Journal of Pentecostal Theology 2006 SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi http://JPT.sagepub.

.com Vol 15(1) 107-126 DOI: 10.1177/0966736906069259

y T I T " ' I I-' I

JOURNEYING INTO THE HEART OF GOD: REDISCOVERING SPIRIT-CHRISTOLOGY AND ITS SOTERIOLOGICAL RAMIFICATIONS IN KOREAN CULTURE

Sang-Ehil Han*
Church of God Theological Seminary 900 Walker St. NE, Cleveland, TN 37311, USA email: shan@cogts.edu

ABSTRACT

An enduring problem in Christian theology has been the so-called 'double-edged' crisis' (i.e. the crisis of identity and relevance) that has to do with the particularity of Jesus Christ and his final significance to our ultimate concern, salvation. As a modest attempt to engage issues emerging from this broad line of questioning, this study takes a close look at the theological merits of Spirit Christology and notes how they yield helpful insights to deal with some critical aspects about human salvation. When juxtaposed in a complementary relationship with Logos Christology, Spirit Christology helps present a holistic paradigm of human salvation embodied in the messianic way of life in Jesus Christ. Reading pneumatologically the entire macro-narrative of Jesus Christ his birth, life, passion, resurrection, ascension and promised return reveals a holistic vision of God's salvation for humanity inasmuch as it represents God's own purposeful journey into the concrete reality ofthe human condition to recapitulate all that was lost in humanity. Theological reflections provided here should also have in view their adequacy to engage complex realities of life particularized in a given culture. For this reason, this study analyses han as a dominant cultural ethos in Korea that addresses the profundity of human brokenness distinctively

* Sang-Ehil Han (PhD, Emory University) is Assistant Professor of Theology and Spirituality at the Church of God Theological Seminary in Cleveland, TN, USA and also serves as the Assistant Dean of Academics. 1. Jtirgen Moltmann, The Crucified God (trans. R.A. Wilson and John Bowden; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 7.

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engraved in its historical narratives. A careful study oihan then unveils a theological need for a larger soteriology that the theological construct of Spirit Christology seems to answer in the direction ofthe WesleyanPentecostal tradition. Salvation entails living in the Spirit wherein love functions as the ruling affection that constantly nurtures and governs one's head (orthodoxy), heart (orthopathy), and hands (orthopraxy). It takes on a distinctive formation process through which one journeys into the very heart of God.

Introduction In a particular cultural context like Korea where the Christian religion is not entirely free from the charge of being another form of Western imperialism, one becomes increasingly attentive to the reasonableness of the claim that any viable theology cannot and should not be constructed in a vacuum.^ There is an apparent and critical need for theology to address the concrete affairs of human life contextualized in the particularities of a given culture. Theology in the past had every so often come up with answers that were either too abstract to grasp or not necessarily relevant to the real struggles of life. The process of theological answering should have the particularities ofthe Christian truth claims about Jesus Christ pitted against the present specifics of life from which questions emerge. In this vein, theology needs to engage in a constant double process of opening up, namely, opening up the answers of church traditions, on the one hand, and the particularities of the receiving culture, on the other.^ A viable Christian theology should constantly challenge the truth claims ofthe previous and/or existing church traditions for a more adequate expression of God's revealed truth in Jesus Christ and place itself on a responsive journey through which a constructive process of engaging a concrete life context would result in a mysterious yet authentic incarnation of God's revealed truth for the given culture. The responsive nature of theological answering also necessitates a deeper understanding of the complex particularities within the receiving culture. Pursuing this line of approach, theology becomes constructively reflective of the deep-layered anthropological
2. Robert J. Schreiter, Constructing Local Theologies (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995), pp. 1-4. With a helpful reference to the kernel and husk theory, Schreiter fittingly points out how religious truth of any kind, from its origin, necessarily finds itself already deeply embedded in a given cultural context. Hence, the ensuing propagation of religious truth cannot be understood in detachment from the life context in which it breathes. 3. Robert J. Schreiter, Constructing Local Theologies, pp. 25-36.

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findings within a particular culture, while being faithful to the particularities of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This study is an attempt to engage the issues of salvation emerging from the particularities of Korean culture. It begins with the premise that theological questions and answers about human salvation should not be conceived in detachment from our Christological comprehension'' about the person and work of Jesus Christ. For this reason, the study attempts to rediscover theological merits of Spirit Christology that essentially complement the theological features of Logos Christology. Not only the divine mystery of Christ's birth but also the entire life narratives of Jesus Christ are then taken into account in our understanding of the salvation that Jesus Christ provides. In addition, what is entailed in the pneumatological anointing in the salvific way of Jesus Christ serves as the paradigmatic foundation that grounds the way of salvation {via salutis) for us. Herewith, we are necessarily concerned with a larger soteriology that yields an affectional transformation of one's knowing, being, and doing. The profundity of human brokenness that the stories of han unveil will further demonstrate the need for a holistic salvation in which one is being perfected in love as one journeys in the Spirit to the wondrous and unfathomable mystery of God. 1. Interwoven Stories: Gospel and Memories in Korean Culture Insofar as this study is concerned with the issues of salvation located in a particular culture, it seems needfial that I make some cursory remarks on historical climates of Korean culture and see how the Christian gospel has been interwoven into the suffering memories of Korean culture. From their historical beginnings in Korea, the gospel stories of Christian faith were closely interwoven with cultural memories overwhelmingly marked by a series of national tragedies that had come to define the shared psyche

4. Walt Lowe, 'Christ and Salvation', in Peter C. Hodgson and Robert H. King (eds.), Christian Theology: An Introduction to its Traditions and Tasks (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, new edn, 1994), pp. 222-23. Lowe points out the fact that modem theology often questions the necessity to link soteriology with Christology and prefers to start with soteriology by 'establishing a common ground with their audience on the basis of common humanity'. However, as Lowe reminds us of the warning from Hans Frei, starting with anthropological common ground, not Christology, in our soteriological questioning engenders serious problems. It not only deprives theology of its distinctive 'Christian' identity but also ends up dissolving Christ's distinctive presence into ours.

