글쓴이: 박재순 Ham Sock-Hon's National Spirit and Chris Downloaded 562 times : Ham Seok.hwp (94260 bytes) Ham Seok-heon's National Spirit and Christian Thought by Park Jae Soon Korea Journal Vol. 40 No. 2 Summer 2000 ⓒ UNESCO, reproduced by permission Park Jae Soon (Pak, Chae-sun) is a lecturer at Sungshil University and teaches the Christian Graduate Course. He is also Adjunct Professor of Theology at the San Francisco Theological Seminary. He received his Ph.D. in Theology from Hanshin University in 1992. He has published many books, including Hananim eo pshi hananim ap'e (Without God, Before God) (1993). I. Introduction: Korean National Spirit and Korean Thought A people's thought and philosophy are based on its spirit and way of life and reflect its unique thought structure and sentiment. In this sense, a people's thought cannot be separated from its spirit and life. When the Korean people established their own independent national culture from the expanse of Manchuria to the outlying regions of northeast Asia, its culture, spirit, thought and sentiment were far-reaching. However, after the fall of the ancient Koguryo kingdom, or at least from the collapse of the Palhae kingdom, its stage of activity was reduced to the peninsula, pushed back by Chinese forces. For over a thousand years since Korea was incorporated into the Chinese political and cultural zone, its spirit and culture were placed under the influence of China. The dominant class and the literati in particular had a tendency to worship China, resulting in a repression of the Korean spirit and culture by those of China. However, Korea's unique thought and culture was kept alive in the life and culture of the grass roots, who occupied the lowest rungs within the society and history of Korea, and through a small number of independent thinkers such as Monk Weonhyo and Yi Yulgok.1 The creative thought and mind of the Korean people erupted in the nationalistic mass-oriented religious movement (Tonghak) during the nineteenth century.2 But the movement was soon crushed by the foreign forces and the armed forces of the government, and the creative Tonghak thought was ignored by scholars. Then, under the Japanese colonial rule and the autocratic military regimes erected after national liberation, Korean spirit and culture were further subjected to suppression and violation due to lingering colonialism and the influence of Western culture. Although Park Chung-hee's government tried to nourish Korean-style democracy and reinvigorate the spirit and culture of Korea, the national spirit and energy continued to be oppressed by systematic violence of its intelligence agency and the military, propelling the taxidermization of folk culture and Korean studies. The nation's history over the past century is one of tumult and tragedy, being subjected to the domination and invasion by foreign forces. Korea was carried forward by the general flow of world history in which Western forces perpetually strive to make inroads into the East. Soon after the nation was liberated from the grips of Japanese colonial power in 1945, it was divided into the North and the South, eventually led to civil war. Through it all, Korea was still dominated by foreign cultures and ideologies. The national spirit and soul had been suppressed through the more than two millennia-long domination by Chinese politics and culture, the century-old influence of Western politics and culture, and the 36-year-long Japanese colonial rule. It was impossible for the national spirit to break free from such influences. Koreans were bound by traditional Korean and Eastern thought that sought unity, assimilation, integration, and harmony with nature. They especially espoused Confucian thought of a fixed order maintained through strict hierarchy and heredity, and by the China-centered world view. Under these circumstances, it was nearly impossible for independent Korean thought and philosophy in which the national soul and spirit were alive to develop. Ironically, despite this, the critical and resistant spirit of the West and progressive nationalism seeking equality between the elite and the mass innate within the Christian faith, awakened the long suppressed national spirit of Koreans, touching off the modern national self-dependent movement and thought.3 Faced with the burden of tragic national history, national leaders such as An Ch'ang-ho, Yi Seung-hun, and Cho Man-shik vigorously pursued the national independence movement and the education movement, dedicated to integrating new learnings of the West and the national spirit on the basis of Christian faith. An Ch'ang-ho, who learned Christian faith and Western modern thought at a mission school, was a key figure of the national independence movement during the Japanese occupation, and Yi Seung-hun was one of the main leaders of the March First Independence Movement, while Cho Man-shik was a national leader respected as Korea's Gandhi. Yi Seung-hun established the Osan School, inspired by An Ch'ang-ho's speeches, and Cho Man-shik served as the principal of this school. The Osan School was the very embodiment of their spirit and beliefs, and there, the national spirit and the Christian faith were integrated as they strived to discover and develop nationalist thought and life.4 The great thinker Yu Yeong-mo, novelist Yi Kwang-su, and Kim-Eok taught at the school, while nationalist poet Kim Seowl and Ham Seok-heon were its graduates. Ham Seok-heon, who later worked at the Osan School as a teacher, played a central role in the national self-dependence and democratization movements after liberation. He faithfully followed the nationalist spirit and religious faith of his alma mater, and produced his own independent ideas which combined the national spirit embedded in the people's mind and life and Western thought (Christian faith and modern Western thought). Ham's doctrine of ssial (seed/people), which is an amalgam of Korean national soul and spirit and the Christian faith, has become the backbone and main principle of Minjung theology in Korea, a pioneer of religious pluralism and dialogue between different religions, and the source of inspiration and stimulation for the philosophy of life and theology of life today. II. Ham Seok-heon: An Independent and Democratic Thinker Keeping out of public office throughout his life, Ham Seok-heon maintained his integrity uncompromising, and resisted the intrusion of foreign forces and the oppression of autocratic regimes. He shared and empathized with the spirit and life of the grass roots, throwing himself at the bottom of Korean society and history. He relentlessly pursued an independent mind and life, struggling with foreign influence, autocracy, and imported cultures. One of the main characteristics of his thought is the emphasis on self-reliance. He views "self-acting" (seuseuro ham) as the fundamental principle of life. "The basic principle of life is 'self-acting.' As God is the spirit of self-acting, he wants the world he created to reach the state of life that helps itself."5 Claiming that "petulance is the habit of the slave and complaint is the property of the loser,"6 he strives to shake off deterministic fatalism and passive defeatism and to incite the strong will of life to take its own initiative. The focus of his thought, which aims to reinvigorate the oppressed national spirit, is on "me who act myself." Ham criticizes the objectivistic bent of Western thought since Aristotle, who separated the subject from the object. He asks, "How can the study of objective things and a bunch of statistical figures possibly contribute to liberating me from greed and salvaging society from its own ills?" and notes that "the key to resolving both human and social problems is within myself."7 Therefore, to him, life and thought begin by respecting "my" face and making myself upright. "Look at your face in the mirror. You will see the face that has survived a million years of rain and wind, myriad germs, and the swords and guns of war."8 To respect one's own face and set it upright means to free oneself from political and cultural subordination and submission and to erect the subject of one's thought and spirit. In the middle of the hardship and suffering of the nation, Ham built his theory by refining his body and mind in the pursuit of truth. He accomplished this task while being put in prison several times and leading a stoic life, eating only one meal a day. Attained through his body and mind, his philosophy is not abstract but concrete. A theory that is realized through the body, a theory that unifies spoken and written language with life. Ham's philosophy blossomed in the life of the Korean people through Korean words and writings.9 According to Heo Ung, a linguist of the Korean language, the generations that communicated through Chinese writing represent the China-dominated era and those that communicated through Chinese characters represent the Japan-dominated era, whereas the generations that communicate through Korean represent the Korean era. While the first two groups had authoritarian and privileged ways of thinking, those of the Korean language embrace free, equalitarian, and democratic principles.10 Ham took painstaking efforts to study Korean words and the Korean language and use them in a proactive fashion in order to revive the national spirit buried in the hearts of people and to achieve a democracy in which the people are the masters.11 III. The Integration of National Spirit and Christian Faith 1. The Melting Pot of National Spirit and Christian Faith: Osan School In Korea, Christianity was integrated with nationalism and was spread in a grassroots fashion in order to liberate the people, unlike in other third world nations where it was adopted as part of the colonizer's governance and culture. The imported religion mixed with nationalism more easily because it was introduced and transmitted during the period when the Choson dynasty, with the mentality of revering China and looking down on the commoners, was collapsing and Japan was beginning to occupy Korea. To the people who were immersed in the mental world of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shamanism that was predominated by collectivity, the Christian gospel of spiritual salvation held an extra appeal and helped to awaken their individuality. Thus, people who believed that they could achieve national self-reliance and independence by integrating Christianity and the nation gathered at the church.12 Ham Seok-heon realized the national spirit while attending the Osan School.13 In his own words, Osan School was "a melting pot of the nationalist, cultural and religious movements." It provided a strong mental education, in which nationalism, humanitarianism, and the Christian faith were bundled together.14 Ham points out three elements of the spirit of Osan School: "First, the grass roots-oriented spirit which resembled the spirit of the tiger in the mountains; second, the national spirit seeking independence and self-reliance; and third, the Christian spirit pursuing truth and love."15 Ham believed that the core of the Osan spirit was Christian faith. "A movement is short-lived if it fails to reach the stage of 'self-acting,' which is possible only when faith penetrates into the soul. Yi Seung-hun gained a thorough depth of consciousness after he became a Christian reading the Bible in the prison. . . . The essence of his character was based on the Christian faith, and thus, this became the very essence of the Osan spirit, for it was built on his character. . . . The essence of the character of the three leaders of the school, Yi, An and Cho, was the Christian faith. . . . We should not forget the fact that this had nothing to do with the missionaries."16 The Osan School was able to provide national independence education to its students without being dominated or held by foreign forces. The admission ceremony of 1936, a time in which the Japanese efforts to annihilate Korean national spirit were stronger than ever, was conducted in Korean with most of the teachers in attendance wearing Korean traditional clothes.17 Ham's unabating national spirit and Christian faith, formed in the Osan School, carried on the great tradition of the nationalist movement in Korea. 