Paul's point is not that the church is the body of Christ but that "you (ὑμεῖς, plural "you") are the Christic body." The key is the ethical union with Christ, not merely existential or mysterious relationships with him. That is, the Corinthians must follow Christ and honor one another. Then, they can maintain a Christ-like community. Christ is not the owner of the church, but its foundation. The point is not mere membership to the church but impregnable participation in Christ and his faith. --From my talk on "Deconstruction and the body of Christ"
Friday, December 9, 2022
Meditation on 1 Cor 12:12-27: Deconstruction and "the Body of Christ"
Friday, November 18, 2022
Cross-cultural Wisdom
-Jesus: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets" (Golden Rule, Matt 7:12).
-Hillel: "What is hateful to you, do not do to others. This is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary" (Talmud Shabbat 31a).
-Confucius: Zi Gong asked: “What is the single word that we can take as a moral guide for our whole life?” Confucius said, “Is it not reciprocity? What you don't desire don't impose on others” (Analects 15:24). 子貢問曰。有一言而可以終身行之者乎。子曰。其恕乎。己所不欲、勿施於人。
Human-centered thought:
-Jesus: “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28).
-Confucius: The person unfolds the way; it is not the way that unfolds the person" (Analects 15:29). 子曰。人能弘道、非道弘人。
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
The Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being
Monday, October 31, 2022
Paul's Gospel, Empire, and Race/Ethnicity: Through the Lens of Minoritized Scholarship
Yung Suk Kim
Part I. Paul, Gospel, and Empire
2. The Politics of Interpretation: Paul’s Gospel, Empire, and Race/Ethnicity
Yung Suk Kim
3. Paul the Apostle of the Nations and Pedro Albizu Campos, the Apostle of Puerto Rican Independence: A Comparative Study of Empire & Resistance
Efraín Agosto
Part II. Paul, Empire, and Race/Ethnicity
4. “Let This Mind Be in You”: Paul and the Politics of Identity in Philippians—Empire, Ethnicity, and Justice
Demetrius K. Williams
5. Mainstreaming the Minoritized: Galatians 3.28 as Ethnic Construction
Sze-kar Wan
Part III. Paul, Empire, and Community
6. The Pursuit of Impossible Hospitality: Reading Paul’s Philoxenia with Jacques Derrida
Jeehei Park
7. From Alienation to Inclusion: Reading Romans 3:21-26 from a Diaspora Lens
Ekaputra Tupamahu
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
New Testament Theology

Paul deals with sin's problem in Romans. It may be overcome when persons die to it through "the body of Christ" (Rom 6:4). Here, "the body of Christ" may be understood as Christ's crucifixion. In other words, through the way of Christ who lived faithfully to embrace the love and justice of God, one can live away from sin or its power. Otherwise, Paul never says that Christ's death alone resolved sin's problem. Rather, Paul's logic is because Christ died, all who follow Jesus have to die with him. Then sin's power will be dismissed. Paul says in 2 Cor 5:14: "For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died." For more see Rereading Romans from the Perspective of Paul's Gospel or Rereading Galatians from the Perspective of Paul's Gospel. Jesus's death is the result of his faithful obedience to God, which means the cost of demonstrating God's righteousness (Rom 3:22). Also, see my latest book: How to Read Paul.
The Johannine Jesus is portrayed highly as close to divine. But the Fourth Gospel never claims that Jesus is God. Rather, Jesus says the one who sent him is greater than he. Also, he always makes it clear that he does the work of God. He does not do his work. His primary identity is the Son of God. Even when he says "the father and I are one," this does not mean that he is the same as God. It means "union" relationship between the two. If I say our family is one, it does not mean all members of my family are the same. The point is our family is united with the same love and solidarity. In the Fourth Gospel, there are lots of "embodiment" language by Jesus that can be understood metaphorically as his living of the Logos. That is, he embodies God's love in the world. "I am" sayings of Jesus, accordingly, must be understood as the description of his work, rather than as signs of his divinity. For more, see my book: Truth, Testimony, and Transformation.
Monday, October 17, 2022
Critical Reflection on Biblical Stories and Their Interpretations
How can you read Joshua's conquest narrative alongside the story of liberation in Exodus?
God liberated the oppressed Israelites from slavery in Egypt—an Exodus story of freedom. Yet, shortly after, they became oppressors themselves, commanded to conquer Canaan by destroying everything. Is this a "justice" story? Whose story is it? Who benefits? Can we ignore the cries of innocent people in Canaan?
Robert Allen Warrior, an American Indian scholar, criticizes the popular reading of Joshua’s conquest because it overlooks justice for the oppressed. He points out that European settlers arriving in America sought freedom from oppression but instead perceived God’s promise of a new land as justification for oppressing Native Americans. He discusses this in his article, "Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians: Deliverance, Conquest, and Liberation Theology Today."
How can "freedom-seeking people" become oppressors? Do we think God is callous enough to endorse the deaths of innocent people? Is the God of Israel a tribal deity?
Some interpret the promise and conquest stories to support covenantal theology, as in Abraham’s story. But such interpretations fail to justify the innocent deaths in Canaan. Others read these stories to bolster Jewish political power or independence. Some Christians today view them spiritually. However, this does not justify sacrificing “others” in God's name. No one is predestined for damnation. Furthermore, there are no definitive historical records of Joshua’s conquest—these stories are often crafted to convey a message. Objective readers must remain aware that these narratives may represent only one side of the story.
