After finishing my undergraduate
study in South Korea in
1997, I went to Hamilton, Ontario to continue studying Christian
Education. Then my academic journey turned in the direction of counseling, which
led me to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
At SBTS, I was introduced to Christian psychology by Dr. Eric Johnson and I received
my Ph.D in pastoral theology and counseling. Upon graduating, I worked at a
Christian counseling center for three years as a professional counselor. In September 2010, I returned to Korea after
many years of life overseas with the ambitious visions of helping troubled
Korean souls and building an academic community with the same mind as that of
the Society of Christian Psychology.
I have been experiencing both challenges and joys as I pursue those visions. I
would like to share a couple of them.
After many years of absence, I needed time to
figure out how best to help my counselees using the training I had received in
the West. Counseling is a culture-sensitive process. In order to help anyone
with their psychological or relational trouble, you need to understand the
context in which the person lives. For the last decade, South Korea has
changed rapidly and in many ways. Importantly, I noticed the church has begun
to take more seriously than ever the psychological well-being of the
congregation. Most mega churches have their own counseling centers, and many
pastors have begun to recognize the importance of soul care at a deeper level.
This change has occurred alongside the general trend of the society in that
people have begun to take interest in holistic well-being as their economic
status has become more settled.
Although it should be considered
a welcome change, problems have emerged. The primary issue seemed to me to be
in understanding how Korean Christian spirituality should respond to the
contradictions of modernism. Interestingly, I discovered an American pastoral
theologian in the U.S.
who presented a similar point of view. James Poling at Garret-Evangelical
Theological Seminary wrote an article exploring several perspectives on the
relationship of Christianity to traditional Asian religions and what
contribution Korean spirituality can make to Western pastoral care and theology
(Poling, 2010). Although his article did not directly discuss Christian
psychology in Korea, it
offered a good historical background to understand where to look as we lay down
the foundational framework in building the house of Christian Psychology here
in Korea.
South
Korea imported the idea of modernity from Christianity
and the U.S.
After the Cold War in 1945, modernism began to shape Korean culture powerfully,
which subsequently influenced the church greatly. Koreans are very religious
people by nature. The integration of Confucianism, Shamanism, Buddhism and
Daoism are strongly embedded in this culture. The religious tradition of each
family is respected. Furthermore, Koreans are a community oriented society.
People find their identity in the community to which they belong. Relationships
really matter. As you might already notice, these historic roots conflict with
the modernist beliefs. In accepting modernism along with Christianity, most
Korean churches took the role of persuading people that pre-modern religions
were not scientific enough to follow. Western Christianity was the only
religion which was founded in ‘reason.’ However, different voices were raised
within the church questioning the contradiction of modernism and Christianity.
Some Christians averred that postmodernism would fit better for Korean
Christian spirituality. Others argued that Korean Christians should develop a
distinctively Korean Christian spirituality using the active cooperation of
traditional Korean religions. Presently, thanks to some faithful theologians in
Korea,
constructive dialogues have been developed (Lee, 2003). Yet, we are still at a
premature stage. We need extensive research and theory building to understand
this complicated agenda. This is particularly important for Christian
psychology and the counseling field in current South Korea. Taking Christianity in
its modern version, Korean churches trust science in its commitment to evidence
and technology. The Korean church seems too wide open to modern psychology as
that psychology is understood to be a reliable source in healing hurting souls
‘scientifically.’ Although many Christian counselors and pastoral caregivers
adopt modern psychology theories without any doubt, some people are deeply
concerned (Ok, 2007). Thus, Korean Christians have responded to the
contradiction of their faith in modernism in different ways. Some responses
seem to show similarity to the way in which American Christians responded to
the contradictions of their Christians beliefs with modernism decades before.
Yet, Korean Christians’ struggle is more complicated because it is rooted in
the relationship with other traditional religions.
Building a house of Christian
psychology in Korea
will be a difficult work. Nevertheless, I become very hopeful when I meet
Christian psychologists and counselors who share the same vision of
establishing a distinctively Christian version of psychology and developing
creative methods for caring for souls in South Korea (Lee 2008; Kim 2003). I
believe the foundation is laid and we have the Cornerstone. Therefore, the
future is surely bright.
References
Kim, J. (2003). Story That I Want To Share With Christians(trans.).
Seoul: Ddstone.
Lee, H. (2003). Modernism, Postmodernism, and Theology(tans.).
Seoul.
Presbyterian
University Publishing
Lee, K. (2008). Reformed Pastoral Counseling. Seoul: Daiseo.
Ok, S.H. (2007). Psychologically Influenced Church (trans.).
Seoul: R&R.
Poling, J. (2010). Is There a
Korean Contribution to U.S.
Pastoral Theology. Pastoral
Psychology, 59, 513-524.
UnHye Kwon, PhD
Maum Counseling & Research
Bundang, South Korea
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