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of Koreans. Multifarious stories oihan (intense episodes of human brokenness) accumulated over the past five thousand years ofthe nation's history seemed to have only intensified in the horrors of Korea's most recent past. The World Wars in the twentieth century have profoundly and indiscriminately wounded the human race as a whole; of course, Korea was not an exception to this shared tragedy. However, Korea as a nation underwent a particular kind of suffering for the 36 years, bracketed roughly between World War I and Word War II. Koreans were placed under insufferable conditions of slavery by the Japanese during this time and had to face their systematic annihilation of Korea's culture and history that threatened to deprive Koreans of their own identity and place as a nation in the history of humankind. This was then followed by the bloodiest war in its national history (i.e. the Korean War) as the end result of competing ideologies at the time. This eventuated in the massacres of innocent masses only to yield finally the creation ofthe thirty-eighth parallel that still exists today after over five decades. The constant echoing of pains and suffering over the nation's division still lingers on, especially among the broken hearts of millions of Korean families who remain separated today. Given these historical particularities, Korean churches were burdened with a collective sense of divine commission to proffer ways of alleviating intense pain and suffering accumulated in and through agonizing memories pervasive in the nation's collective psyche. Korean churches have since responded to this call in several ways. First, by and large, churches were driven by aggressive forms of evangelism in which the missional task of the church was narrowly defined as getting people saved from eternal damnation with an emphasis on the eschatological promise of a heavenly paradise. Second, influenced by the dominance of Calvinistic Reformed doctrines, churches have tended to understand the salvation of Jesus Christ in the direction of 'finished work' theology whereby the redemption accomplished at the cross event of Jesus Christ only need be applied to those God had already determined to save. Thinking in this way, the entire life narratives of Jesus Christ, ranging beyond the event at the cross, have tended to become treated as afterthoughts. Third, as ironic and conflicted as it may sound alongside the dominance of Calvinistic Reformed churches in Korea, there have also been strong Pentecostal and charismatic movements with their vibrant expressions of spirituality in worship and prayer life that have spilled over extensively to all the mainline Protestant churches in Korea. The end result of this Pentecostal/charismatic influence over the entire landscape of Protestant churches seems to be the shared understanding among Christians in Korea that the salvation of Jesus Christ is something to be mediated through experience. In other

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words, intense episodes of experience in the context of worship and prayer are considered as normative channels through which one becomes certain of her/his salvation in Jesus Christ. Thus, the upshot of these findings seems to be a theological need for creative opening that revisits what 'getting saved' really entails. In other words, if the perichoretic relationality between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit becomes the interpretative lens by which we understand what 'getting saved' really entails, our soteriological questioning can no longer afford to be dominated by the 'from what' question, namely, getting saved from damnation; rather, the 'fi-om what' question has to be dialectically juxtaposed with the 'for what' question: For what are we being saved? For this reason, the fullness of God's salvation in Jesus Christ cannot be collapsed entirely and altogether into the 'once and for all' event in the past, that is, the crucifixion, which has supposedly brought about a screeching halt to any and all qualms about sin and evil in human life. Inasmuch as the Passion narrative encapsulates the culmination of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it is certainly the entire life narratives of Jesus Christ that unveil in detail the pneumatological way of Jesus Christ in and by which all that was lost in humanity became recapitulated. To put it another way, inasmuch as the salvation of Jesus Christ is about the deliverance from the bondage of sin and evil, we need to keep in mind that the deliverance here is meant to be qualified by the specific purpose and direction inherent in it. It is purposed for and directed to the pneumatological way of life in Jesus Christ. The deliverance comes with the directive to pursue the constant actualizing of the fullness of life envisioned at God's creation and destined for God's telos.^ In Wesleyan-Pentecostal language, what salvation entails is a responsive living unto the dynamic correlation between the living Word and the Spirit of holiness. Henceforth, we are rightly concerned with a larger soteriology that acknowledges salvation primarily as structuring life in and through the essential grammars of living in the Spirit.* The salvation of
5. A theological understanding of God as Redeemer cannot be divorced from the Creator God and God as the eschatological Spirit. The redemptive work of Jesus Christ has to be viewed then as the culmination of God's creative purpose that will come into fruition with the eschatological coming of God. See Clark H. Pinnock, Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996),pp. 7 9 - l l l ( e s p . 83). 6. The fullness of salvation should certainly underscore the initiative of God's justifying grace; however, God's grace that justifies us is understood in correlation with the dynamic synergism where grace becomes responsible as to produce the deeper works of grace. See Randy L. Maddox, Responsible Grace: John Wesley's Practical