God is beyond the Bible; God cannot be confined to a particular story or human understanding. With this in mind, biblical stories demand critical evaluation rather than uncritical acceptance. Perhaps, even if imperfect, we can discern God's care for his covenant people.
Matthew 15:21-28 — A Critical Look
Does Jesus test the Canaanite woman’s faith? I would say "no." The story illustrates Jesus's harshness, as he makes derogatory remarks, treats the woman unkindly, and initially claims that his mission is exclusively for the Jews. Earlier, in Matthew 10:5-6, Jesus limited his mission to Israel.
However, the woman challenges Jesus gently and persistently, maintaining her faith that God loves her and her daughter. Her faith is truly challenging, rooted in the belief that she deserves God's help. Ultimately, Jesus grants her request, healing her daughter, though whether this indicates a genuine change of heart remains uncertain.
To understand this story, consider two contexts: Jesus’s own time and mission, and the context of the Matthean community. In his historical setting, Jesus, as a Jew, was grappling with expanding God's good news to the Gentiles. Reading the story this way means acknowledging his struggle, yet not accepting his harsh attitude toward Gentiles or the woman. Some scholars suggest that Matthew, in editing Mark 7:24-30 (the story of the Syrophoenician woman), added details reflecting Jewish exclusivism, highlighting the community’s challenge in including Gentiles. The community’s main concern was the boundaries of their fellowship—whether to open the door to outsiders. Even so, the harsh treatment of the woman and the exclusivist attitude are troubling.
In both contexts, the story invites us to reflect on the struggle to expand God's inclusive love, while also questioning the ways exclusion and harshness are portrayed.
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Mary Magdalene
Thursday, September 22, 2022
Derrida's Différance and Biblical Interpretation
Yung Suk Kim
Derrida's deconstruction theory challenges readers to rethink meaning altogether. He argues that there is no absolute unity or coherence in the text, which is an entangled web of various signifiers/significations that defy one single meaning. Derrida coins différance to connote the double meaning of differing and deferring. The signified is not fixed once and for all and must be different because the signifiers are like drops of water in the ocean. Likewise, we should delay meaning forever. Derrida differs from Saussure, who believes that even though there is no one-to-one link between the signifier and the signified, the signified is achieved in a given system of relations.
A common misunderstanding about Derrida is he undermines faith and relativizes truth, promoting "anything goes." That is not true because deconstruction challenges the orthodoxies that subjugate the marginalized or voiceless. It defies "closure" in the text and sees new voices of fairness and justice. A parable is a type of deconstruction literature that resists conventional wisdom and helps readers to see something differently, subverting their world.
As a case in point, we can take 1 Cor 12:27: "You are the body of Christ and individually members of it." The traditional interpretation focuses on the body's metaphorical organism: "You are the members of the body, which is the church, whose head is Christ, and individually, you are members." Here, the body is an organism metaphor, and the achieved meaning is unity in Christ and membership in him. But in fact, there is an alternative reading that resists the tradition. I read the body of Christ as the "Christic body" in the sense that the Corinthians must embody Christ, individually and communally. Here, the body is a metaphor "for a way of living" (for example, see 1 Cor 6:15-20). 1 Cor 6:15 reads: "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I, therefore, take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! " (NRSVue). Paul’s point is the body is for God, which means they must embody Christ in their lives.
If we translate the body of Christ as “Christ-like body,” this use of the genitive case is called an attributive genitive. We see this example in "the body of sin” (Rom 6:6), which we understand as "the sinful body."
The alternative interpretation underscores the ethical union with Christ and the diversity of the community. That is the Corinthians must follow Christ and honor one another. Then, they can maintain a Christ-like community. Christ is not the owner of the church, but its foundation. The point is not mere membership to the church but impregnable participation in Christ and his faith.
*Note: I have argued for an alternative reading of "the body of Christ" through a number of articles and books. My debut book is Christ's Body in Corinth: The Politics of a Metaphor (Fortress, 2008). The most recent book on Paul is How to Read Paul: A Brief Introduction to His Theology, Writings, and World (Fortress, 2021).
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Kant, Modernity, and Biblical Interpretation
Understood this way, postmodernity, if it exists at all, is not a blow to the Kantian modern sensibility. Instead, it is an heir to modern philosophy in ways that we can embrace lofty standards of universal law coupled with self-critical observations about our world.
Likewise, in biblical interpretation, we can distinguish between the knowable and the unknowable. The former is a rough representation of reality reflected in ancient texts, communities, societies, and empires. Otherwise, reality itself is unknowable. So, what we need is a humble spirit as well as a critical mindset.
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Collapse of Logocentrism: From Kant to Saussure to Derrida
Saussure (1857-1913), a founding figure of modern linguistics, argues there is no one-to-one link between the signifier (word) and the signified (an actual thing). That is, he disputes the logical connection between them. The signifier must be imperfect and what comes out of it is multiple. For example, the "war" in a certain context signifies myriad things.
Derrida (1930-2004) more forcefully challenges logocentrism in his deconstruction theory. That is, no literature can set forever meaning to readers because there are internal systems of collapse within the literature. All in all, meaning is not fixed once and for all, as his coined term différance conveys meaning's difference and deferral.