장 칼뱅의 신학 속 종교개혁과 디아코니아의 상관관계에 대한 연구

Abstract

For Calvin, diakonia was a way to practice his reformed ideas in reality. He encouraged almsgiving and charity of Christians and urged the church to actively practice diakonia in the public sphere. In his theology diakonia was an external expression of faith based on “God's absolute sovereignty” thought. In the era of Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church emphasized almsgiving and charity of Christians on the basis of meritocracy, which caused serious theological distortions in soteriology and ecclesiology. Calvin's diakonia begins with criticism of this meritocracy. According to Calvin, it was “self-denial” to acknowledge that the Christian himself belong to God. Through self-denial, the Christian can escape the selfish attitude and love truly his neighbors and can practice the diakonia to his neighbors. Thus Calvin's diakonia is the practice of neighbor-love based on self-denial. In Calvin’s theology, Christian diakonia could be practiced not only in the religious sphere but also in the public sphere. The thought of“Justification by faith” leads to the priesthood of all believers and the work ethic based on ​​God's absolute sovereignty presented a new world view that can discover God's providence in everyday work such as commerce. The correlation between job and diaconia is a common thought between Luther and Calvin. But the God’s absolute sovereignty is a obvious feature that distinguishes Luther and Calvin's understanding of the diakonia. Calvin's diakonia is an external expression of theological transformation based on God's absolute sovereignty. Calvin's diaconic thought is an important value that the Korean church today has to be restored which is under much criticism from civil society. The church must follow Christ who came to this earth as a servant. However, many church leaders who seek to sit in the “chief seats” of domination and oppression, deprived of the value of serving others, can be not the Jesus' disciples. If the Korean church wants to exist as a reformed church that is truly seeking to reform itself, then we must first rediscover the value of diakonia in Calvin's theology through a serious theological reflection on diakonia.