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Jesus Christ, rightly understood, comes to us as a journey, through which the Spirit gracefially attunes our hearts unto the heart of God and forms within us, in the process, distinctive affections that are deeply Christ-like. 2. Gospel Stories: Jesus in the Power ofthe Spirit The intimate perichoresis between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is well attested in the biblical narratives. So explicit was the intimate presence of the Holy Spirit from the outset that the entirety ofthe gospel stories about Jesus Christ can be fittingly described as the 'Spirit-history'. The efficacy ofthe Holy Spirit is the first insight into the mystery of Jesus.^ For this reason, bracketing the presence ofthe Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus to the period of his public ministry is, in a way, missing the point about what the intimacy of their perichoretic relationship really entails. As Jurgen Moltmannn notes, what the Gospel narratives intended to say is that '[Jesus] is the messianic Son of God and the Lord ofthe messianic kingdom not only since his resurrection.. .not merely since his baptism.. .but by his heavenly origin and from his earthly beginnings.. .there was no time and no period of his life when Jesus was not filled with the Holy Spirit'.^ In a similar vein, Kilian McDonnell also concludes that a fair reading of the Gospels and the Pauline literature inevitably yields the understanding: 'To identify Christ is to find the Spirit'.' Besides the biblical narratives, the earliest historical witnesses consistently reveal the fact that the most archetypal construct in Christology was a pneumatologically nuanced one. Michael Lodahl hence notes that a pneumatological approach to

Theology (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), p. t9. Note in particular how Paul speaks ofthe redemptive work of Jesus Christ in Rom. 5.1-5: 'Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...and not only that, we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope... the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us'. The phrase, 'and not only that', accentuates the necessary linkage between God's initial justifying grace and the subsequent experiences in salvation thereafter. 7. Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, (trans. Margaret Kohl; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 73. 8. Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, p. 81. 9. Kilian McDonnell, 'A Trinitarian Theology ofthe Holy Spirit?', Theological Studies 46.2 (1985), pp. 191-227 (204). See also Max Turner, 'The Spirit of Christ and "Divine" Christology', in Joel B. Green and Max Turner (eds.), Jesus of Nazareth: Lord and ChristEssays on the Historical Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994),

pp. 413-36(415).

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Christology was quite notable among early church fathers such as Ignatius, Second Clement, and the Shepherd of Hennas.'" Nevertheless, what has been dominant in the suhsequent theological history of the Christian church is Logos Christology. Faced with the immediate doctrinal challenges about the identity of Jesus Christ in the philosophical climate of Hellenistic ontological reasoning, the early Christian church was driven to establish first and foremost the fundamental faith confession of early apostles that vigorously defends the mystery of Christ's divine origin. For this reason, the earliest historical accounts of the Christian church on Jesus Christ bear witness to the fact that worship, for Christian communities, is a fitting response to Jesus Christ. Logos Christology provided a helpful theological defense to preserve the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, namely, his ontological union with, as well as personal distinction from, other persons of the Trinity. The Christological conclusion drawn by Logos Christology was of critical significance to the early Christian church. Afler all, what had appeared to be a Christological question about the identity of Jesus Christ had ultimate soteriological significance. As Walt Lowe reminds us of the words of Gregory of Nazianzus: 'What has not assumed cannot be restored; it is what is united with God that is saved'." What remains significant with Logos Christology is the theological commitment behind its origin and development that seeks to locate human salvation in the uniqueness (or the particularity) of Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, the challenge inherent in Logos Christology is to make sense of its ontological arguments about Jesus Christ and relate them functionally to

10. Michael E. Lodahl, Shekhinah Spirit: Divine Presence in Jewish and Christian Religion (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1992), pp. 152-195. Lodahl is of the opinion that the later demand of the Hellenistic culture, to which the ontologically nuanced Logos Christology was more appealing, had contributed to the gradual downfall of 'the more Hebraically grounded Spirit Christologies of earlier generations' (p. 153). As regrettable as was the gradual disappearance of the Spirit Christologies of the earliest Christian traditions, such a result was not primarily due to the pressure or demand from Greek culture but rather to a distinctive theological reasoning. Spirit Christology cannot stand alone apart from Logos Christology due to its inability to make personal distinctions between Jesus Christ and other human persons; furthermore, it is the strength of Logos Christology, not Spirit Christology, that helps clarify the ontological unity (as well as personal distinctions) among the three persons of the Godhead. For this reason, the Spirit Christology presented here is meant to counter the works of Roger Haight, Paul W. Newman, and G.W.H. Lampe. See Ralph Del Colle, 'SpiritChristology: Dogmatic Foundations for Pentecostal-Charismatic Spirituality', (1993), pp. 91-112(98). 11. Walt Lowe, 'Christ and Salvation', pp. 226-30 (230).

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the concrete needs of human salvation that include not only the presence of sin in humanity but also the multifarious conditions of human suffering. A critical issue with Logos Christology beyond its theological legitimacy is its functional adequacy. For this reason, the ontological approach of Logos Christology needs to be complemented by another Christological construct such as Spirit Christology. The unquestioned dominance of Logos Christology in the past, at the expense of other Christological constructs, has needlessly resulted in an unhealthy theological parochialism.'^ That the ontological and the functional dimensions in Christology need to be understood in their complementary relationship is not a mere theological speculation but a clear testimony ofthe New Testament church. For instance, the Gospel of John is certainly known for its articulate account about the incarnation of divine Logos; however, a meticulous reading ofthe narratives in the Gospel unveils the fact that the Johannine community was just as concerned about the life history and experiences of Jesus Christ as about the anointed Messiah in whom dwelt the power and presence ofthe Holy Spirit. In this vein. Max Turner notes: 'Logos/ Wisdom Christology may dominate the first half of John, but the motif of Jesus as the giver of life through the Spirit gradually builds up from 1.33, 4.10, 14; 6.63; and 7.37-39 to a major contribution in John 14-16, and a climax in 20.22 where Jesus insufflates with the Holy Spirit of new creation'.'^ A pneumatological reading of Christology then helps to rediscover the forgotten aspect of biblical Christology and its timely resurgence to yield theological insights relevant to our contemporary issues in human salvation. It is critical to keep in mind, however, that Spirit Christology is essentially a Trinitarian (not a binary) construct.''' A pneumatological reading of Christology begins with the scriptural witness that Jesus has had first and foremost an intimate relationship with his Abba. After all, it was Christ's responsive obedience to the Father concerning which the biblical testimonies speak ofthe intimate workings ofthe Spirit in him.'^ The 12. John O'Donnell, 'In Him and over Him: The Holy Spirit in the Life of Jesus',
Gregorianum 70.1 (1989), pp. 25-45 (25-26). For instance, the exclusive dominance of Logos Christology and its ontological construct has indeed brought up in the classical tradition the severance between Ghristology and soteriology. In this vein, Walt Lowe notes: 'The classical tradition did create a de facto separation of Christology from soteriology by treating as discrete topics the "person" and "work" of Jesus Christ' (p. 245). 13. Turner, 'The Spirit of Christ and "Divine" Christology', p. 415. 14. Moltmann, The Way of Jesus Christ, p. 74. 15. Being and doing are one and the same in God. What God does cannot be