2. National Spirit (Haneol) 1) Han=Hannim Ham links national spirit directly to han.18 According to him, han refers to the Korean people and sometimes, it means hannim/hana-nim (God), or hanul (heaven).19 He notes that "Han is the backbone of the mind of Koreans. The Korean people is the han people, Korea is the han nation, and Korean culture is the han culture. Hannim/hananim and Hwanin are impersonified representations of them."20 Han, the protoplasm of the Korean soul, means "great and one" and "shiny and bright." The spirit and idea of han are seen to have been internalized and inbred in the nature of Koreans through the tens of thousands of years of the pilgrimage in search of a new life as they advanced from the cold and gloomy mountains in Central Asia to the East, the place of sunrise, in the hopes of settling down on a bright, warm land for a bright, warm life.21 In Korean, the subject and the object tend to unite and assimilate with each other, while in the Western languages the two are clearly distinguished. This may have been a contributing factor in forming the national character and propensity of han. The Korean people call itself the han people, or the paedal (bright land) people. Ham connects this idea of han or hannim with the Christian faith. He argues that "although the Christian attitude of regarding ancestral worship as a form of idolatry was perceived to shake Korean traditional morality to the roots, Koreans could understand and accept Christianity without much difficulty because the hananim idea had been firmly set in their hearts for thousands of years."22 Ham integrates han, which reveals the unique mentality of the Korean people, with God, the subject of the Christian faith, and places this han (oneness) at the center and base of his thought system and makes it his ultimate goal at the same time. To him, the goal of faith is for God and man to become one, while the goal of history is for all humans to become one.23 By placing han at the center of his philosophy, Ham could unite the national spirit and the Christian faith. 2) The Spirit of the People and the Spirit of the Tiger Ham likens the spirit of the Korean people, which seeks greatness and oneness, to that of the "Tiger of Paektusan mountain" and finds the vestiges of this in the myth of Tan'gun, the founding father of Korea. According to him, the bear, which was later transformed into a human in the myth, represents "the tribe which became part of the dominant class through alliance with the conquerors from the outside," whereas the tiger, which failed to be reborn as a human, represents "the tribe which became the commoners."24 He cites two facts for this interpretation. First, in Korean, the word "bear" is often used as a symbol of a king or a god and for the names of locales, e.g., Wanggeomseong (regal bear fortress) and Komnaru (bear ferry), while the word "tiger" is rarely used for the names of locales, human beings or public offices. Also, the tiger is a very important figure in folk beliefs. Mountain spirits, which were a common object of worship in old Korea, are always accompanied by a tiger.25 In traditional folk paintings, tigers often wear a humorous smile, which seems to portray their intimacy with commoners. Ham Seok-heon views that the dispossessed and unpretentious grass roots can be strong, upright, and courageous, like tigers.26 Koreans may normally seem quiet, peaceful, and gentle, but when they rise as a unified force against foreign invasion or social injustice, they are strong and valiant like tigers. We can find in Korean history numerous examples where the grass roots expressed their relentless spirit of the tiger: the righteous army movements organized at national crises such as the Japanese Invasion of 1592, the Manchu Invasions of 1636, and various Japanese attempts to occupy Korea during the late Choson dynasty, the Peasant War of 1894, the March First Independence Movement (1919), the April 1960 Revolution, the Pusan-Masan Democratic Movement (1979) against the tyranny of Park Chung-hee, the Kwangju People's Uprising of 18 May 1980, and the June Uprising of 1987 against the autocratic rule of Chun Doo-hwan. 3) Good-naturedness and Pacifism Ham regards "good-naturedness" (ch'akham) as an essential character of Korean spirit for three reasons. First, while the myths of the founding of nations in other peoples are studded with conquests and wars, those of Korea have no such references. Second, historically, Korea never invaded another country. It was involved in wars only for self-protection against foreign invasion. Third, compared with the names of Chinese and Japanese, Korean names show the generous and good-natured character in them.27 Ancient Chinese praised Koreans for their gentle nature. For example, the chapter on kingdoms in the Liji (Book of Rites) describes the western, southern, and northern barbarians in negative terms, while stating that the eastern barbarians are "generous and peace-loving." Also, the Shanhaijing (Book of Land and Sea) recounts that "There is a nation of refined people in the east. Its people like to yield and do not fight."28 According to Ham, the spirit and soul of the Korean people have dried up today. "The national character has changed since the Three Kingdoms period. The good, generous, upright, strong, brisk and dignified spirit has disappeared."29 Nonetheless, he believes that the good-naturedness of the Korean people is alive in history and in their hearts.30 To Ham, good-naturedness is the essence of man, the universe and God, and the generous Korean people "unites with the way of the universe and lives according to the will of God."31 How does the good-naturedness manifest itself in the life of Koreans? According to him, the beautiful natural environment of Korea merged with the han-seeking national spirit to produce Taoism and pacifism.32 The national spirit seeking to be one with nature (God, eternity) is represented as Taoism, which pursues spiritual enlightenment and transcendence, while the good han-seeking nature is represented as pacifism which pursues peaceful mental existence. Moreover, the nature-loving Taoism, which seeks spiritual enlightenment and transcendence from the mundane world, is linked to pacifism, which urges us to embrace enemies and coexists with them.33 3. Integration of the National Spirit and the Christian Faith: The Basis of Independent Thought Through extensive reading and reflection during his ten-year service as a teacher at the nationalistic Osan School, Ham came to the conclusion that he would never forsake the nation, faith, and science.34 His life and thought were formulated in the process of pursuing the national spirit, Christian faith, and the scientific mind. Ham upholds the idea that "body and soil are one." He comments on the oneness of our body and the nation's land as the following: "I eat from the nation's soil, drink its water, breathe its winds, and bask in its sunlight. The grasses and trees on this land become my blood, my flesh, my bones and nerves, and eventually, my heart. This heart is the embodiment of this land and its life and spirit. . . . Therefore, the body and the nation are not separate things. My body is the living nation and the land of this nation is my body."35 He believes that the soul and spirit of the nation are hidden in the heart of the people living today.36 The people, who are the seeds of this land, retain an immense amount of life energy, which has been consolidated through the history of suffering and hardship for tens of thousands of years. Ham remarks that "If we could bring to light the true nature of people, it would be a great miracle."37 How does Ham revive the spirit and soul buried in the hearts of Koreans? He notes the fundamental defects inherent in the spirit of Koreans. Koreans are overly optimistic. They aspire "unity between human beings and heaven" (ch'eonin habil), "unity of all things in the universe" (weonyung habil), spiritual enlightenment and transcendence, and have a tendency to be immersed in emotional self-effacement by drinking, singing, dancing, and engaging in collective spiritual experiences. Therefore, they lack the strength to delve into the problems of reality and the nature of things and the strength to think through them.38 He points out that the lack of an inquisitive and reasoning mind is a very regrettable weakness of the nomadic Mongolians.39 He cites three ways to revive the national spirit: the faith to reform the mind and soul, a thoroughly inquisitive mind, and the practice of bearing the cross for world peace. 