptoms of the authoritarian culture in the Korean church are as follows: misunderstanding of the role as power, hierarchical relationships, dialogue ignoring this objectivity and rationality, critical attitude against the reasonable challenge to authority, defensive culture of the group against the anxiety, etc. According to some study by some scholars, the elements of the authoritarian culture are conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotype, power and toughness, destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and sex. Another study shows that authoritarianism is characteristic of dominance/leadership, strong concern for achievement, interpersonal conflict, and verbal hostility. It is not difficult to find those elements among the Korean churches. The authoritarian culture in the Korean society has been shaped by the political dictatorship, Confucian culture, and shamanism on the spiritual level. Especially, the aspect of the Korean culture relevant to Christian faith is shamanist egoism. This shamanist egoism, which is to be differentiated from individualism in the Western society, has played the complementary role of shaping authoritarian culture. It is necessary to introduce the idea of the self in order to approach to transform the authoritarian culture from the perspective of pastoral care. The self is the contact place where culture and emotion meet each other. At this juncture, the reason the Korean Christians cannot achieve the cultural transformation is the dynamics of conversion that they went through when they accepted the Gospel. As Paul Tillich pointed out, the Korean Christians have fallen into "the self-hating fanaticism" when they were introduced to the Gospel. By self-hating fanaticism, it means that they come to admit their traditional culture and/or values are wrong or inferior to the Western culture when they accepted the Gospel. As a result, they have come to have the dualistic value system. The Korean Christians may be able to transform the authoritarian culture when they overcome the self-hating fanaticism, which entails the acceptance of their selves and the attainment of autonomy.