Saturday, October 12, 2024
At the ABC of Wisconsin's annual conference in 2024
Wednesday, October 2, 2024
"At the Intersection of Hermeneutics and Homiletics"
A new book on hermeneutics and homiletics—an edited volume showing collaborative work with seasoned scholars from biblical studies, homiletics, and practical theology—will be seen in the market next summer or fall 2025 since my editing is 99% done and the manuscript files will be sent to the publisher in a few days. So, I am thrilled to expect this milestone book to come up soon. See the table of contents (PDF).
"Splendiferous work! Congratulations to all authors and to our most esteemed editor! A magnificent contribution all around. Thanks, Yung Suk for your diligence, keen editorial eye, and compassionate zeal for a most creative, timely project! Well done!""Congratulations and heartfelt thanks, Yung Suk, for your extraordinary work on this volume. It is an honor to be included among such remarkable colleagues.""Thanks for your creative vision and hard work. I am looking forward to reading and sharing this work far and wide."
Faith vs. facts
Faith or belief is not the same as facts.
Faith cannot create facts.
Faith is never a singular action.
Faith is never blind obedience.
Faith involves a critical understanding of God, the world, self, and others.
I reject all forms of simplifications of faith.
Faith must bring hope to our lives and world, including other people.
Friday, September 20, 2024
"The Call Story of Peter in Luke 5:1-11"
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
Critical Transparent Scholarship
Monday, September 16, 2024
Colorblind society?
Monday, September 9, 2024
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
Today's world, not for tomorrow's world
I teach students for today's world, not for tomorrow's world. It is my philosophy. Tomorrow will be hollow without today. For some, it can be hellish or a hallucination. People live today and must feel happy today. Dreaming of a better future is good, but that should not prevent us from living fully today.
People must tackle issues in the present. They must be leaders for today's world.
Friday, August 16, 2024
Theological Education and Uncertainty
Amid multiple layers of change and their lingering effects on our theological education, I ask: Where are we now? What can we do? Where are we going? Where is our anchor and hope? As Dr. Martin Luther King once said, we must believe things can be changed. Somehow things can change amid uncertainty. The emphasis is on “somehow.”
While uncertainty unsettles our minds, it can be a moment of unlearning for reconstruction. It can be a momentum to innovate or reimagine our future. I quote several uncertainty-related words and insights below.
Heraclitus, pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, 6 c. BCE, emphasizes fundamental aspects of change in life and the universe. There are popular paraphrases of his thought: "We all face changes every day." "The only constant in life is change." More importantly, his insight about change is wonderful. He says: "Whoever cannot seek the unforeseen sees nothing, for the known way is an impasse."
—Heraclitus, Fragments
"Not knowing is a permissive and rigorous willingness to [leave] knowing in suspension, trusting in possibility without result."
—Ann Hamilton, “Making Not Knowing,” in Learning Mind: Experience into Art, ed. Mary Jane Jacob and Jacquelynn Bass (University of California Press, 2010), 68-69.
"Knowing of not knowing is the best; while not knowing, pretending to know is a disease."
—Laozi (Daodejing)
"It is dangerous to live in a secure world."
—Teju Cole, Open City (New York: Random House, 2011), 200.
"Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos."
—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (New York: Penguin Classics, 2018), 240.
“Hope is the story of uncertainty, of coming to terms with the risk involved in not knowing what comes next, which is more demanding than despair and, in a way, more frightening. And immeasurably more rewarding.”
—Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016), 7.
I hope we wisely and courageously navigate all these parameters of uncertainty and change.
Thursday, August 15, 2024
Normal vs. Abnormal
There are things like normal and there are things like abnormal. How do we know what is normal or abnormal? Sometimes, as time passes, we realize the previously abnormal looks normal, and vice versa. There are blurring lines between them. When it comes to nature, all things are natural and look normal. Likewise, it should be cautious to apply the concept of normal vs. abnormal to humans. Can we say "I am normal" anytime and under any circumstances? If so, what is the basis for it?