1) Unity between "I" and Jesus According to Ham, in order to set the national spirit upright, we must set our character upright, and to set our character upright, we must attain true faith. Ham accentuates the unity between Jesus, the object of faith, and "I," the believing subject. In his poem "Heuin son" (The White Hand), he says that Jesus' blood should be alive in the blood of those who believe in him. If you drank His blood, (Why, didn't he say, "eat my flesh" or "drink my blood"?) Then, shouldn't his blood be flowing in your blood? Shouldn't it be in your flesh, in your bones, spirit and soul?"40 To Ham, "although Jesus died 2,000 years ago, he lives on 'through faith' in my life, my body, my bones and flesh, and in my blood, mind and soul." Beyond the spatial and temporal distance, Jesus is united with the national spirit of the "believing I." Ham does not allow hermeneutic theory or other speculations to intervene between Jesus and the "believing I."41 To Ham, Jesus is a collective character who is in the process of coming to completion in our lives and history. Therefore, he asserts that Jesus is being born among the Korean people, who is suffering for the democratization of the nation. "The Korean people is impregnated with Jesus, the Son of Man, or a new era. We are in labor to give birth. That is why we are in such excruciating pain. . . . We must gather the last of our strength to give birth."42 Jesus, who is born among human suffering, is the symbol of a new era and a new community as well as God who is to be completed in history. His religious view of the incomplete God is connected to the idea that Jesus is born within the suffering of history, which dramatically emphasizes the human responsibility for history and the practice of acting themselves. If the history we live in is the history of our suffering to give birth to the Messiah, we are the very ones who will give birth to the Messiah. To Ham, what is really important is not Jesus, but how to revive the national spirit living in "me." To the early Christians, the fish was a symbol of faith and Jesus Christ. Ham believes that the spirit living in the sea of people's nature is the fish we must catch. If the Korean people catch "the divine fish of life lashing its tail in their hearts" (the national spirit), they shall survive and be redeemed.43 2) Thinking Reason Ham emphasizes that people have achieved dynamic modernity via self-realization and have become the conscious actors of history.44 Claiming that the history books written by the dominant elites contain distortions and impede people from achieving a historical consciousness, he urges them to burn the old history books and raise up the people's spirit and life, in which the true history is inscribed. According to him, it is in the hearts of the people, a place the national spirit is buried, where we can create and achieve a new history. It is a place where we can reflect on the past and envision the future, which is the center of the universe, the pinnacle of the merging cone of time and space, and the place where God exists.45 In order for people to be the masters of history, they must understand the will of history, which is, in turn, to penetrate the past, present, and future in unity.46 To do this, they must think on their own. With thinking, a fatalistic life changes into a self-acting" and independent life. This is why he asserts that "only people who think can survive."47 Here, thinking goes beyond the rational level and includes the spiritual level. Reason lies between instinct and the spirit. Instinct tries to snare reason with great force.48 But the true function of reason is to defy the power of instinct and serve the spirit. This is possible when reason is free and active in its full capacity. Ham Seok-heon regards this relationship between reason and spirit as that of "thought that must be formed" (haneun saenggak) and "thought that comes to mind" (naneun saenggak). "Thought that must be formed" means rational and independent thought, while "thought that comes to mind" means inspiration.49 When one thinks hard and thoroughly, one can experience inspiration and when one experiences inspiration, one can engage in profound thinking. The thought obtained from inspiration penetrates "me, heaven and history" in one.50 Therefore, the national spirit remains alive through thought, and only people who think can survive as the main protagonists of history. 3) The Cross and the Responsibility of the Korean People for the World Surrounded by powerful nations, the Korean people had undergone severe suffering for centuries, and in the twentieth century, it experienced the 36-year-long colonial rule, national division, and subsequent civil war due to the occupation by the foreign forces in the north and south of the peninsula. To Ham, the Korean people suffering from the national division and the Korea War is like being nailed on the cross.51 Ham actively tries to revitalize the good and peace-loving nature of the Korean people by applying the principle of faith in the cross to the history of Korea and calling for the responsibility of the Korean people for world peace.52 As Jesus led the entire humanity to redemption by being crucified and dying on the cross, the Korean people could lead the world to peace by bearing the burden of suffering in world history.53 The world powers, which are the victimizers, cannot overcome injustice and evil in the world or bring about a peaceful world where the wrongdoings can be forgiven and reconciled. It is the people of the Third World, the victims and the mental debtors, that can atone for the injustice and evil of the world, pay the debt and realize peace and reconciliation. In order to settle this, the injustice and sins of the world must be directed to God and only through this process can we be set free from the relationship between the victimizers and the victims. In order to direct that burden to God, we must "go deep into ourselves and dig a path that directly leads us to God."54 If the victims in the world, such as Koreans, Indians, Jews, and blacks, "overcome the suffering from injustice and find their rightful place, the entire humanity will be redeemed."55 If the Koran people overcome their unjust suffering and lead the world to the road of peace, it will confirm the truth of the Christian faith in the Cross.56 IV. Ham's Thought of Life: both Korean and Christian Ham Seok-heon builds his idea of life, which is both Korean and Christian in nature, with the metaphor of ssial meaning seeds. Ssial, a symbol of the world of nature and life, represents the nature-friendly character of Korean thought. The life of a ssial, which lives by dying, represents the Christian belief of Jesus' death on the Cross and resurrection. Ssial, which is the basis of the world of nature and life, is linked to the democratic, grassroots-centered thought. Ssial, a pure Korean word, means "bare people" (maen saram). The word is a combination of ssi (seed) and al (kernel). Ham uses this metaphor as a symbol of those who are naturally themselves, without the decorations of social status, privilege, or baggage. Thus, it refers to "unprivileged ordinary people."57 To him, ssial means both people and "each individual" at the same time. Although there are such words as minjung, paeks ng and kungmin, Ham insists on using the word ssial for two reasons. The first reason is that the word min (Chinese character for "people")is a remnant of the domination-subordination relations of the feudal system. While min represents the feudal era, ssial represents the democratic era.58 Second, he uses it to represent the spirit and independence of the Korean people. He wants to use the purely Korean word in order to revive our national spirit and our language, which have been lost under the suppression of the Chinese culture. In order to restore the independent nature of min, he writes ssial in a rare way, not the common way, in Korean. According to him, the vowel as represented in his unique way of spelling inKorean is the basic of all vowels. In a word, ssial is a symbol employed in his search for the true image of the min, who have been ignored and nearly forgotten though they are the very basis of all lives.59 Ham's idea of ssial is manifested in his emphasis on the dynamic unity between God (transcendence) and humans (inherence). Moreover, as an independent democratic idea, it is expressed as the principle of "self-acting." Moreover, as a life-loving, communal idea regarding nature and humanity, it is represented as a principle of coexistence and sacrifice, and of nonviolence and pacifism. 1. Dynamic Unity between God (Transcendence) and Human (Inherence) The life of the universe is condensed in a seed and the life of the universe and God are contained in human begins. The seed (ssial) represents the dynamic and intensive unity between "me" and God. This is the meaning of the word ssial and it is aptly demonstrated in his explanation of the unique spelling of al (kernel). The circle part of the Ham's choice of hangul spelling of a within al means the greatest, or the transcendent heaven; the vertical dash part of the first vowel means the smallest, or the inherent heaven, i.e., self; and the consonant "l" of al means life in activity.60 Ham describes the paradoxical relationship between "me" and God as follows: "When I realize that the absolute being is separated from me and exists in the absolute distance from me, I also realize that the absolute being is within me."61 To Ham, God is not a dialectical being, who is both transcendent and inherent, but a paradoxical being, who is transcendent as he is inherent and is inherent as he is transcendent.62 This understanding of Ham is connected to Bonhoeffer's idea that God is both the boundary (external, transcendent) and the center (inherent) of life.63 As God is in a dynamic relationship with "I," a human, God is comprehended in a dynamic sense. To Ham, God is not a constant, static, complete being, but a being in "growth" or in "eternal incompletion" and at the same time, a complete being as the Absolute Being. God is not a being that is, but one that will be and will be throughout eternity. Sometimes Ham calls God "... Going To Be" to note the dynamic nature of God.64 Then, where does God and man unite? To Ham, the place "I" and "God" becomes one in a dynamic relationship is the "mind."65 Everything comes out of the mind and goes into the mind and there is no division between the subject and the object or between the subject and object of faith. As the subject of faith (I) and the object of faith (God) become one in mind, "there is no subject or object in faith,"66 but only the faithful mind. Thus, he remarks that faith is God and mind is God as well.67 According to Ham, mind is the "world of nothingness" and the "world of abandonment." "Belief is void and mind is naught."68 Nothingness and abandonment, i.e., the pure negation of all things leads one to true freedom. This freedom does not stop being an internal freedom but extends further into its outward practice. True abandonment and true freedom are attained when I throw my own self into the "action" for God.69 While Western (Christian) thought makes a clear distinction between the subject and the object and focuses on the objective world (the object of faith), Ham Seok-heon reaches the freedom of practice-oriented life through "nothingness" and "abandonment" within the subjective mental world (mind).70 There are no doctrinal limitations or denominational boundaries in "nothingness" and "abandonment." Thus, Ham attains his own idea of religion, in which all doctrinal limitations and nominational boundaries are eliminated and all religious ideas are integrated into one.71 Moving beyond the dogmatic and exclusive boundary of Christianity, he establishes open and comprehensive religious thought, which embraces all moral religious thoughts.72 How is the dynamic unity between man and God achieved? It is achieved via the resonance and response between heaven and earth in the universe inside a human being. As a seed born from the earth corresponds with life in the universe, human being standing on the earth corresponds with God (heaven).73 Human being stands upright between heaven and earth and "connects the two."74 Ham expresses his notion that heaven and earth resonate and connect with each other within human beings as follows: "Human beings should stand upright, believing that the force of the land reaches their feet, passes through their head, and ultimately bursts forth into heaven. In this way, the resonance can transpire down to the center of the earth 6,000 km away."75 Ham's notion is connected with the Tonghak doctrines that "human is heaven" (innaech'eon) and that "the ancestral tablet must be directed toward me" (hyanga seorwi), and also with the humanistic idea of the Ch'eonbu kyeong (Heavenly Seal Scriptures), the scripture of an indigenous folk belief, that "heaven and earth become one in human beings."76 Moreover, this is also connected with the creation myth of the Bible that God created human being from earth's dust and breathed the breath of life into him.77 2. Democratic Thought: "Self-Acting" 1) The Essence of Life: "Self-Acting" If ssial thought can be summarized in one word, it is "self-acting." Self-acting is the basic principle of life in Mother Nature and the guiding principle of belief and religion. Ham believes that not just human beings but God acts himself as well.78 To him, self-acting is the principle that links nature, human, history, and God and integrates life and thought. Ham calls the force of change and becoming which results from self-acting "life force," or ki in Korean. This life force is the core of history and human life as well as individual beings.79 It is this force that propels the incessant reformation of history and life. Thus, history and life never cease to be new and continue to move forward. But this is not a simple linear movement. It may be linear in the short term, "pushing upwards only," but as a whole, it is a circular movement that returns to the origin of life. The highest-level movement of life that originates from the Creator, is to "reach the wall of infinity and return to its origin."80 The integration of the boomerang-like circular movement that returns to its place of origin and the continually changing linear movement means the integration of the absolute and the relative, of eternity and time, of the infinite and the finite, and of i (principle) and ki (material force/life force). 2) "Bare People": The Center of History and Cosmic Life According to Ham Seok-heon, God is the transcendental absolute being and the place, which is "neither existent nor nonexistent, neither living nor dead, neither good nor evil, and which transcends everything."81 "Human beings, history, and belief gradually realize absolute transcendence in accordance with their circumstances and lot in life."82 People are the whole in history, while God is the whole in the universe. People are what God buried into the ground with dirt by descending to earth.83 Therefore, God corresponds to the people in this land, in this phenomenal world, and in history. Ham confirms in the 5,000-year history of Korea that the life of the "foolish and humble" people reveals the national spirit while being directly related to God. "Although they have been exploited and trampled under severe domination for 5,000 years, they have lived on as though impervious to feeling. Despite their hard toils and sufferings, they have not received their rightful dues. Their only hope is, as they were born and will be buried on this land, to become a seed to serve the nation and God, to serve by labor and belief in life, and to serve with their flesh and bones in death, by making their land fertile. This is the ultimate expression of han and the vessel that contains God's teachings."84 Therefore, Ham argues that to lead a true life must go to the ssial occupying the lowest status in history.85 As a seed sings the song of life and dances the dance of life by falling on a patch of soft land, man relishes the joy and blessing of life and peace of the soul by reaching out to people at the bottom of history.86 One can reach God and lead a true life only through the people. Thus, what one does for the people is what one does for God. "If one mistreats people thinking they are lowly, one is despising and upsetting God."87 Service to the people is service to the Kingdom of Heaven and a song for the people is a song of praise to God."88 Ham treats each and every one of the people as the subject of history and the center of history. "You are a seed. You are the product of the eternity past and the beginning of the eternity ahead. . . . The past 5,000 years of history is in you."89 Further, he places human beings at the center of the universe. "Even if the universe is infinite, I am the center of the universe. Even if numerous creatures are left deserted, it is I who know about and can use them."90 Human beings act themselves as independent beings and at the same time, human beings are at the center of history and the universe as a collective and communal being. History moves forward and becomes new through the suffering and struggle of the people, who are the actors of history and are located at its center. Thus, people are the mother of a new era, and the suffering of the people in history is the labor pains that give birth to a new era and a new community.91 People, who have kept alive the nature of human life and the soul of the nation throughout suppression and exploitation for the 5,000-year history, may look foolish yet wise, humble yet generous, and good-natured yet great.92 People are the origin of all wisdom and culture. Thus, Ham emphasizes that one must learn from the people before one can begin to teach them.93 This attitude of learning from them became a basic principle of the movement of grassroots mission and grassroots-oriented theology during the 1970s and 1980s.94 3. Ecological Sensitivity and Community 1) Mutual Resonance and Sympathy According to Ham, "faith" is standing in place of the whole beyond one's self.95 Standing in place of the whole is to sympathize and correspond with all lives in the entire world. As a seed sympathizes and corresponds with all the lives in the universe by sacrificing itself to death and engages in creative activities of life, a man resonates, sympathizes, and lives with all other people in humility and self-sacrifice. "People resonate and empathize with other people."96 If one stops breathing, one suffocates to death. Likewise, if the person does not share her/his thoughts and feelings with others, her/his mind dries up and dies away.97 When "bare people" (maen saram) engage in dialogue with an open mind, they can create the voice of all, the voice of God.98 People embrace and join together all lives and matters (soil, water, wind, sunlight) in the universe and resonate with them to create a sublime, beautiful life. The resonance, sympathy, harmony, and unity of people with all other lives are connected with the core structure and principle of Korean traditional thought, that is, "all inclusive comprehension" and "return to the great One". "Taking One to include Three (the whole of creation)" and "joining Three (the whole of creation) to return to One" 99 are the core principles of Korean national thought as set forth in the Samil shin'go, one of the texts of traditional Korean religious philosophy. They are guiding principles for religious thought, for the life of the people, as well as how Korean people understand life. That people resonate and sympathize with each other reflects the communal idea in Christianity that all become one in Jesus Christ and share the sufferings and weaknesses of others.100 2) Community: Interconnected Life Although the natural world of life where people reside is dominated by such principles as the survival of the fittest and the food chain, it is based on the great harmony of ecological symbiosis and coexistence.101 The numerous lives in the world are interconnected and respond to and resonate with each other. According to Ham, "Life seems a continuous repetition but it is always new. Though there seem to be unlimited number of lives, they are connected as one."102 As the whole tree is contained in a seed, the whole world of lives are condensed in a single life. Each life represents the whole. "Even the smallest and lowliest worm represents the whole." Therefore, life is "one"; there is no distinction between "you" and "me." In his words, "Life is one. This is why we feel sad and frightened to see a dead body, whether it be the body of a man, an animal, a worm, or a grass."103 The world of life is the world of "oneness" in resonance and sympathy. However, humans live in separation between "you" and "me" and in confrontation and hostility. In order to reach the freedom of life in which one helps oneself, one must go beyond the separation, confrontation, and hostility.104 In order to surpass the hostile relations living in this world that is dominated by such relations, one must "forget one's own life and death, surpass good and evil, and fight free from power relations."105 Only when one stands on the place transcending good and evil, the place of the whole, or the place of God, can one reach the "one world of life," where one can resonate, sympathize, and relate with others. 