Content area
Abstract
This study explores a contextual theology of missio Dei through filial piety that is termed pareo Dei, in Latin, 'the obeying of God.' The Korean Protestant church is missiologically polarized between progressives and conservatives in their reductionist approaches to God's salvation and mission, which is decidedly related to the missio Dei concept that the former exclusively utilized in its minjung theological movement and the latter antagonistically labeled missional radicalism in its heaven-bound Great Commission mentality. With attention to the holistic vision of the original and biblical missio Dei, the researcher introduces a holistic missio Del to the whole Korean Protestant church via theological contextualization, so that its age-old missiological polarity, might be overcome. In the making of pareo Dei, Andrew Walls' pilgrim and indigenous principle serves as the overarching conceptual framework, Stephen Bevans' synthetic model as a primary typological framework, and Robert Schreiter's nine-process map as a concrete navigational framework.
The dissertation is comprised of six chapters with interdisciplinary approaches. Chapter 1 is a preliminary study of the contextual theological project, stating the research background, problem, and questions as well as its thesis and methodology. Historical studies of missio Dei are the focus of the next two chapters: its diachronic developments in the worldwide Protestant movements in chapter 2 and in the Korean Protestant church in chapter 3. This comparative research shows that the dissemination of a holistic missio Dei to the whole Korean Protestant church is a key to its missiological reconciliation and cooperation as in the case of the worldwide Protestant movements. What follows are theological and missiological studies. Chapter 4 is a theological examination of `authentic' contextualization with specific reference to its meaning, models, and methods, while chapter 5 is a missiological investigation of pareo Dei in the hermeneutical linkages between missio Del and filial piety. The dissertation concludes with the integrative summary and promising research recommendations in chapter 6.
As a result of this self-theological exploration, pared Dei is proposed as the supreme example of both missio Dei and filial piety. In pared Del, Jesus is the filial Son par excellence who inaugurates the 'the-anthropocosmic' Datong society in relational shalom. As the Incarnation of missio Dei, Jesus models the fivefold filial mission of worship, fellowship, discipleship, evangelism, and social action in absolute submission to his Father's redemptive will and purpose. This pared Dei mindset can lead to the Korean Protestant church's missiological reconciliation, since the evangelistic Jesus is inseparable from the prophetic Jesus in his filial commitment to God's mission to the world. Furthermore, pareo Dei illuminates God's mission to the church, revealing the missional facility of its inner life
