John Calvin’s influence on the Korean church is enormous. The largest Protestant denomination in Korea is Presbyterian, and there is not just one, but hundreds of Presbyterian denominations. Presbyterianism has become a big part of the Korean Christian spirituality. This tendency continues on with Korean immigrants in Canada. The majority of Korean Protestants in Canada have a Presbyterian background.
One of the most profound influences of Calvin on Korean Christians is his emphasis on the supreme authority of the word of God which is characteristic of the Korean Presbyterian spirituality. The preached word has been the most important aspect of the Korean Christian life. All church activity starts with worship and the preached word is a necessary part. Every worship must have some kind of scriptural reflection or meditation, for without it, it is not considered worship.
And yet the importance of scripture is also the cause of many divisions among churches. No matter how sophisticated or profound one’s ideas may be, they must have scriptural support and references if they are to be accepted as having authority. In this sense, it can be argued that Calvin’s vision of the supreme authority of the Bible has been realized in the Korean Presbyterian church.
When the Protestant mission first came to Korea, the word of God was introduced to the people, with an emphasis on the teaching and preaching aspect of the word in ordained ministry. This fit well with the long tradition of Korean Confucianism. The Korean people placed much emphasis on the value of education and teaching. With the combined influence of Calvin’s authority of scripture and the Confucian emphasis on education, personal morality and social order, the Korean preaching tended to be largely catechetical with a strong emphasis on personal morality, maintenance of social order and submission to authority. This was preferred to an emphasis on the critical and transformative power of the word.
In Korean-Canadian churches, the first criterion a congregation looks for when considering a call for a minister is effective preaching. This is very important to Korean immigrants who find themselves in situations of alienation and oppression and are often able to persevere through these hardships with the help of the preached word. In the word, they find comfort to overcome their pain, strength to continue in their difficult and vulnerable situation, and hope to imagine a better future. For many Korean immigrant Christians, hearing the preached word once a week on Sunday is not enough. Therefore most Korean churches have midweek worship to hear the word again, to help them survive the rest of the week. Many Korean churches have not only midweek services, but also daily morning prayer services, weekly Bible studies for different age groups, monthly district worship services, annual Bible conferences and so on. The Bible studies and other teaching events are effectively used for evangelistic purposes. Part of the reason why the Korean churches grew so rapidly over the last 100 years, both in Korea and abroad, is their love for the word. Because of this, they gather as often as possible to study scripture. When they do this, they not only study the word but also share meals and pray together fervently for themselves, for their families, for their church and for their country, somewhat like the early church community.
Today the Korean immigrant churches are facing a new challenge: to deepen their understanding of scripture. The old interpretation of scripture that was dominant in the Korean community focused too much on personal needs and the uplifting of one’s own emotions, meeting the urgent and desperate needs of the Korean immigrants at the time. However, many Korean Christians, especially younger Christians, desperately need a deeper understanding of scripture, an understanding which can help them reflect on their immigrant existence in a deeper and more fundamental way. Moral interpretation, emotional uplifting and practical applications can no longer explain their profoundly alienated existence. They need to readdress Calvin’s understanding of the transformative power of the word. For Calvin, preaching is Christ being present through the word in the community. It creates sacramental moments. For Koreans, the preaching ministry needs to change its focus, from individual needs for survival in this society to a focus on the spiritual needs of being disciples of Christ in this foreign land. Calvin said, “If preaching is faithfully administered, it brings its own responses, the response of self-giving and obedient service.” Korean preaching needs to go beyond just licking the wounds of hurt and pain; it has to transform painful existence into a desire, a yearning, and the power to change. A new understanding of their existence through the transformative lens of the word of God is desperately needed. The preaching has to go beyond a catechetical exercise to bringing about an awakening of their current reality and the envisioning of new reality. It needs to bring out sacramental moments for those who live in very dry and difficult life circumstances.
The theology of scripture needs to be developed and its hermeneutics rediscovered through a Korean immigrant perspective. Traditional Western theology will be helpful but it will not be enough, perhaps even inadequate if applied uncritically. The immigrant experience has prepared the Korean people to be an excellent resource and fertile soil to produce fruits that can be a very powerful and liberating hermeneutics of scripture in much the way that the cultural, historical, political and social circumstances of Europe prepared Calvin 500 years ago. The word does not exist in isolation. The word exists with people. Preaching is not an empty extraction of concepts from scripture but an amalgamation, a sort of creative interaction, of the scripture and the hearer, with the help of the Holy Spirit. The word continuously brings out new meaning, new direction, new change and demands new commitment. In this way, the reformation continues…