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profound sense of intimacy in the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is then 'theological' in nature.'^ The biblical picture of Jesus in the power of the Spirit bears witness to the intimate union that Jesus shares with the Father. In other words, to speak of Jesus Christ is to speak of him in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as well as to speak of his intimate relationship with the God he addressed as Abba. Put in this way, the gospel stories of Jesus Christ then essentially become the stories of the Trinitarian God whose inner life of intimate perichoresis is being unveiled in a distinctively pneumatological way. Details of his intimacy with the Father in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit evinces the fact that being-in-relationship is constitutive of the very being of Jesus Christ. As Kilian McDonnell notes, 'Jesus reveals the Father who is the unique source of Trinitarian life; conversely, Trinitarian life shows who Jesus really was and is'.'' Christ's missional life, defined pneumatologically, represents a lot more than episodic instances of godliness inasmuch as the Holy Spirit is more than a mere 'function' of Christ. Instead, Jesus Christ in his pneumatological joumey of life unveils the very heart of God. In this construct, God no longer remains as an abstract metaphysical concept but the abba Father whose heartbeat is wondrously caught up with the missional life of Jesus Christ.'^ Thinking in terms of the trinitarian construct of Spirit Christology, the birth of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit represents God's continuing faithfulness to humanity. For this reason, the Matthean and the Lukan narratives locate the birth of Jesus Christ in a particular genealogy that underscores God's faithful tabernacling presence in the history of the people of Israel. It is in this vein that Clark Pinnock states: 'What is heing offered by Jesus' birth is the same grace that has always been there since

separated from the question of who God is. Hence, a theological understanding about the identity of Jesus Christ demands a holistic understanding of his actions in life narratives as well. For this reason, the Council of Nicaea helps redirect a theological concept on what constitutes 'divine' by linking it closely with the obedience of Jesus Christ. Christ's role as the mediator in and through his obedience was not to be taken as a reference that he is anything less than divine. This has an important bearing on the theological notion that divinity no longer needs to be conceived simply as power but rather as love. See Lowe, 'Christ and Salvation', p. 227. 16. James D.G. Dunn, 'Christology as an Aspect of Theology', in Abraham J. Malherbe and Wayne A. Meeks (eds.). The Future of Christology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), pp. 202-12 (203-206). 17. McDonnell, 'A Trinitarian Theology of the Holy Spirit?', p. 207. 18. Pinnock, Flame of Love, pp. 92-93.

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the foundation ofthe world and now is being decisively manifested'." As much as the coming of Jesus Christ by the power ofthe Holy Spirit entails God's representation among humanity, it also denotes our representation before God. The pneumatological coming of Jesus Christ marks his participatory journey into the world of humanity and provides the representative paradigm for life into which the selfsame Spirit now invites us to participate. The journey of Jesus Christ takes on a distinctive departure at his baptism. This coronation act of his messianic anointing is heightened in its significance by the conjoining presence ofthe triune God. Furthermore, his baptismal anointing comes as the eschatological fulfillment of what had been prophesied ofthe coming Messiah in Isaiah 61.1. For this reason, Jesus repeatedly reminds his disciples that he comes in the power and demonstration ofthe Holy Spirit unfolding the signs and wonders ofthe new Kingdom. What is also critical to note, however, is the manner by which he would establish the Kingdom of God. Taking on a recapitulating journey, Jesus undergoes the suffering conditions of humanity.^" Coming out ofthe water, it is the Spirit who leads Jesus immediately into a lifeless 'wilderness' to be tempted by Satan and to be with 'wild animals' (Mk 1.9-11). It is in the experiencing of suffering that Jesus enters into the shared solidarity with humanity and breathes into it the newness of life by the power and presence ofthe Holy Spirit.^' What is entailed in the life journey of Jesus Christ finds its decisive culmination in the crucifixion event. As a particular event in history, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ becomes the most vivid testimony of God's faithful and willing embrace of the suffering condition of humanity.^^ After all, it was not by human hands that Jesus was led to the cross; he was led to the cross by his obedience to the Father and dependence on the power ofthe Holy Spirit. Understood in this way, the crucifixion event
19. Pinnock, Flame of Love, p. 82. 20. Lodahl, Shekhinah Spirit, pp. 165-66. Lodahl compares the baptismal narrative with the retelling ofthe Akedah, i.e., the Isaac story in Genesis 22. Noticing the similarities, he concludes that the power and presence of God is most evident in the 'hiddenness' of suffering and the willing sacrifice of one's own self in humility. 21. Responding to James and John, Jesus implicitly correlates his baptism with the life destined to suffer: 'Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with' (Mk 10.38). 22. The crucifixion is not an isolated event in history. It is rather the culminating point ofthe history of God's faithfulness toward humanity. Michael Lodahl states: 'There was a cross in the heart of God before there was one planted on the green hill outside Jerusalem' {Shekhinah Spirit, p. 182).

