Journal Articles by Wonchul Shin
Theology Today 81.2, 2024
This article offers a theological reflection on the imago Dei in light of the lived experiences o... more This article offers a theological reflection on the imago Dei in light of the lived experiences of migrants and then reconstructs theological anthropology in an age of migration. This article critically examines the groundbreaking works of Peter C. Phan and Daniel G. Goody in the intersection of migration and theology. Their theological understanding of God, specifically the imago Dei, centers on the incarnation as a gratuitous self-giving event that crosses over the ontological border between the divine and humanity. This article affirms the theological originality of perceiving the imago Dei as border-crossing. However, this article points out the inadequacy and even potential harmfulness of the theological understanding of the imago Dei grounded in divine self-giving love. This theological account fails to register the lived experiences of migrants, specifically forced migrants who move across borders in order to live a better life. Their ultimate motivation for border-crossing is not self-giving love, but deep hunger for freedom, dignity, and justice that have been absent in their daily lives. This article utilizes this epistemic value embedded in the lived experiences of migrants and reconceptualizes the imago Dei grounded in the divine desire for human flourishing. As a bearer of the imago Dei, humanity is also a border-crossing being, rooted in a desire for human flourishing, moving across the dividing walls of alienation and dehumanization in order to achieve human flourishing in securing basic conditions for human dignity, practicing social friendship, and building a culture of encounter.
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Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 43.2, 2023
By examining the stories of Asian American Dreamers, or Asian American young adults with Deferred... more By examining the stories of Asian American Dreamers, or Asian American young adults with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status, this essay investigates how these undocumented young adults cultivate virtuous imagination to transcend the violence of uncertainty and radically imagine new paths toward flourishing. The aversive state of structural uncertainty leads them to experience narrative foreclosure and the violent disruption of the pursuit of the good life. This essay subsequently proposes two kinds of stories as moral resources for empowering Asian American Dreamers to cultivate imaginative excellence in order to dream new paths toward flourishing and to resist the toxic internalization of the “model minority” myth: (1) religious stories demonstrating their steadfast commitment to God’s goodness and (2) stories of solidarity co-authored with their suffering neighbors.
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@ this Point: Theological Investigation in Church and Culture 15.1, 2021
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Theology Today, 2021
This article offers a theological reflection on prayer of anger and lament as a formative source ... more This article offers a theological reflection on prayer of anger and lament as a formative source for the oppressed in constructing and embodying their own theology. For this purpose, particular attention is paid to Kim Heunggyum’s scandalous prayer-song “The Father of Minjung,” which was widely sung by Korean minjung amid their political resistance against the authoritarian regimes in the 1980s. This article historically traces this prayer-song’s original context and developmental stages and analyzes its use of cross-genre that blends the styles and structures of the minjung-gayo and the lament psalms. Theological reflection on this prayer-song focuses on particular religious affections, righteous anger and communal lament, shaped by the Korean minjung’s collective performance to sing this prayer-song as a means of political resistance. By drawing on Audre Lorde, Johann Baptist Metz, and Emmanuel Levinas, this article points out limitations of Barth’s theology of prayer and presents how Kim’s prayer-song that evokes righteous anger and communal lament served as a formative source for the Korean minjung in doing their own critical and incarnational theology.
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Religions, 2020
Focusing on the understudied area of women, religion, and peacebuilding, this essay offers the ca... more Focusing on the understudied area of women, religion, and peacebuilding, this essay offers the case study of Liberian mothers' actions in the interreligious peace movement to address multiple forms of violence in the midst and aftermath of Liberian civil wars. This essay examines three forms of gender violence and their impact on the lives of Liberian women: (1) sexual violence, (2) forced mobilization of child soldiers, and (3) structural poverty. Afterwards, the essay explores the journey of Liberian mothers to peace and justice and analyzes the role of religion(s) in organizing and sustaining the mothers' interreligious peace movement. Specifically, this essay highlights the concept of motherhood rooted in Pan-African religious traditions as a key moral resource to empower the mothers as peacebuilders and to foster restorative justice in their war-torn nation.
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Religions, 2020
This paper aims to reimagine anger, which has been traditionally understood as one of the capital... more This paper aims to reimagine anger, which has been traditionally understood as one of the capital vices in Christian traditions, as a moral virtue of the oppressed in their resistance against structural injustice. This essay first examines the contemporary discussions on anger in the field of Christian ethics. Then, I critically evaluate Lisa Tessman's account of "burdened virtues" and argue for a possibility that anger can be constructive in contributing to the flourishing of the oppressed. This paper argues that the oppressed can transform burdened anger into thriving anger that is conducive to their own flourishing through the communal bearing of the burden. This paper provides empirical support for this argument: a comparative analysis of a suicide protest of a college student and life-affirming protest of the mothers and wives of political victims against the totalitarian regime of Park Chung-hee in South Korea, 1970-1979.
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Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 2017
This essay explores small "ordinary" experiences of moral harm as problems of social injustice. S... more This essay explores small "ordinary" experiences of moral harm as problems of social injustice. Starting with two stories, we first argue against a dominant framework of personal responsibility that assigns responsibility to particular blameworthy agents. Instead we sketch an account of why structural responsibility for social harm must be considered, drawing on the work of Iris Marion Young and Pierre Bourdieu. Finally, drawing on Margaret Walker's notion of moral repair and Christopher Marshall's interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan, we sketch an account of Christian moral responsibility grounded in restorative justice that seeks to address daily experiences of moral harm through the moral repair work of neighbor-love.
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Journal of Asian American Theological Forum, 2017
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Book Chapters by Wonchul Shin
The Business of War, 2020
“The Business of War on the Korean Peninsula” in The Business of War, eds. Justin Bronson Barrian... more “The Business of War on the Korean Peninsula” in The Business of War, eds. Justin Bronson Barrianger, James W. McCarty III, and Matthew Tapie. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers (October 2020).
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Book Reviews by Wonchul Shin
Theology Today, 2020
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Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 39.1, 2019
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Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 38.1 , 2018
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Journal of Asian American Theological Forum, 2016
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Journal of Asian American Theological Forum, 2016
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Journal of Asian American Theological Forum, 2016
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Journal Articles by Wonchul Shin
Book Chapters by Wonchul Shin
Book Reviews by Wonchul Shin