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THEORETICAL INPUTS:

The theoretical inputs spanning the Asian reality were led by Rev. John England, Dr. David Kwang-Sun Suh, Dr. M. M. Thomas and Rev. Dr. George Ninan.

Rev. John England, Research Coordinator, Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre, Hong Kong was invited to speak on "Living theology in Asia". He began his lecture with case studies taken from the Philippines and Vietnam. From these two countries he cited the examples of Fr. Ed De Le Torre and Fr. Bao and of their involvement with people in small communities that exist in these countries. Quoting Fr. De Le Torre, he asked the vital question "Are we willing to listen to the people before we profess to serve them"? Further he said, "The motive should be to struggle to bring our life and action to a common point. This is both living theology and doing theology". While summing up his talk he outlined a few points that constitute the basic ingredients of a living theology:

a. The starting point of this theology should be the struggle to resolve the contradiction of the Kingdom in today's reality. In other words when people become intolerant of the exploitative situation in the world they begin to think and analyse the society in concrete sociological terms.

b. There should be an act of faith: meaning that the analysis and understanding has to be transformed into an action and it can be a leap into faith.

c. Complementary to that is the self-realisation within one's self to feel the agony of the struggle.

d. To make oneself resolve the contradictions of words and actions and to feel the unity of praxis. This is to say that our political involvements and meditations should reach a point of concurrence.

e. The activist should be willing to cooperate with others.

f. Above all, there should be a willingness to take the "prophetic" as a model since the prophetic tradition is the crux of the whole biblical message.

Rev. John England's well-annotated lecture on "Living Theology" concluded with an exhortation to the participants "to look at the past in order to change the present for a better and new future."

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Three lectures by Dr. David Kwang-sun Suh reflecting on the main theme of the programme: "Asian Quest: Living Faiths in Ideological Plurality" spread over a period of three days with discussions and study groups provided the main theoretical input. His first lecture on "Faith, Praxis and Theology" began with his own social biography. He spoke of the hot day in the summer of 1980 when he was called to the Interrogation Centre in the City of Seoul by the Martial Law administration of Korea for his alleged involvement in the political life of his nation. There he speaks of the military compelling him to write his political biography in order to bring out his political convictions. To enable him to do that the military provided him with certain theological documents of which he was one of the signatories. The particular document he quoted speaks of Jesus the Messiah who lived with the oppressed and the poor in Judea. It also spoke of the resolution of the Korean Christian theologians to follow the footsteps of that Jesus who stood against all political oppression and participated in the transformation of history and society based on the realisation that it is the only way to attain the Messianic kingdom. Apparently this document which is an expression of faith of the Korean Christians was treated as a subversive document and hence threatening to the stability of the powers-that-be. Dr. Suh says in his paper that "Christianity is for the poor and oppressed and the history of the Korean Christianity attests to that fact". Basing himself on this experience in the summer of '80, Dr. Suh goes on to make an analysis of the Korean political situation in the '70s. He talks of the involvement of students and professors from his University, the Korea Student Christian Federation (KSCF) and other organisations in the life and politics of the Korean people. He particularly highlights the role of the Korean students as to have provided the most forceful ideological leadership in their society since

A Classroom Lecture

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the beginning of the struggle against Japanese imperialism, and also of their involvement in the 1960 uprising against the dictatorial regime of President Syngman Rhee. It is only in the continuation of this tradition that the students of Korea today take the leadership role in the protest voice against military dictatorship. However, in the '70s we find that the Christian student playing the very important role in the conscientization of other students to the realities of a rapidly industrializing society. The KSCF which started a social programme called the 'Social Development Service Corps' brings students together to enable them to learn about the slums and the factories of Korea and of the problems confronting the people and the workers. There they begin to discover the Minjung (people) and the suffering of the Minjung. There they learned of the total social injustices imposed on factory workers and slum dwellers and their situation of powerlessness. Due to this interaction the students became more conscientized, so did the Minjung become more conscious of their situation. Together they mobilised the people to change the situation "to become masters of their own destiny and subjects of history itself". This is a pioneering venture and provided as new thrust for the Urban Industrial Mission in Korea. In the first paper which is the story of this faith of the people in to themselves and of their praxis in fighting for a just and democratic system there emerges a new theology which is now popularly known as "Minjung Theology".

