A Social Trinitarian Feminist Approach to Theology of the Cross in the Korean-North American Context

The stimulus for this work is my unique experience as a Korean-North American immigrant woman pastor. In this thesis, I bring together both first and second generation Korean-North American women in conversation with theologians of the cross and feminist theologians to render a merging of horizons for the sake of a theology of the cross and a praxis which is liberating and life-giving. To do a theology which properly responds to their Sitz im Leben, I analyze the cultural and religious contexts of first and second generation Korean-North American women in the first chapter. Since the goal of my project concerns a new human community based on the values of equality, mutuality and reciprocity, I critique various approaches that feminist theologians take toward exclusive, patriarchal language and their attempts to retrieve a theology of the cross that serves as a life-giving liberating symbol of love for humanity. In so doing, I revisit Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo and argue that his theology of atonement does not lead to what feminist theologians term “divinely sanctioned child abuse”; however, its effect is limited and inadequate in relation to the challenges faced by Korean-North American women in today’s multicultural world. Anselm’s static and hierarchical view of the created order and its primary concern with personal regeneration, focusing on the incarnation and the cross of Jesus Christ, renders his theology ahistorical and a-ethical. To propose a theology of the cross, which will promote the dignity and value of first and second generation Korean-North American women and their call to live in mutual and reciprocal relationship in the multi-cultural context, I explore Moltmann’s social Trinitarian understanding of the cross in chapter three. Moltmann employs the Cappadocian concept of perichoresis to explain how the suffering of Christ on the cross is the Trinitarian event, and how the divine persons are all subject in relation to each other. The concept of perichoresis signifies the mutual interpenetration and indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit which arise from the three persons’ act of self-donation. By virtue of this doctrine of perichoresis, Moltmann offers a solution to the misconception of the cross as a symbol of the cruel victimization of the weak. I also explore the triune God as an “open Trinity,” yearning for fellowship with God’s creation, and how human beings as imago Dei are called to mirror the Trinitarian fellowship through emulating the perichoretic love of the Trinity in their relationships with others. Finally, in chapter four I offer the contribution of a social Trinitarian theology of the cross toward a feminist Christian praxis for both first and second generation Korean-North American women. On the basis of imitatio crucis and imitatio relationis, which becomes possible with the aid of the Holy Spirit, I propose as a prophetic call that they participate in building a society where they are free to realize their potential and to serve one another by using their gifts in freedom and trust. By this social Trinitarian understanding of the cross, both first and second generation Korean-North American women are called to an ecclesial reform in the leadership and structure of the church, as well as a new approach to mission and inter-religious dialogue.Doctor of Theology (ThD