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can be rightly viewed as an intratrinitarian drama in which the Son's heart-rending words, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthanV, are conjoined with the silent cry ofthe Father and the groaning ofthe Spirit. The silence of God at the violent suffering ofthe Son is not a sign of powerlessness or indifference but of true power that is governed by suffering love; consequently, the Spirit's groaning reverberates even now in the hearts ofthe Spirit-filled believers as a constant reminder that they too are to join in his suffering.^^ Insofar as the crucifixion event is viewed as the culmination of Christ's life journey, it is his resurrection as well as his promise of eschatological return that should serve as the interpretative center by which to discern the soteriological significance ofthe crucified Christ. The death of Jesus Christ is not only a substitution in kind but also a paradigmatic representation.-^'' Only when the latter is held in a dialectical tension with the former, can we speak of being saved by his life as well as his death. Afi:er all, Jesus Christ is our atonement. With his eschatological raising from the dead at the interpretative center, the gospels of Jesus Christ really do tell 'the history of a living person.. .the presence ofthe One past and the future ofthe One who has come'.^^ Understood in this way, the salvation of Jesus Christ entails a dynamic living in the Spirit whose eschatological presence constantly fashions our responsive journey to God, with God and in God. 3. Stories of Han: Narratives of Human Brokenness in Korean ^^ Let us now turn to the particular cultural narratives of Korea and analyze how they unveil the complexities of human brokenness in hfe. The depth and profundity of human brokenness to which the stories of han bear
23. See Rowan Williams, Christ on Trial: How the Gospel Unsettles our Judgment (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003). Williams traces various particularities ofthe Gospel narratives concerning Christ's trial and death at the cross and moves on to argue that Christians are also called daily to stand with Jesus in his trials and death and negate the falsities of this world and its abuse of power. 24. The idea of substitution makes certain that God's grace precedes and enables any and all human response; however, it is the idea of paradigmatic representation that provides a theological space to speak of our responsive participation in the subsequent experiences of that initial salvation of God's grace. 25. Jurgen Moltmann, The Coming of God {trans. Margaret Kohl; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), p. 76. 26. For a fuller treatment on the cultural narrative of han, see Sang-Ehil Han, A Revisionist Spirit-Christology in Korean Culture (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI, 2004), pp. 63-91.

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witness will then help us conclude that the salvation of Jesus Christ should be holistic in kind, tiamely, healing us of both the juridical and therapeutic dimensions of sin and suffering.-^^ As we noted in the beginning of this study, the dominant soteriological paradigm in Korea has been largely focused on the juridical aspect of salvation rather than on the therapeutic one; furthermore, the intense episodes of salvation experiences in worship and prayers among Pentecostals and charismatics have often lacked the 'depth' grammars of being formed into the affections of Jesus Christ by the life-giving Spirit of God. The effort to recover Spirit Christology and its soteriological ramifications (i.e. living in the pneumatological way of life which was in Jesus Christ) would then help us address the theological need for a larger soteriology that places a fitting emphasis on the everpresent workings ofthe Holy Spirit to inscribe Christ-like affections into the hearts of believers. Understanding salvation as the pneumatological way of life, represented paradigmatically in the Spirit-filled life of Jesus Christ, will then create the needed theological space in our soteriological discussion for seeing affectional transformation as necessary experiences in salvation subsequent to the initial redemptive grace provided by Christ's atonement work at the cross. Life in Korean culture is often described as being surrounded by many haunting ghosts. Ghosts are believed to be everywhere: in rivers, mountains, houses, kitchens, and so forth; and there are many terrifying stories associated with them. These haunting ghosts are believed to carry swords or demonic powers to inflict physical harms and diseases upon the living.^^ What are these ghosts? Simply put, they are restless spirits fiill oihan that cannot depart from their earthly existence until their han is resolved. The stories about these haunting ghosts are correlated with the formation of han. Han is a culture-specific emotion that defies a precise definition; hence, it cannot be naively equated with general human emotions.^' Situated in
27. Andrew Sung Park, The Wounded Heart of God: The Asian Concept o/Han and the Christian Doctrine of Sin (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), especially pp. 77-81. 28. Hyun Kyung Chung, '"Han-pu-ri": Doing Theology from Korean Women's Perspective', The Ecumenical Review AQ.\ (1988), pp. 27-36(28-29). 29. Amelie Oksenberg Rorty, 'Introduction', in Amelie Oksenberg Rorty (ed.). Explaining Emotions {Berkdey: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 1-7. For that matter, as Rorty helpfully explains, all human emotions exist in a complex web of relationality. For instance, when one discharges one's anger at a loved one, the elements of love and hate are often interwoven in a single manifestation of one's angry emotion. The particularities of narrative context then become critical in determining the nature of emotion expressed.

