Reimagining the body of Christ

This book questions all familiar readings of “the body of Christ” in Paul’s letters and helps readers rethink the context and the purpose of this phrase. Against the view that Paul’s body of Christ metaphor mainly has to do with a metaphorical organism that emphasizes unity, Kim argues that the body of Christ metaphor has more to do with the embodiment of God’s gospel through Christ. While Deutero-Pauline Letters and Pastoral Letters use this body metaphor mainly as an organism, Paul’s undisputed letters, in particular, 1 Corinthians and Romans, treat it differently with a focus on Christic embodiment. Reexamining the diverse use of “the body of Christ” in Paul’s undisputed letters, this book argues that Paul’s body of Christ metaphor has to do with the proclamation of God’s gospel.

“Concisely describing how ‘the body of Christ’ must be reimagined as ‘the Christic body,’ Kim’s argumentation has wide-reaching implications for those of us who fight for liberation and justice within church and society. Providing a launching point that will allow scholars and pastors to teach and model ‘soft-union’ in Christ while uplifting particularity in communion, Kim’s interpretation of Pauline theology and ethics will enliven conversations in the classroom and the church for years to come.
—Angela Parker, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies, The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology

“Yung Suk Kim offers fresh insight into the heart of Paul’s theology: the body of Christ. Interestingly, Kim challenges the reader by reconstructing Christ’s body as a union in solidarity with those on the margins, especially in the hierarchical systems prevalent in the Roman imperial society and culture. No doubt, his theological reimagination can empower today’s Christians to resist unity without diversity in the so-called post-truth era of Trump. This little but powerful book thus holds onto hope for embodying Paul’s teaching in a more responsible manner.”
—Sung Uk Lim, Assistant Professor of New Testament, College of Theology & United Graduate School of Theology, Yonsei University

"With illuminating analysis of key texts, Kim offers a concise and timely understanding of the body of Christ in Paul's letters that challenges hegemonic models and reminds us that care for the poor and pursuing justice for the weak of society are at the heart of the gospel and Christian living."

—Timothy Milinovich, Associate Professor & Chair of Theology, Director of Catholic Studies, Dominican University

Link to Amazon

The Intersection of Religion and Politics

In ancient times or today, explicitly or implicitly, religion and politics are inseparable since humans are religious and political in certain ways. But the question is how to understand religion and politics and how to live humanely in the world of religion and politics. Our vision must be the one that makes a vibrant, just community or society through critical, self-critical scholarship about political theology. There must be diverse participants among scholars, activists, and religious leaders. They may hear each other and learn from others. I wonder if we may seek actively non-Christian scholars or activists such as Buddhist monks or Confucian scholars. In this way, interdisciplinary rigor and conversation will be deepened as we include those who have different views of religion or politics.

We also need to explore more about human transformation as it relates to religion and politics. Oftentimes transformation is understood narrowly as a change of system or society only. But it also has to do with human transformation, which is broadly defined as follows, as I wrote elsewhere. It includes “all aspects of change in relation to self or human life, including a change in self-knowledge; a change or renewal of self-critical examination; a change of personal attitude toward others, community, or society; or different ways of experiencing the self, especially in difficult times.”

No love is possible without justice. But it is not easy to answer what true justice is. For example, Jesus deals with many different aspects of justice in his parables, including attributive justice, distributive justice, retributive justice, restorative justice, and social justice. Since society is so complex, people can benefit from the diversity of justice, depending on their life situation.

In retrospect, I see myself as more than a biblical or New Testament scholar. I am a scholar of humanities who seeks to explore the issues addressed in the humanities. Though my primary text is the New Testament, I include other texts such as our living texts of politics and other classical literary texts. In all of these, I try to find the intersection of religion and politics. This intersection again leads to the transformation of individuals in particular and society in general.

Diversity must be a key to understanding the world where all kinds of people and cultures coexist. This means no one race, one culture, one tradition, or one religion dominates all others. The truth may be revealed in varying spheres of human life and in variegated ways that cannot even be named. Otherwise, mere differences with other cultures do not automatically or necessarily constitute diversity.

We need to engage in how to think together, how to respect one another, and what to do to create a just society and a better world. Differences with cultures or religions are not the sources of danger or taboo but should become occasions for mutual engagement and shared learning experiences. Otherwise, cultural or religious arrogance will dominate our religious space and political world. In the end, we need critically engaged diversity, which can foster global solidarity. We are different and yet share a common humanity, which is our honor and duty to live and bequeath to posterity.

Pistis christou: whose faith?

In the following examples, while "faith in Jesus" is not implausible, a better translation is the "faithfulness of Jesus." In other words, Paul underscores the significance of Jesus's faithfulness and his grace in which God calls people. 

• διὰ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Rom 3:22): through Jesus Christ's faith
• ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ (Rom 3:26): from Jesus's faith
• διὰ πίστεως Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Gal 2:16): through Christ Jesus's faith
• ἐν πίστει ζῶ τῇ τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ (Gal 2:20): I will live by (in) the faith of the Son of God
• ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (Gal 3:22): from Jesus Christ's faithfulness

*ἐκ πίστεως Ἀβραάμ (Rom 4:16): from Abraham's faith
*If Paul meant "faith in Jesus," he would have used the prepositional phrase: pistis en christo, which is found in the Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral letters: Col 1:4; 1 Tim 1:4; 3:13; 2 Tim 1:13; 3:15. 

Rom 3:22 (snapshot of the gospel)

"God's righteousness through Jesus Christ's faithfulness for all who believe" (Rom 3:22).

