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Triune God Research Paper

Decent Essays

The poverty of the names calling the Triune God in Korean Christianity:
Will God be just a Father to Koran Christian?
How have the Korean church been speaking about the Triune God? How have the Korean church been naming the Trinity? Jesus taught us to call God “our Father” when we pray. God has made us reborn as spiritual families through Jesus Christ. However, the Father image of Koreans is not the same as the Father image of Jesus. Due to the still strong Confucian ideology, it is true that Korean society is still oppressive to women and children compared to men and fathers. Conversely, the image of the incompetent father is also prevalent in Korea due to the loss of father authority. Presidents, who can be called the father of the country, …show more content…

It is not necessary to refer to God as only Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as the Old Testament does, as YHWH, the LORD. The issue of name of God has come up in recent decades. Are Father, Son and Holy Spirit more inclusive renderings than the Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, etc? For Korean churches faced the poverty of the names calling the Triune God, I would like to introduce R. Kendal Soulen. He is a theologian who talks about naming the Trinity exploring Charles Wesley’s Hymns on the Trinity. He argues that the most appropriate way to name the mystery of the Trinity is “a living ecosystem of ways.” According to Soulen, there are three pattern of naming the Trinity in ecosystem; the theological, Christological, and pneumatological patterns. First, the theological pattern of naming is identified by the sacred Tetragrammation, God’s personal proper name emphasizing the uniqueness and infinite mystery of God. Second, the Christological pattern of naming is characterized by a set of male kinship terms: “Our Father”, “Abba”, Son of God”, “Sprit our savior”, and so on. Third, the pneumatological pattern of naming is characterized by common nouns drawn from our contemporary life emphasizing divine blessing that renew human life with Spirit’s outpouring: “Lover, Beloved, Co-Beloved” , Our Table, our Food, our Server”. Soulen insists that “Each pattern is “all important, indispensible,

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