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the narrative particularities of Korean culture, han represents a complex web of intense emotions interwoven over a long period of accumulated painful experiences and suffering.^" Some aspect of this accumulation comes in the form of historical inheritance (pervasive throughout Korean culture) that predates an individual whose life suffers from the presence of han. Hence, Un Koh, a celebrated Buddhist poet, describes the Korean Sitz im Leben in this way: 'they [Koreans] are bom ofthe womb of han, grow up in the bosom of han, live out han, and die leaving han behind'.-" Structurally speaking, han can be either personal or collective. Han as personal is often responded to by active retaliation of anger or hate against the victimizer. There are, however, occasions whereby the victimized one, out of fear or fright, passively suppresses the pains of han into the depth of his or her psyche and has it resurface later in vengeful actions. Personal han can also be expressed in the form of self-resignation. Being overwhelmed by a profound sense of helplessness and despair, a victim directs anger against his or her own self. As Andrew Sung Park notes, this is 'the sad han of many victims...victims negate the self already negated by offenders even to the point of self-extermination... It lets go of everything, including the self.'^^ On the other hand, the collective dimension of han represents a shared national psyche amongst Koreans grounded in their countless yet repeated national crises (both internal and external) over the course ofthe nation's five-thousand-year history. The shared collective han of this kind should not, however, be taken to obliterate an important demarcation between the privileged and the minjung(i.e. the marginalized 'common folk'). Even in

30. Suk-Mo Ahn, Toward a Local Pastoral Care and Pastoral Theology: TheBasis, Model, and Case of Han in Light of Charles Gerkin 's Pastoral Hermeneutics, (unpublished PhD dissertation, Emory University, 1991). Ahn writes: 'Han is not so much a feeling and temporal emotion.. .it is more like a complex of emotions, or a core of a group of feelings, which is engraved on the heart or takes place in it, after a long duration of painful experiences and sufferings' (p. 305). See also Chung, '"Han-pu-ri": Doing Theology', p. 30. Explaining the complexities involved in han, Chung describes han as a kind of 'lump' or 'knot' at the core of one's being that carries with it 'a sense of unresolved resentment against injustice suffered, a sense of helplessness because ofthe overwhelming odds against, a feeling of total abandonment.. .a feeling of acute pain of sorrow in one's guts and bowels making the whole body writhe and wiggle' (p. 30). 31. Un Koh, 'Overcoming Han', Korean Society Review (Han-Guk-Sa-Whe-YeonGM) 2 (1984), p. 138. 32. Park, The Wounded Heart of God, p. 34.

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times of collective crises, wounds were further deepened for the marginalized minjung. Here is another instance ofthe collective han ofminjung. During the times of political turmoil in the 1970s and 1980s, however, the han of minjung was more closely identified with the political oppressions which had yielded cruel and unjust massacres of innocent yet passionate college students who dared to dream of a just society. For Koreans as a collective whole, these tragic deaths had meant the loss of their own sons and daughters. The han of this kind becomes a collective memory deeply buried in the hearts of minjung only to resurface in a corporate form of intense anger to right the structural injustice ofthe society." The collective han associated with the stories of Korean women adds yet another distinctive aspect. The strong patriarchal structure of Korean society has long yielded a corporate despair shared by Korean women. Being bom with the female gender has been customarily understood as being bom into the life of han.^"^ The corporate despair of Korean women should not be equated however with the absolute despair that carries with it no intrinsic potentiality for restoration. The corporate despair of this particular kind rather represents a mature embrace ofthe life given with a view toward a profound sense of openness that awaits a possiblefiituretransformation of circumstances while refusing to submit oneself to the use of violence embedded in the very foundation of structural injustice.^^ Han can also be treated at two distinctive levels: the original and the secondary han. The secondary han refers to the suppressed web of emotions caused by intense life experiences of unprovoked injustice. The han of this kind remains at the level of consciousness wanting to arrive at its satisfactory resolution in the present.^*" In this, han can be driven by either won (intense emotions of grudge or hate) or jeong (deep emotions of

33. See Dae-Jung Kim, Ok-Jung-Suh-Shin (meaning. Prison Letters; New York: Galilee Mungo, 1987). For Kim, han in this regard is 'the frustrated desire of minjung (as well as).. .the steadfast waiting of minjung. Han is minjung's continuous struggle toward the ultimate realization of their waiting' (p. 1). 34. Hyo-JaeLee, Yeo-Sung-Kui-Sa-Hoe {meaning. Womanhood and Society; Seoul: Jung-Woo Press, 1979), pp. 54-57. The han of this kind represents the loss of elemental human integrity and freedom. See also Hyun-Kyung Chung, Struggle to be the Sun Again: Introducing Asian Women's Theology (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990), pp. 32-35. Chung argues for a genuine repentance to recover the elemental integrity of full humanity for Asian women. 35. For a fuller discussion on the mature-natured han, see Jae-Hun Lee, The Exploration of the Inner WoundsHan (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994), pp. 37-38. 36. Yul-Kyu Kim, The Ore of Han and the Stream of Won (Seoul: Joowoo Press, 1981), pp. 21-28.

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affection or love). Driven negatively, it becomes won-han that finds its resolution in a retaliatory action; driven positively,yeog governs one's han and becomes jeong-han?^ In the case ofthe latter, han is sublimated and even becomes resources of raw and intense passions that drive a person to construct a moral consciousness to negate actively the vicious circles ofthe violence-structure of personal or societal injustice. Yet moving deeper beyond the level of secondary han exists a more archetypal kind of han, namely, the original han. The han of this kind exists at the level of unconsciousness and resides beyond the scope of conscious modification.^^ As unmodified and archetypal in nature, the original han constitutes a kind of 'ontological depth' that functions as the primordial cause prompting external manifestations of unreleased emotions of secondary han. For this reason, an effective resolution of han at the secondary level necessitates an individual to address the issues and challenges of original han. The complexities of human brokenness unveiled in the culture-specific narratives of han demand that the salvation of humanity include a profound sense of healing at multifarious dimensions and levelsthe personal and the collective as well as the secondary and the original han. First, salvation as healing addresses the need for personal transformation in which he or she is no longer enslaved to the emotional and volitional impulses to perpetuate violence in an act of retaliation, whether against the victimizer or his/her own self. The transformation of this kind should entail the freeing effect from one's sense of both guilt and shame. Second, salvation as healing addresses the need for social transformation (i.e. resolution ofthe collective sense of han) in which one's personal attunement with God consequently provides the necessary foundation for life actions in the world. As Theodore Runyon notes, salvation in its traditional sense (i.e. justification) needs to be underscored as providing 'the substructure for refashioning life in this world through sanctification'.^^ Third, salvation as healing requires us to address our own actual sins (as well as the actual sins in our community). As noted earlier, the secondary level of han resides in the realm of our consciousness; hence, salvation as healing in this respect must take on our own conscious and active efforts to remove any and all