3) Empathizing with the Pain of Others Moreover, in the world of life, there are the screams of lives in suffering and a sympathetic heart that responds to and resonates with the screams. "There are screams in this universe. But because there are screams, there is consolation. . . . If there is not the scream of a lamb being eaten by a lion, or the fluttering of a small bird being shot by a hunter, there would be no scream of Jesus on the Cross to God, "Eli (my God), eli (my God)."106 The scream of a lamb being eaten by a lion and the fluttering of a small bird being shot by a hunter overlap with the scream of Jesus, who died bearing the suffering and death of the entire humanity on his shoulders. All lives resonate and sympathize with the suffering of others. Here is a story that reveals how sensitive Ham was to others' suffering. There was an incident in January 1964 that a father, forced by abject poverty, poisoned his three children to death and killed himself. The diary of his 9-year-old child was printed in the newspapers. "Today again, dad brought home a loaf of bread. Why isn't mother coming back? I miss her 'cause my baby sister keeps crying." Reading this, Ham said, he was "pierced by God's fingers." "I could not help myself imagining the fingers of the child writing the diary. . . . At first, the fingers were very small, but they grew bigger and bigger, like a hoe, a rafter, and then, a beam, and finally, it had gotten so big, I could not see anything. I felt as though a steel spit was piercing my heart." Ham goes on that the child's fingers can never really die. "His mind, which is like a flower blooming in the first beam of the warm sunlight in the spring . . . where did it go? His begging eyes, like those of a butterfly fluttering its wings searching for a faint ray of sunlight in late autumn . . . where are they? If these do not exist in this world, life has no meaning."107 Empathizing with the suffering of others is the powerful force that allows people to live together, and attaining the wisdom and strength to think and evaluate things from someone else's place is the ultimate teaching of morality and religion. The fact that Ham feels others' grief as his own seems to demonstrate the good-naturedness of the Korean people seeking unity and assimilation, and at the same time, it reflects cristian love to "love your neighbors as yourself."108 4. Nonviolent Pacifism 1) Why Insist on Nonviolent Pacifism? We can point out three things as the basis of Ham's lifelong adherence to nonviolent pacifism. First, he viewed the nature of life as "self-acting." If we respect the "self-acting" will of others as well as that of our own, we have no choice but to resort to nonviolence and pacifism instead of violence and coercion. Everyone has an innate sacred quality, so we should wait for each person to realize it "for himself." Second, Ham's orientation to nonviolent pacifism manifests the good-naturedness of Koreans.109 As demonstrated in history, Koreans are gentle-natured and peace-loving people. Major grassroots-liberation movements in Korea such as the March First Independence Movement and the April 1960 Revolution were nonviolent.110 Third, being a Christian himself, Ham follows Christian pacifism. 2) Nonviolent Struggle According to Ham Seok-heon, life in itself necessitates struggle. The nature of life is "self-acting" and the grave mission of life is "struggle against death." "Every moment of living is a matter of life and death. Eternal crisis is the prototype of life."111 Therefore, the fatalistic attitude like "I don't mind dying" is deserting life and submitting to death. "I win in a struggle not by earning a win, but by not submitting to losing. When I do not recognize death as such, my spirit lives on."112 As long as I live, I cannot stop struggling for life. I, who do not forget the nature of life, know no fate. "Fate always exists for those who forget themselves and does not exist for those who help themselves."113 Nonviolent struggle, which realizes "self-acting," presupposes that every human being (even the opponent) has a conscience (God's light).114 If I do not fight with those who treat me inhumanely, I am not treating them as humans.115 I must fight on if I am to treat them as humans who have God's light. Because nonviolent struggle is waged against those who have power and who suppress the "self-acting" of others with that power, it is inevitably full of suffering.116 I can engage in this struggle only by overcoming my fear of the wealth and power of others. According to Ham, worship of wealth and power is superstitions.117 Worshipping such external forces runs counter to the principle of life (freedom =self-acting). Ham's nonviolent struggle is a struggle without fear or hatred of the other side (the opponents), but with love and trust in them. Ham says that Jesus' teaching, "love your enemy," is "the flower that blooms in the highest peak of life."118 Ham interprets that it means "fight with each other with love."119 There are no enemies to fight if one looks at them with trust and love. One should engage in nonviolent struggle with a loving heart, with the attitude of transcending wining and losing.120 Thus, one does not fight to win per se, but to overcome the enemy within one's mind.121 Ham's conclusion that there exist no enemies is based on two ideas. The first is the Eastern conception of religion, which begins from the mind. In Buddhist and Taoist thoughts, which seek to reconcile conflicts and embrace them without making judgments of good or evil in real life, there is no place for the enemy (or suffering in life). Ham can state that there is no enemy because he focuses on the mind, not on the sociohistorical reality. When one starts from the mind, one can arrive at nonviolent pacifism, which promotes a collective consciousness at the oneness of all humans and denies the existence of the enemy. The second is Jesus' teaching that one lost sheep is dearer than 99 sheep in the shed. If one stands in the place of Jesus, who embraced every one of us with love and carried all the sins of the world on his shoulders, there can be no enemy. Ham not only loves his enemies but also thanks them for being evil, because evil, by plaguing him, makes him realize that he is God's child and leads him to face God.122 3) Realizing Peace and Grassroots Democracy While the dominant elites repressed and exploited the people and waged wars to kill and destroy others in past history, the "self-acting" people realized peace by engaging in productive activities, such as farming and constructing buildings. "The people who saved the nation are not those who killed, but those nameless people who removed the dead bodies, sowed seeds, and cultivated the land in silence. They carried all the burden of history without refusal or pride."123 Although people underwent severe hardships brought on by the dominators, they maintained and purified the communal life, which were destroyed and defiled by the latter. It is people, who have internalized peace in their bodies through the 5,000-year history of Korea, that have the potential to achieve a peaceful community for the nation and the entire humanity via nonviolent struggle. Ham's profound trust in people echoes in his assertion for grassroots democracy. People are the foundation and center of a country. "A new country starts from 'me.' I (a seed) am the country. If Louis XIV had said this, it would be a crime, but if the people at the lowest rungs say this, it is a fair statement."124 Revolution cannot succeed without having its basis on people. "The moment a revolution goes out of touch with the people, its power disappears. Maybe, this is what Zhuangzi meant when he said, 'A real human beings breathes by his heel.' What are the people? They are God's heels, or a nation's heels."125 Ham Seok-heon flatly rejects sectarianism and groupism by linking individual persons directly to the whole. It is a sect or a group that denies that "I" am directly related to the whole (God) and all humans are "one." Because sectarianism and groupism deny other humans, they are inevitably violent.126 According to Ham, statism is essentially sectarian although it advocates the whole, and wields violence to people.127 Eventually, it victimizes both individuals and the whole.128 Criticizing violent, exclusive, and group-oriented sectarianism, he cries for world peace. The future world will be "inevitably one big organic or holistic community. Therefore, we must live together whether we like it or not. If we fail to do that, all of us are doomed to perish."129 Ssial, who are directly connected to the whole and concurrently contain the whole in themselves, have no choice but to proceed for world peace and seek "one world." V. Merging Eastern and Western Thought: A World that Becomes One Ham strives to realize national spirit but does not stop with nationalism. Moving beyond nationalism and statism, he seeks world peace.130 According to him, a new type of human beings with a new mind and spirit must be born in order to overcome the confusion and chaos created by the West-led globalization and the development of technology and bioengineering.131 These new human beings will be able to integrate the meditative and synthetic thinking of the East and the analytic and progressive thinking of the West. Ham implies that Koreans, who know so well the ills of the Eastern and Western civilizations such as capitalism, communism, Confucianism and Buddhism, are qualified to perform this role of merging the Eastern and Western cultures.132 Ham dreams of a new philosophy which integrates monism and dualism, body and mind, and soul and flesh; a world government which unifies the world; and the unification of the Eastern and Western civilizations.133 According to him, "All peoples and all cultures came out of han (the whole) and proceed towards the goal of becoming han."134 Further, world unification is the "backbone of the development of history."135 The goal of a religion is for "body and mind to become one . . . for all peoples to become one . . . and for all creatures and God to become one."136 The belief that I and God become one is the "basis of all unification."137 Thus, "education seeks oneness; politics opens up the road to oneness; art draws up the banner of oneness; and religion is oneness itself."138 He believes that the basis of history and culture is unification becoming one) and the basis of all unification is religion (belief). Therefore, all cultures came from religion and perished due to religion; that is, religion causes historical change.139 Ham's stance to conceive "becoming one" as the basis of history, culture, and religion and to seek world peace reflects not only Christian cosmopolitanism, which is based on monotheism, but also the national spirit of Koreans and their prototype mind, which strives to "achieve great oneness, or han."140 The unique nature of Koreans' national spirit, which pursues integration and assimilation and seeks han, constitutes the foundation for world unification and cosmopolitanism. Ham suggests that the archetype of national spirit (han) which