The Minjung theology is an expression used by the Korean Christian theologians to denote the reflections that arise out of people's (Minjung) experience in their own contexts. One of the basic starting points of this theology is "social biography". Social biography is the subjective narration of the stories of people. It is based on these stories that a theological reflection begins. It is precisely this that Dr. Suh pointed out in his succeeding lectures. In the second paper titled "Shamanism: A Religion of Korean Minjung", he talks of an ancient people's religion. The Shaman faith or custom which is the most common from of religious culture in Korea is not an organised religion like Christianity or other scriptural religions. It has no hierarchy, no church, no buildings and no doctrines. It is practised inside and in the courtyards of ordinary houses. Its very popular expression is a ritual performed by a "mudang" who is a female Shaman who dances to the tunes of heavy drums beating and supposedly exorcising evil spirits. Due to the overriding belief of a large section of the people-mostly poor and oppressed - one could say this religion or religious practice is actually the people's expression of faith in Korea. Here Dr. Suh takes Shamanism as a religion of the powerless people and tries to see it in today's Korea where Christianity is a very fast growing religion.

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He talks of how the Korean people's minds are set within the framework of this Korean Shamanism and how although missionaries rejected it, the mind-set still rules the Korean people in their thought and action. Hence for the powerless Minjung, the power of the Spirit, more particularly the power of the Holy Ghost, is most respected. He says "to become Christian is to believe in the power of the Holy Ghost which is more powerful than Shamam spirits. Korean Christians have made the Christian worship service more casual and freer than traditional Western styled worship. They sing loudly and well, like in the rituals of Shamanism and there is a sense of joy and festivity". One can find parallels in both the Korean Christian and Shamanist expression of worship. They share a close sense of community and togetherness with other persons in the service. They also share their sorrows sufferings and pains as the poor and deprived and oppressed, and they also share a sense of liberation and salvation in the act of sharing. It is this suffering and sharing in the lives of the people that enable them to exorcise the evil spirits in the body politic of the society that Dr. Suh sees as the expression of the living faith in the midst of today's struggle of people in Asia,

In the third lecture "Jesus, Minjung and theology" he elaborates more on the development of Minjung theology in Korea. There he speaks of Jesus' identification with the ochlos who may be called the minjung of his time. He drew parallels from the social-historical class during the Roman Empire and today's Korea to bring out the real content of the word Minjung. Dr. Suh made an in-depth study of Jesus and his politics of the messianic kingdom and how his preaching’s were a threat to the authorities of his time. "Jesus in his freedom and critical transcendence always presents a prophetic alternative to the status-quo that is oppressive and alienating". To illustrate this point the speaker brings in the use of the Korean mask dances. The mask dance which is the most popular form in Korea depicts a particular situation where the ordinary people gather in a market square to ridicule and point accusations at the mighty and the powerful. They laugh at the foolishness of the so-called wisemen, they laugh at the rich aristocracy and they also laugh at their own mistakes. By doing so, the Korean mask dancers are able to convey a social message to the audience and at the same time are able to transcend their own mistakes and to come to grips with the prevailing situation. This "Critical transcendence" one may say, is the essence of the prophetic vision for the creation of a new social and political order.

Concluding the lecture he spoke of the ideological ferment in Asia today. He criticised the ideology of development sponsored by the ruling powers of today in the name of the people. He also critically examined the various expressions or manifestations of state power today.

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Dr. Suh emphasised the need for taking into consideration the people as the corner-stone of any ideological manifestation and said that if people are forced into an ideology then the people become slaves of that ideology and this would amount to subversion of the ideology that is to serve the people. If people are denied the freedom of an open future then that ideology has to be re-examined. He calls for "a non-ideological interpretation of the Gospel" and says that if we look at the Bible closely, free from ideologies we may be able to see the people in our societies. Perhaps we could be critically transcendant as the people in the mask dances transcended their own plot and themselves. His concluding statement beckoned the group to unmask the false consciousness of any given ideology through a non-ideological interpretation of the Gospel.