37. Lee, Exploration ofthe Inner Wounds, pp. 35-37 (37). 38. Jong-Chun Park, 'Paul Tillich's Categories for the Interpretation of History: An Application to the Encounter of Eastern and Western Churches' (unpublished PhD dissertation, Emory University, 1986), p. 229. 39. Theodore Runyon, 'Introduction', in Theodore Runyon (ed.), Sanctification and Liberation: Liberation Theologies in the Light of the Wesleyan Tradition (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1981), pp. 9-48 (esp. 36).

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elements that give rise to the occasion ofhanfvX situations. This is known in Korean culture as the process of dan (i.e. 'cutting away') in order to arrive at the state of purity in life. To use traditional Christian language, this refers to the salvation life in the pursuit of holiness. One cannot consciously keep on sinning and at the same time claim the salvation of Jesus Christ insofar as Christ's redemptive salvation denotes not only one's deliverance from sin and evil but also his/her deliverance unto the covenant of life in God (namely, the life of holiness). Fourth, salvation as healing also needs to address the deep sense of human brokenness (i.e. the ontological depth of our broken humanity) that emerges from the presence of original han. As noted earlier, violent actions at the level of secondary han are grounded in the original han without the removal of which one constantly struggles with the hidden possibilities of han's resurgence in violent forms of actions in life. Nonetheless, the original han resides at the level of unconsciousness and hence cannot be modified through our own conscious efforts. Resolution of han of this kind requires a source or agency other than our own that can reach deeper into the ontological depth of our being. It requires grace from the One who is the origin and destiny of our being and life. Understood in this way, the salvation for which humanity yearns finds its origin in God as it also destines its recipients to journey to God. 4. Salvation as the Pneumatological Way of Jesus Christ: A Wesleyan Pentecostal Opening The multi-layered complexities of sin and suffering embedded in the cultural narratives of han demand a holistic restructuring of life that strives to recover the full humanity represented paradigmatically in the Spirit-filled life of Jesus Christ. The soteriological construct of this kind then goes beyond mere metaphysical concepts but episodic experiences of intense feelings as well. It warrants a faithful journey unto the pneumatological way of Jesus Christ. It is in the process of this journey that the deepening of our heart with right affections takes place at the constant experiencing of the Holy Spirit. The deepening of heart affections in this regard is also simultaneously and necessarily interwoven with the rightness of our disceming knowledge as well as our constant cultivation of right praxis. That the pneumatological way of Jesus Christ is affectional in essence traces its soteriological understanding to John Wesley's idea of Christian perfection that places pneumatology at the center of soteriological answering. The theological concept of Christian perfection is distinctively pneumatological in that it underscores the transformative workings of the Holy

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Spirit on the 'whole person' as central to the understanding of God's salvation work of grace. What God has donefor us in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ is necessarily interwoven with what God's present working in and through the Spirit of holiness brings into actualitynamely, a real change in us."*" Understood in this way, salvation as affectional transformation is not a matter of God's determined will, although it is grounded in and cultivated by God's grace at the center. Salvation of this kind is not self-generating in character, although it is inclusive of our subjective responses to the work of God's salvific grace.'" One's heart, head, and hands become distinctively formed as one is experientially affected by the empowering presence ofthe Holy Spirit.'*^ In this, we become responsive participants in the divine works of God's grace. God's grace, though neither contingent upon nor driven by human responses, is not independent of our conscious encounters with God.''^ As the Holy Spirit of God takes the initiative in this process of affectional transformation, our heart, head and hands are constantly scripted by the master narrative of Jesus Christ. A pneumatological reading ofthe entire narratives of Jesus Christhis birth, baptism, life, passion, resurrection and promised returnserves as the foundational content of what it means to live pneumatologically in the way of Jesus Christ. After all, it is
40. The real change that the transformative workings ofthe Holy Spirit bring in this regard is formational both personally and socially. The rightness of salvation experiences in the Spirit modifies us not only in our being and behaviors but also sets us on the path of becoming partners with God in the transforming works of God in the world. For a fuller treatment of Wesley's notion on religious experience in this regard, see Theodore Runyon, 'Orthopathy: Wesleyan Criteria for Religious Experience', in Richard B. Steele (ed.). Heart Religion in the Methodist Tradition and Related Movements (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001), pp. 291-306 (297-98). 41. I am reminded of how Origen of Alexandria writes about the relationship between God's grace and human effort with the metaphor of a sailing ship. In order for the ship to sail on the ocean, it requires the wind to blow but also the skills, efforts, and attentiveness of a captain who navigates. God's grace is like the wind. What a captain can do and does would not matter without the wind to fill the sails and move the ship. At the same time, we must work with that grace of God already working for us as our passions and emotions are affected by it. See Roberta C. Bondi, To Love as God Loves: Conversations with the Early Church (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987), pp. 35-36. 42. Randy L. Maddox, 'A Change of Affections: The Development, Dynamics, and Dethronement of John Wesley's Heart Religion', in Steele (ed.). Heart Religion, pp. 3-32(11-13). 43. Theodore Runyon, The New Creation: John Wesley's Theology Today (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1998), pp. 150-52.