pursues the "Taking One to include Three (the whole of creation)" and "Joining Three (the whole of creation) to return to One," not only encompasses Christian faith and Western thought, but also is the basis for the intellectual unification of the Eastern and Western civilizations. Ham's thought, which is a mixture of the national spirit of Korea and Christian thought of the West, holds the clues to the integration of Korean and Western thought. Assimilating Western thought and Christian belief through the Korean spirit, his thought is part of the stream of the history of Korean thought. The main characteristic of his thought is the dynamic union and distinction between God (the whole) and humans (individuals) and between believing (soul) and thinking (reason). The two result neither in a monistic union, nor in a dualistic distinction. They are neither "one" nor "two." They are two and one, or one and two at the same time. This notion resembles Monk Weonhyo's idea that "uniting two but not becoming one"141 and it is in the same line with Yi Eul-ho's brilliant observation that the trait of Korean thinking that the binary structure of "great" (the whole) and "one" (individuals) is construed as a monistic entity, han, reveals all inclusive comprehension.142 Thus, Ham's philosophy of life faithfully reflects a character of Korean thinking. However, Ham's unrelentingly resistant and free spirit, brimming with acrimony and paradox, cannot be properly understood based on such mild notions as Laozi and Zhuangzi's idea of a life of "nonaction" (wuwei)143 and "naturalness" (ziran),144 the Confucian idea of "unity between human beings and heaven" (ch'eonin habil), or the Korean idea of "unity of all things in the universe" (weonyung habil) and "joining Three to return to One." The critical and defiant spirit of the West and the Chrisitian spirit of the prophet martyred combined to form Ham's passionately critical and resistant bent. That he liked reciting Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, which touts tough determination and resistance145 and noted "a people must think in order to survive" gives us glimpse into his critical, defiant, self-dependent attitude towards life and thought. Also, that he never ceased to criticize the oppression and injustice committed by the dominator and testify to the truth reveals his prophetic spirit. He integrated the humanitarian principle of Korea and the East that heaven and human beings are one, the resistant spirit of the West, and the prophetic zeal of Christian belief to produce his own independent thought, which is active and dynamic in nature. Ham's thought resembles Laozi and Zhuangzi's in emphasizing the "self-acting" of humans and seeking harmony between human and nature. Also, it echoes the Tonghak principles of "holding the Heavenly Lord in one's body and soul" (shich'eonju) and "serving human as the Heavenly Lord" (sain yeoch'eon), by linking human being directly to God and serving the people as God. Ham adopts the eschatological conception of history in biblical Christianity by looking on history from the eschatological stance on the future.146 Furthermore, placing "thinking" at the center of his thought system, he accepts the emphasis on the reasoning subject in the philosophy of Enlightenment of the West. The emphasis given to the vital force of life standing upright and rising above obstacles resonates with the idea of evolution of life advocated by Bergson and Teilhard de Chardin.147 Ham Seok-heon's thought is a crystallization of the broad-minded and synthetic spirit of Koreans and a thorough historical and critical consciousness of Christianity. While maintaining an inclusive and religious depth (the freedom of nothingness and abandonment), it contains a sober consciousness of responsibility and criticism towards history and society. Ham's fragmented, incomplete, and humble thought will give much needed stimulation and inspiration to those who strive to integrate Eastern and Western thought based on the thought and mind of the Korean people. REFERENCES An, Chin-heung. 1998. "Shingmul nara (21)" (The World of Plants 21). Hankyoreh, 13 July. Association for the History of Christianity in Korea. 1995. Han'guk kidokkyo-eui yeoksa (The History of Christianity in Korea). Vol. 1. Seoul: Christian Literature Press. Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1989a. Schoepfung und Fall. hrg. von Martin Rueter und Ilse Toedt. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke 3. Munchen: Chr. Kaiser Verlag. ____________. 1989b. Nachfolge. hrg. von Martin Kuske und Ilse Toedt. Dietrich Bonhoeffer Werke 4. M nchen: Chr. Kaiser Verlag. Ch'a, Chu-hwan, trans. 1964. Tongyang-eui chihye: noneo, maengja, chung-yong, taehak (Wisdom of the Orient: the Analects of Confucius, the Mencius, the Doctrine of Mean, and the Great Learning). Vol. 60 of Series of the World Literature. Seoul: Eul Yoo Publishing Co. Ham, Seok-heon. 1983a. Tteu t-euro pon han'guk yeoksa (The History of Korea from the Standpoint of Will). Vol. 1 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip (Collected Works of Ham Seok-heon). Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983b. In'gan hyeongmyeong-eui ch'eolhak (Philosophy of Human Revolution). Vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983c. Han'guk kidokkyo-neun mueot-eul haryeoneun'ga (What is Korean Christianity Up to?). Vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983d. Chugeulttae-kkaji i keoreum-euro (I Will Tread on Until I Die). Vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983e. Seop'ung-eui norae (Ode to the West Wind). Vol. 5 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983f. Sup'yeongseon neomeo (Over the Horizon). Vol. 6 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983g. Kandi-eui ch'am moseup/Kandi chaseojeon (The True Image of Gandhi/Autobiography of Gandhi). Vol. 7 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983h. Ssial-ege ponaeneun p'yeonji (Apostles to People). Vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983i. Yeoksa-wa minjok (History and Nation). Vol. 9 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983j. Tallajineun segye-eui han'gil wi-eseo (On the Road to the Changing World). Vol. 10 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983k. Turyeoweo malgo oech'ira (Shout without Fear). Vol. 11 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983l. Yukch'eonman minjok ap'e pureujinneun malsseum (Shouts to the 60 Million Korean People). Vol. 12 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983m. Pagabad kit'a (Bagabard Guitar). Vol. 13 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983n. Saenggakhaneun paekseong-iraya sanda (Only People Who Think Can Survive). Vol. 14 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983o. Malsseum/K'weik'eo sambaengnyeon (The Words/The Three Hundred Years of the Quakers). Vol. 15 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983p. Saram-eui adeul yesu/Ye-eonja (Jesus Christ, the Son of Man/The Prophet). Vol. 16 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1983q. Minjok t'ongil-eui kil (The Road to National Reunification). Vol. 17 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1987a. Chinshil-eul ch'anneun peutteul-ege (To My Friends Yearning for Truth). Vol. 18 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1987b. Yeongweon-eui paetkil (Eternal Voyage). Vol. 19 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. ____________. 1987c. Ssial-eui yet keul p'uri (Explanation of the Archaic Word of Ssial). Vol. 20 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip. Seoul: Hangilsa Publishing Co. Im, Song-guk, trans. and ed. 1998. Handan kogi (Old Chronicle of Hwanin and Tan'gun). Seoul: Ch ngshin Segyesa. Kim, Hyeong-hyo. 1999. "Han'gugin-eui sayu peomju-e taehan ch'eolhakcheok sukko" (Philosophical Reflections on Koreans' Thought Categories). Paper presented at the 1999 Korean Philosophers' Conference on "The Korean People and the Philosophy of the New Millennium-Section 1." Kim, Kwang Shik. 1992. God in Humanity: The Belief in Hananim and the Faith in God. Seoul: Chungmyung Verlag. Kim, Sang-il. 1979. Han ch'eolhak (Han Philosophy). Seoul: Cheonmangsa. Kim, Seong-su. 1999. "Ham Seok-heon-eui saengae-wa sasang-e kwanhan yeon'gu" (A Study on the Life and Thought of Ham Seok-heon). Parts 1-5. Ssial-eui Sori (Voice of the People) 146 (Jan./Feb. 1999); 147 (Mar./Apr. 1999); 148 (May/June 1999); 149 (July/Aug. 1999); and 150 (Sep./Oct. 1999). Korean Research Institute of Christianity and Society. 1987. Minjung-eui him, minjung-eui kyohoe (The Power of People, the Church of People). Seoul: Minjungsa. Lamprecht, Sterling P., ed. 1963. Seoyang ch'eolhak sa (The History of Western Philosophy). Translated by Kim T'ae-gil et al. Seoul: Eul Yoo Publishing Co. Luther, Martin. 1989. "The Bondage of the Will." In Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings, edited by Timothy F. Lull. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press. Nakamura, Hajime, 1971. Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples: India-China-Tibet-Japan, edited by Philip P. Wiener. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. NCC Academy of Theology. 1982. Minjung-gwa han'guk shinhak (People and Korean Theology). Seoul: Korean Theology Institute. Northrop, F. S. C. 1979. The Meeting of East and West: An Inquiry Concerning World Understanding. Ox Bow Press. Osan School Alumni Association, ed. 1994. Ham Seok-heon s nsaeng ch'umo munjip (Essays in Memory of Ham Seok-heon). Seoul: Namgang Foundation of Culture. Pak, Chae-sun. 1990. Minjung shinhak-kwa ssial sasang (Minjung Theology and Ssial Thought). Seoul: Ch'eonji. Pak, Chong-hong. 1977. Han'guk sasangsa non'go (Essays on the History of Korean Thought). Seoul: Seo Moon Dang Publishing Co. ____________. 1980. "Han'guk sasang-e kwanhan seoronjeogin kusang" (Preliminary Thoughts on the Study of Korean Thought). In Vol. 4 of Pak Chong-hong cheonjip (Collected Works of Pak Chong-hong). Seoul: Hyung Seul Publishing Co. Pak, Yeong-ho. 1985. Ssial (People). Seoul: Hong Ik Jae. Yi, Man-yeol. 1987. Han'guk kidokkyosa t'eukkang (Lectures on the History of Christianity in Korea). Seoul: Kidokkyomoonsa. Yi, Eu l-ho. 1984. "Tan'gun shinhwa-eui ch'eolhakcheok punseok" (A Philosophical Analysis of Tan'gun Mythology). In Han'guk sasang-eui shimch'eung yeon'gu (An In-depth Study of Korean Thought), by Cho My ng-gi et al. Seoul: Wooseok Publishing Co. Yu, Tong-shik. 1965. Han'guk chonggyo-wa kidokkyo (Korean Religion and Christianity). Seoul: The Christian Literature Society of Korea. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ To: Web Site To: Resource Site To:Web Site NOTES 1. Yi Yulgok's doctrine of i (principle) and ki (material force), that is the idea of "two becoming one" or "one becoming two" is based on the idea of han, a unique abstruse principle of Korean thought. See Yi Eul-ho (1984), pp. 21-23. On Weonhyo's idea that "two can unite but they cannot become one," see Kim Hyeong-hyo (1999), pp. 22-23. 2. Pak Chong-hong, an outstanding modern philosopher of Korea, stresses the originality of Tonghak thought and its democratic and equalitarian principles. "Partly influenced by existing ideas, Tonghak emphasizes that man is none other than heaven (innaech'eon) and thereby creates something uniquely Korean. It would not be an overstatement to say that it is our own Korean idea." See Pak Chong-hong (1980), p. 15. He also points out that "The ideas of democracy and liberation are not new to us, Koreans. The urgent demands for them have sprouted and have been growing in the veins of the people of this land. The principles of democracy, equality, freedom and liberation are not entirely foreign." Pak Chong-hong (1977), p. 227. 3. Association for the History of Christianity in Korea (1995), p. 267. 4. Ham Seok-heon, "Namgang, Tosan, Kodang" (Yi Seung-hun, An Ch'ang-ho, and Cho Man-shik), in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 159. 5. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 48. 6. Ham Seok-heon, "Chim-eun mugeopko kil-eun meolgo" (The Burden is Heavy and the Way is Long), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 96. 7. Ham Seok-heon, "Uri-eui cheongch'i hyeonshil-gwa keu keukpok kwaje" (The Political Reality of Korea and How to Overcome It), in vol. 18 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 18, 336, 339 and 340. 8. Ham Seok-heon, "Sallim sari" (Housekeeping), in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p.313. 9. "We must do it in our language to make it our own. When we make efforts to express some ideas in Korean, we can understand them better and grow and nourish what we have. . . . If we cannot study a religion, a philosophy, an art or an academic discipline in our own language, we had better forget it, no matter how good it may be. We can do without it. What we can write about comes from our own lives. No matter how we take in the words of others, like implanting a peacock's feathers, they will never become our own." Ham Seok-heo n, "Uri minjok-eui isang" (The Ideal of the Korean People), in vol. 1 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 345-347. 10. Heo Ung, "Nara an-gwa pak-eui tu mulgwishin" (The Two Water Ghosts at Home and Abroad), Ssial-eui sori (The Voice of People) 150 (September/October 1999): pp. 74-75. 11. Ham Seok-heon, "Ssial" (People), in vol. 14 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 323-327 ; and Ham Seok-heon, "Oe na-neun 'al'-eul 'ael'-ro sseuneun'ga?" (Why Do I Write It 'ael,' Not 'al'?), in vol. 14 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 328-329. 12. Ham Seok-heon, "Hananim-eui palkil-e ch'ae'eoseo (1)" (Kicked by God - Part 1), in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 207. 13. Ibid., pp. 212-213. 14. Ibid., p. 212. 15. Ham Seok-heon, "Namgang, Tosan, Kodang," in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 159. 16. Ibid., pp. 160-161. 17. Wang Chi-gyun, "Ham Seok-heon seonsaengnim-gwaeui yet sajin" (Photographs Taken with Ham Seok-heon), in Ham Seok-heon seonsaeng ch'umo munjip, ed. Osan School Alumni Association (1994), p. 315. 18. Yu Tong-shik also views han as the basis of the Korean mind and the foundation of Korean thought from past ages to the present. Yu Tong-shik (1965), p. 217. 19. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 105; According to Kim Kwang-shik, hananim is proprium Koreanum and hananim in the Tan'gun myth is a personification of humanity or humanness. Kim Kwang Shik (1992), pp. 44-45. 20. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 105. 21. According to Yi Ki-yeong, pak/han is a concept which the Korean people instinctively obtained while they were moving from the cold region near Lake Baikal in Central Asia to the south with a warmer climate. Yi Ki-yeong, Minjok munhwa-eui weollyu (The Origin of National Culture), p. 149; cited in Kim Sang-il (1979), p. 26. 22. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 105. 23. Ham Seok-heon, "Cheongch'i-wa chonggyo" (Politics and Religion), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 301; Ham Seok-heon, "Saenghwal ch'eolhak" (Philosophy for Everyday Life), in vol. 12 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 232; and Ham Seok-heon, "Minjok t'ongil-eui chonggyo" (The Religion of National Reunification), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 187. 24. Ham Seok-heon, "Paektusan horangi" (The Tiger of Paektusan Mountain), in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 151. 25. Ibid. 26. "People are innocent because they are natural as they were born, simple as they are unsophisticated, and one as they are pure. . . . They are the most courageous beings in the world. . . . Occupying the lowest rungs in society, they have nothing to lose and nothing to contend for, so they have no fear. The most fearsome in the world is the face without any anxiety or fear. . . . It is the people who are the most patient, the most truthful, and the most courageous." Ham Seok-heon, "Paektusan horangi," pp. 147-148. 27. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), pp. 89 and 328. 28. "There is a nation of refined people in the east. Its people like to yield and do not fight." 29. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 94. 30. "If we touch it with our hands, we can feel the faint stream of benevolence (in) flowing underneath the wounded heart." Ibid., p. 324. 31. Ibid., p. 88. 32. Ham Seok-heon, "Uri minjok-eui isang" (The Ideal of the Korean People), in vol. 1 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 365. 33. According to Ham, Keomdoryeong, Ondal, and Ch'eoyong, who are the representative figures of Korean indigenous thought, are the people of peace. General Eulchi Mundok's remark to the enemy commander that "Be content with what you have and withdraw yourself" also represents pacifism. This peace-loving nature easily mixed with Taoism. See Ham Seok-heon, "In'gan-eul munneunda" (Asking Questions on Humanity), interview with Ham Seok-heon, in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 345-346. 34. "There are three things that I cannot abandon. They are first, nation, second, faith, and third, science. As I cannot exist without the nation, it is my duty to keep national tradition. As I believe in God, I cannot violate my religious conscience. And as a modern man, I must respect experiment-based science. I think it is cowardly to bend scientific truth for faith or national tradition." Ham Seok-eon, "Hananim-eui palkil-e ch'ae-eoseo (1)," p. 217. 35. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae nara kkumt'eulgeorim" (The Seethe of the New Nation), in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 282. 36. Ibid., p. 294. 37. Ibid. 38. Ibid. 39. Ham Seok-heon, "Saenggakhan n paeks ng-iraya sanda" (Only People Who Think Can Survive), in vol. 14 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 116. 40. Ham Seok-heon, "Heuin son" (The White Hand), in vol. 6 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 344. 41. Dietrich Bonhoeffer also points out that hermeneutics made our direct and simple following of Jesus impossible by distinguishing the disciples in the Bible (texts) and those who live in the contemporary world (hermeneutics). See Bonhoeffer (1989b), pp. 74-75. 42. Ham Seok-heon, "Konanbanneun hyeongjedeul-eul wihayeo" (For the Brothers in Suffering), in vol. 12 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 177. 43. "There are great many seas such as the West Sea, the East Sea, and the South Sea, but there is a sea even greater than those within us. It is the sea of nature, which is vaster, deeper, and more mysterious than those. Those seas abound with fish, but they do not compare to the sacred fish of life in this sea. Keeping their faith under the harsh oppression of the Roman Empire, the early Christians created a secret code by combining the initial letters of the five words of 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior,' which translates into fish in Greek. Catholics still worship the Sacred Fish. But the fish in the sea of nature of the people is really a sacred fish. That fish is, indeed, 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior.' Even if one believes in Jesus, his redemption is not guaranteed. But if she/he believes in this fish, the sacred fish of life lashing its tail in his own heart, she/he will surely be redeemed. Who is Jesus? Is he not the one who catches the sacred fish in his heart while looking into the sea of Galilee?" Ham Seok-heon, "Sae nara kkumt'eulgeorim," in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 295. 44. Ham Seok-heon, "Hyeongmyeong-eui ch'eolhak" (Philosophy of Revolution), in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 26. 45. "Burn up all the old history books. Let us write a new history. Are there no other historical materials than those? Do not worry. History is alive among the 30 million people. While the rulers of this nation were distorting history, seduced by money and power, the illiterate grass roots, who could not write with a pen and ink, wrote history with blood and sweat and hid it in the room of the flesh-not a stone room-in the room of bones, and, yes, in the sanctuary of the towers. Although written history recorded that the country lost its independence, its people remained independent. While the culture inscribed in stone was destroyed, here the culture is alive and well, buried in the oil field and waiting to be unearthed. Let us write a new history standing on this place, the only place in the vast universe. Life is in the Word. . . . In that place, interpretation of history is history itself and writing history is the Will itself. Stand on this place, on yourself. That is the center of the universe, the place to look upon the past and the future, the pinnacle of the merging cone of time and space, and the place where God exists. It is the place of creation and judgment. I am in God and God is in me. Without God, I cannot exist. But without me, God cannot exist, either." Ham Seok-heon, "Uri yeoksa-wa minjok-eui saenghwal shinnyeom" (Korea's History and the Korean People's Principles of Life), in vol. 1 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 373-374. 46. Ham Seok-heon, "Saenggakhaneun paekseong-iraya sanda," p. 114. 