My interpretation:
You are under God’s righteousness. That is, you are in the domain of God’s love and care. God is like the sun. Come out to God through Jesus’s faithfulness and his grace. This means you share in his faithfulness, dying to sin, living to God.

The birth metaphor in John 3:1-21

As is often the case, people have a hard time understanding the birth metaphor in John 3:1-21 (Nicodemus episode). You may want to read my article concerning this issue: "The Johannine Realism about the Kingdom of God: "Born from Above, Born of Water and Spirit" (John 3:1-21)."  You will grapple to understand the meaning of "born again or born from above." Which one is correct? Or, how do you understand the meaning of birth here? Here is the abstract of my article:

John emphasizes the realism of the kingdom of God in the present. Given the Johannine community’s expulsion from the synagogue due to its faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the members of this nascent community need assurance about their new place in Christ. They are comforted and encouraged to live as children of God. They are born from above and experience a new life through the Spirit. To maintain their discipleship with Jesus, they must keep his word and stay in the light. The Advocate will come to them after Jesus is gone, and God’s reign continues to be seen, touched, and experienced in the present. As Jesus sends his disciples into the world, the Johannine community receives a new mission to love the world, testifying to the truth of God, following Jesus’ word.

tips for success in academic study

I talked with one of my students through Teams, who asked me about tips for success in academic study. My advice was like this: "Be critically engaged and informed, yet find your own authentic voice. Be who you are. Don't mimic others."

"Monotheism, Biblical Traditions, and Race Relations"

Excerpts from Yung Suk Kim, Monotheism, Biblical Traditions, and Race Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2022)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Theism and Race Relations in the Hebrew Bible
3. Monotheism and Race Relations in the New Testament
4. Contemporary Biblical Interpretation about Others, Race, and Ethnicity
5. Conclusion.

Race relations are an increasingly important topic – more now than ever before. Racism is not merely a lack of love or a deficiency of intellect, but it is a cancerous evil. On the one hand, there are myths about race or “others,” and on the other, there are prejudices and animosity against different races and cultures. People often categorize others, based on race or ethnicity, and rank them by their intellect or culture. Racism begins with a notion that human races are discernibly distinct or differentiated and that some races are superior to others. But this notion is an illusion because dividing lines between races are ambiguous or unscientific.1 Excellence in human capacity or virtue is widespread among different races or cultures. What constitutes excellence in humans or culture is a matter of debate. No single standard or factor can determine a person or culture’s excellence.

Humans have existed for a long time and maintained diverse cultures, living in many regions of the world. So, naturally, their looks and culture have been differentiated, but these differences should not overthrow the singularity of humans who share more similarities than differences. Given the common humanity of homo sapiens, while we look different and think differently, we can seek the common causes of justice, peace, and prosperity. In the story of Genesis, God blesses humans and invites them to be fruitful and to multiply so that they may live fully in wider, different places.2 God’s design for humanity is diversity, not homogeneity. Against God’s wish, as the episode of the Tower of Babel shows (Gen 11:1–9), people did not scatter but gathered to make a big city, speaking one language. This episode sheds new light on how people must think about race or ethnicity. That is, race, ethnicity, or culture should not be a hiding place or a haven where people stay together among themselves only without engaging others. Race or culture matters not because it is the source of identity or pride but because it is an expression of diversity in God’s creation. Like a flowing stream or river, race or ethnicity must be the concept of flexibility that engages otherness and other people. In doing so, people in any culture or ethnicity may learn from others. Since no humans are perfect, they need to help one another, learning from others, while maintaining both the singularity of human character and the diversity of culture.

An Introduction to Asian Biblical Hermeneutics

I contributed the chapter entitled "An Introduction to Asian Biblical Hermeneutics" (pp. 29-44) to the volume, An Asian Introduction to the New Testament. My chapter is redable online from the Google Book sample pages (go to page 29).

Discussion about John 14:6

This morning I talked about the Fourth Gospel in my class, and my students were asked to discuss it in their group: "How can you interpret John 14:6 ("I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me")? Does it exclude other people or other religions? Or, is there a way we can interpret it differently, finding a space for interfaith dialogue and public moral engagement with them?" Long ago, I grappled to answer these questions and wrote a deceptively slender book (see below). Or read the chapter on John in my co-authored book: Toward Decentering the New Testament.

I have long thought that John 14:6 has been greatly misunderstood. For me, John 14:6 is not a divine confirmation statement excluding other religions or people but a Christological (Messianic) functional statement pointing to his work of God. Along the same lines, all the seven "I am" sayings of Jesus must be understood as the description of his work of God, as he testifies to the truth of God (18:37), delivering the word of God (ch 17), embodying the invisible word/truth of God (1:14). 

Political philosophy

I took pains reading a thick book about political philosophy --specifically about the theories of justice. It was a bit hard to grasp the first few chapters. But I went in high gear since then. I wrote notes freely on the pages, exclaiming aha moments a lot, learning new concepts and conceptions of political philosophy vocabulary such as moral individualism, egalitarian liberals, hypothetical contract, and the common good. In my next book project, I will read the parables of Jesus through political philosophy that engages various theories of justice. The title: "What is Justice? A Political Philosophy of the Parables of Jesus." I hope to finish writing the first draft of the manuscript by June this year.

Because of some brainstorming with my reading of the above book, I reworked and streamlined my book proposal about justice and parables. Now it has five chapters only (previously, eight chapters) with a sensible flow of the contents. A good author goes slow, thinks deep, and writes concisely. I feel good because it is better than before.