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the selfsame Spirit of Jesus who now bears faithfiil witness to our spirits about the divine life of God that was in Jesus Christ.'*'' As the Spirit has led Jesus Christ in his salvific journey in life to bring about the recapitulation of what was lost in humanity, the selfsame Spirit is henceforth sent by Jesus Christ who is now living among us as the Spirit-baptizer. Thinking in this way, for Pentecostals, Jn 20.19-23 stands as a critical narrative from which we are to understand the experience of the Spirit's outpouring in Acts 2.1-4."^ In Jn 20.19-23, the resurrected Jesus Christ appears before the disciples and demonstrates that he was indeed the same Jesus whose body was crushed and whose blood poured out for the sins of humanity. It is then this resurrected Lord who had been crucified who announces 'peace', provided in his atonement work, and proceeds to breathe upon the disciples and say, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'. Hence, the Passover becomes the foundational basis for the Pentecost that was to come in Acts 2. The giving and receiving of the Holy Spirit here carries with it a critical signicance to the disciples who would later, at Pentecost, receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. That is, along with the power that came with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were beforehand being commissioned into the pneumatological way of Jesus Christ. To put it another way, the power that the baptism with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost brings is narratively directed and purposed by the suffering love of the crucified Christ. In this, salvation is rightly understood as a journey in and through which we are being perfected in love by the power of the Holy Spirit. The upshot and theological conclusion of all this is that the salvation of Jesus Christ comes with the responsive task of journeying into all the detailed aspects of Christ's missional life enabled for us by the power of the Holy Spirit. In this journey, the baptism with the Holy Spiritnot as an event but rather as a way of lifestands at the pinnacle of what it means to be saved by the redemptive grace of Jesus Christ. To say flirther, it is in this baptism that our deep passions, emotions, and affections are
44. Richard B. Steele, 'The Passion and the Passions', in Steele (ed.). Heart Religion, pp. 245-72 (248-49). Steele speaks o f transitivity' and 'narrativity' of emotions and underscores the fact that the ultimate goal of Christian salvation is a heart rightly tempered by deep passions and emotions grounded in the narratives of Jesus Christ, which find their culmination in the Passion narrative. 45. I am indebted to my senior colleague, R. HoUis Gause, in personal conversation for this important insight. In his effort to trace historically and theologically critical features that identify Pentecostalism, he argues that a viable understanding of the Spirit-Baptism at the Pentecost in Acts 2 is necessarily linked with the resurrection appearance of the crucified Jesus to his disciples.

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being eschatologically shaped to fix our eyes faithflilly on the coming reign of Jesus Christ and the final coming of God's Kingdom where God will be all in all. It is with our gaze upon this eschatological reign of God that we are now being commissioned as co-laborers of Jesus Christ into the world that meets us with all of its ugliness of sin and suffering. An enduring soteriological paradigm must then have in view the pneumatological way of Jesus Christ where love functions in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to bring within us and in life the integrated whole of orthodoxy, orthopathy, and orthopraxy. Conclusion One of the distinctive marks about life in Korea has to do with a keen sense of awareness about the world of competing spirits that surround it. These spirits are often invoked to make some sense ofthe stories of han, if not to bring some sort of peaceful resolution to violent circumstances associated with hanf\x\ ghosts and their haunting presence. The diversity of spirits and their competing presence in the world ofhanfwX life among Koreans hence corresponds to the multifarious and multifaceted stories of human brokenness evidenced in the particularities ofthe stories of han. In a way, the presence of these particular spirits is expressly demonstrative of the particularities of human needs to be 'whole' again (i.e. what it means to be fully human) in the culture of han. In response, the biblical narratives about the pneumatological way of Jesus Christ present a paradigmatic representation of what is entailed in the holistic salvation of Jesus Christnamely, making humanity whole again decisively and finally. First, it speaks ofthe immutability of God's faithfulness to be ever present and attentive to the needs of broken humanity. The coming of the Messiah was not an isolated event from the historical past but rather its culmination; the Messiah comes in the fullness ofthe Spirit who creates, sustains, and destines life for God. Inasmuch as Logos Christology helps to preserve the ontological distinction of Jesus Christ from inspired prophets of old. Spirit Christology demonstrates to us the point that the pneumatological presence in the life of Jesus is a faithful continuation of God's pneumatological indwelling among his creation. Second, focusing on the life narratives of Jesus Christ, Spirit Christology traces the way of salvation Jesus in the power of the Spirit provides. His willing obedience to the Father that expresses the shared intimacy of perichoresis as well as his missional dependence to be directed and empowered by the Spirit are telling testimonies that the redemptive grace of God's salvation cannot be explained entirely in terms of the

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traditional understanding of the sovereignty of God's 'power' to deliver us from bondage of sin. It is rather God's wondrous yet mysterious 'love' to be numbered among the vulnerable and the powerless that truly defines and demonstrates the essence of what it means to speak of the saving power of God. Third, Spirit Christology leads us to see how living in the Spirit of Pentecost entails the way of life particularized in accordance with the master narrative of Jesus Christ. The Passion narrative of Jesus Christ, interpreted through the lens of his resurrection, resides at the heart of understanding what it means to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Living in the power of the Spirit is to be affectionally transformed into the way of life in Jesus Christ. Fourthly, Spirit Christology provides a helpful ground to think theologically about the dynamic correlation between the living Word and the Spirit of holiness. As such, it provides a WesleyanPentecostal opening to envision what is entailed in an eschatological living in the Spirit. Hope purifies our heart and, at the same time, its expressions in life. The pneumatological way of Jesus Christ grounds and guides the way of salvation for humans who are groaning to resolve their restless spirits in the womb of God from which they came.