The discussion in small groups following these presentations challenged the participants to examine their own social and political systems from the perspective of the people and to see today's ideological ferment in that light. Clarifying some of the questions raised by the participants Dr. Suh stressed the participation of the people in the political processes of a nation and in the decision-making bodies to be the central emphasis. Together with this process he said there must be an economic system that is non-exploitative in character. He emphasised once again that unless today's Asian movements for justice and freedom is liberated from Utopian ideologies and unless they place their faith in the power of the people there can be no new social order. These discussions and presentations enabled the participants to critically examine the theological attempts made in their own countries. It is a fact that the theological attempts in Asia today are far removed from the lives of the people. Hence it is a challenge to the future generations of Christian thinkers and activists to contextualise their experiments in theological articulation so that it is more meaningfully rooted in the lives of the people.

A working group

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Two lectures delivered by Dr. M. M. Thomas, former Chairman of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches and former staff person of the WSCF on the "Ecumenical Movement" and “Ideologies in Asia" synthesised the ecumenical thinking and participation. In his first lecture he gave a graphic history of the ecumenical movement which he described as "a rediscovery of the universality of Christ". Beginning with the International Missionary Council (IMC) meeting in 1910 at Edinburgh and culminating in the 1980 MIT/Boston, meeting of the CWME, he gave a concise history of the theological and political debates in the international ecumenical movement. He briefly touched upon the founding of the East Asia Christian Conference (EACC) now called Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) and the contribution of Asian Christians to ecumenical history. Talking of the present emphasis within the ecumenical movement for a creation of "a just, participatory and sustainable society" he stressed on the importance of sustaining the God-given resources that are available to humanity. This new emphasis, he added, is in the right direction since the creation of a just and participatory society without the natural resources that will eventually have to sustain them is a meaningless one. One could say that it is true to the meaning of the word "ecumenical".

In his second lecture on "Asian ideologies" he traced the unifying point in Asia today. It is a fact that there was a Western imperialism and that there is a growing Asian nationalism. Most of the Asian countries, soon after its liberation from Western colonialisation began to develop ideologies based on a nationalistic outlook. One could see this as 'nation building' or 'national development' or the promotion of 'national integrity'. Thus 'nationhood' is a new phenomenon which is created by the Western impact and is a result of their revolt against it. But according to Dr. Thomas the traditional society which existed in Asian countries was not completely broken up. It retained some of the characteristics of this traditional society. The independence movement led mostly by Western educated nationalistic leaders very often tried to combine the traditional and the liberal Western values. He went on to cite examples of competing ideologies in Asia which are either liberal democratic or liberalised traditional or socialist democratic or of a totalitarian nature, i.e., capitalist or a martial ideology or a combination of any of the above. He was of the strong opinion that "the future of justice lies with the people's organisation at the grassroots level and that the ideological expression of that society of justice and freedom has to be determined by the people themselves". Hence in the ecumenical movement today we could say that "politics is the realm that the Kingdom of God has to be witnessed."

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Dr. George Ninan's talk on "Asian Reality. People's response and the Ecumenical Task" at once supplemented Dr. Thomas' lecture and also gave fresh insights to people's movement in Asia. He said that today in most Asian countries nationalism is used as a weapon to cover up the contradictions that exist within a society. In other cases the argument of traditionalism is put forward. In both cases any protest of dissent by the people are not tolerated. Dr. Ninan with his involvement in the Urban Rural Mission (URM) of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) as its present Executive Secretary is in constant touch with a number of groups and people who seek to participate in the decision-making processes and in the building up a just and humane society. Using his experiences and contacts he cited various case studies from many Asian countries to illustrate the nature of people's response to Asian reality today. The frustration and anger of the people are very high in most of the Asian countries he said. People, when they assert to be subjects of their own destiny are met with brutal suppression by the ruling powers. Nonetheless the people's movement in Asia is growing to challenge the concept of development put forward by these powers.

Dr.George Ninan's Lecture

In the light of this growing resistance and growing peopled movement, he said that the ecumenical bodies like the WSCF and the SCM has an important task to play. Enumerating them, he said, the first of them would be to participate in the development debate that is currently going on and to mobilise support for people's movement through various researches and solidarity action. Students particularly have the role to mobilise intellectuals i.e. other students and academicians to explore the

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possibility of establishing a counter-culture that can challenge the consumerist and bourgeois values that are being promoted by the authoritarian capitalist regimes in Asia today.