47. Ham Seok-heon wrote an essay titled "Saenggakhaneun paekseong-iraya sanda" (Only People Who Think Can Survive) in the August 1958 issue of Sasanggye (The World of Thought), which resulted in his imprisonment. Osan School Alumni Association (1994), p. 18. 48. Reason can be used rightly or wrongly, depending on the person who uses it. It can be a tool of truth and good, or of untruth and vice. It also can be a tool to realize the truth and good of self, or a tool to justify its greed and untruth. Thus, Martin Luther called reason "the whore of Evil." While Erasmus asserted for the freedom of will and the immense capacity of reason, Luther believed that reason was blind and ignorant by itself. Luther (1989), p. 186. 49. Ham Seok-heon, "Saenggakhaneun paekseong-iraya sanda," p. 57. 50. Ham Seok-heon, "Ijeul keot mot ijeul keot" (Things I Can Forget and Things I Cannot Forget), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 174. 51. "While the flowers in the garden of the so-called beautiful land in East Asia (if not Golgotha) are being trampled on and those nailed on the cross shout in the pitch dark without a light, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" and the East and West Seas wail bitterly, how is it that you do not feel anything in your hearts?" Ham Seok-heon, "Uri minjok-eui isang," p. 356.h 52. He wrote his article "Seongseojeok ipchang-eseo pon choseon yeoksa" (The History of Korea from the Standpoint of the Bible) by applying the principle of the cross to the history of the Korean people. It was later renamed "Tteu t-euro pon han'guk yeoksa" (The History of Korea from the Standpoint of Will). Ham Seok-heon, "Hananim- i palkil-e ch'ae s (1)," pp. 217-218. 53. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), pp. 326-330. 54. Ibid., pp. 328-329. 55. Ibid., p. 330. 56. "Therefore . . . we must prove to the whole world the truth of the teaching that one can overcome satan by love and salvage humanity by suffering and that a sin can disappear only when it is forgiven." Ibid., p. 330. 57. Ham Seok-heon, "Ssial," pp. 323-327. 58. Ibid., pp. 324-325. 59. Ham Seok-heon, "Oe na-neun 'al'- eul 'eal'-ro sseuneun'ga?" pp. 328-329. 60. It is cited from "Uri-ga naesaeuneun keot" (What We Advocate) printed on the back cover of Ssial-eui sori (The Voice of People), a periodical published by Ham Seok-heon. It also appears on the back cover of the January/February issue of 1999, the year of its republication by Yi Mun-yeong. 61. Ham Seok-heon, "Yeoltu paguni" (The Twelve Baskets), in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 389. 62. Ham Seok-heon remarks that "God . . . is where I cannot reach him (transcendence). Because God is within me (inherence), he is a transcendent God" (Ibid., pp. 384-385). See also "Ch'eongnyeon kyosa-ege malhanda" (My Message to Young Teachers), in vol. 5 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 186. 63. Regarding the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, Bonhoeffer comments that "God is the boundary of our existence and its center at the same time." Bonhoeffer (1989a), p. 81. 64. Ham Seok-heon, "Yeoltu paguni," pp. 365 and 373. 65. Ham Seok-heon, "I mam hana" (This Sole Mind), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 118 and 122-123. On the direct linkage between faith and practice, see "Han'guk kidokkyo-neun mueot-eul hago inneun'ga?" (What Is Korean Christianity Doing?), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 40. 66. Ham Seok-heon, "Ch'angsegi-eui hyeondaejeok imi" (The Modern Implications of Genesis), in vol. 15 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 89. 67. Ham Seok-heon, "Chonggyoin-eun chugeotta" (The Believers Are Dead), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 282; Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 282. 68. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 283; Ham Seok-heon, "Yeoltu paguni," p. 393. 69. Ham Seok-heon, "Yeoltu paguni," pp. 393-394. 70. Ham Seok-heon, "Uri-eui cheongch'i hyeonshil-gwa keu keukpok kwaje," pp. 336, 339, and 340. 71. Ham Seok-heon, "K'weik'eo-wa p'yeonghwa sasang" (The Quakers and Pacifism), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 155. 72. Ham Seok-heon, "Netchaep'an-e puch'ineun mal" (Comments on Section Four), in vol. 1 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 17-21; Ham Seok-heon, "Chonjaehaneun chonggyo" (The Existing Religions), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 347. See also Pak Chae-sun (1990), p. 227. 73. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae nara kkumt'eulgeo rim," p. 242. 74. Ham Seok-heon, "Sallim sari," pp. 310-311. 75. Ibid., p. 311. 76. Im Seung-guk (1998), p. 233. 77. Genesis 2:7. 78. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), pp. 48-49. 79. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae sal-meui kil" (The Road to a New Life), in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 210. 80. Ham Seok-heon, "In'gan hyeongmyeong" (Revolution of Humanity), in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 68. 81. Ham Seok-heon, "Seulp'eun norae pureuja" (Let Us Sing a Sad Tune), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 368. 82. Ibid. 83. Ham Seok-heon, "Malsseum moim" (Gathering for His Word), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 147-148. 84. Ibid., p. 371. 85. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 332. 86. Ham Seok-heon, "Airenop'oioi," in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 81. 87. Ham Seok-heon, "Malsseum moim," p. 148. 88. Ham Seok-heon, "Ssial-eui seorum" (The Bitterness of People), in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 67. 89. Ibid., p. 76. 90. Ham Seok-heon, "Sallim sari," p. 313. 91. Ham Seok-heon, "Ssial-eui soreu m," p. 76. 92. Ham Seok-heon, "Seulp'eun norae pureuja," p. 371; Ham Seok-heon, "Puhwal-eui saweol-gwa ssial kyoyuk" (April Resurrection and People Education), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 439; and Ssial-eui sori (November 1972): p. 17. 93. "The era of geniuses has passed and so has the era of heroes. . . . In the present era, people do not learn from geniuses. Those who learn from people in humility are gentle, wise, and courageous. In this era a revolution is possible only through the cooperation of all." Ham Seok-heon, "Hyeongmyeong-eui ch'eolhak," p. 30. 94. Hyeon Yeong-hak, "Minjung sok-e seongyukshin haeya" (To Be Reborn as a Holy Being in Bodily Form among the People), in Minjung-gwa han'guk shinhak, by NCC Academy of Theology (1982), p. 16. On grassroots evangelization, see Korean Research Institute of Christianity and Society (1987), p. 32. 95. Ham Seok-heon, "Sarang-eui pit" (The Light of Love), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 379; Ham Seok-heon, "Taejung-gwa chonggyo" (The Grass Roots and Religion), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 251; Ham Seok-heon, "Nae-ga majeun p'ariro" (My August 15, 1945), in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 251; and Ham Seok-heon, "P'alshimnyeondae minjok t'ongil-eui kkum-eul keuryeo ponda" (Dreaming of National Reunification in the 1980s), in vol. 12 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 43. 96. Ham Seok-heon, "Ssial-eui sori," in vol. 14 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 332. 97. Ham Seok-heon, "Seoro-eui yeong-i salgi wihae chugo panneun keot" (What We Should Give and Receive in Return to Make Our Spirit Live on), in vol. 18 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 11. 98. Ham Seok-heon, "Ssial-eui sori," pp. 332-334. 99. Im Seung-guk (1998), pp. 235-236. 100. Corinthians 12:12; Matthew 8:17. 101. An Chin-heung (1998). 102. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae sal-meui kil," p. 216. 103. Ham Seok-heon, "Sal-meui komaum" (My Gratitude for Life), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 60. 104. Ham Seok-heon, "Tteonaneun maeum kinneun maeum" (The Feelings of Partying Away and Drawing Near), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 454-455. 105. Ham Seok-heon, "Cheongch'i-wa mishin" (Politics and Superstition), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 91. 106. Ham Seok-heon (1983d), p. 342. 107. Ham Seok-heon, "Samch'eonman ap'e tto tashi pureujinn n malsseum" (Shouting Again to the 30 Million Korean People), in vol. 14 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 160-161. 108. Matthew 22:39. 109. Ham Seok-heon, "In'gan-eul munneunda," pp. 345-346. 110. Ham Seok-heon, "Uri minjok-eui isang," pp. 365-366. 111. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae nara kkumt'eulgeu rim," p. 251. 112. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 305. 113. Ibid. 114. Ham Seok-heon, "Ireum-do eomneun saramdeul" (Nameless People), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 132. 115. Ham Seok-heon, "Tokcha-ege ponnaeneun p'yeonji" (A Letter to the Readers), in vol. 8 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 14. 116. Ibid. 117. Ham Seok-heon, "Cheongch'i-wa mishin," p. 91. 118. Ibid., p. 90. 119. Ibid. 120. Ibid., pp. 89 and 91. 121. Ham Seok-heon, "In'gan-eul munneunda," p. 353. 122. Ham Seok-heon, "Sarang-eui pit," pp. 386-387. 123. Ham Seok-heon, "Ireum-do eomeun saramdeu l," p. 136. 124. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae nara kkumt'eulgeo rim," p. 299. 125. Ham Seok-heon, "In'gan hyeongmyeong," p. 74. 126. Ham Seok-heon, "Sarang-eui pit," p. 379. 127. Ham Seok-heon, "80 yeondae minjok t'ongil-eui kkum-eul keuryeo ponda," p. 43. 128. Ham Seok-heon, "In'gan-eul munneunda," pp. 335-355. 129. Ibid., pp. 340-341. 130. Ibid., p. 354. Ham surpasses the wall of nationalism and statism and embraces the idea of world peace, influenced not only by Christianity but also by H. G. Wells' The History of the World, which he read as a student at Osan School. He was deeply influenced by Wells' cosmopolitan and scientific thinking. On this, see Kim Seong-su (1999), p. 105. 131. Ham believes human evolution and claims that, as humanity came into being and unified the world of life, a new type of human beings will be born through religion to overcome the confusion and chaos. "Unexpectedly, an entirely new human being will be born from religion.... Therefore, as "man" came into being and unified the world, claiming to be the lord of all, such an unexpected being will be born to spare and save the universe from confusion and irresponsibility." Ham Seok-heon (1983a), p. 26. 132. "While the East is somewhat mediocre and the West has done many wrongs, who knows if the third new civilization may be created in the effort to combine the two? The contemporary world appears to have come to a dead end and this may hold the key of finding a way out of it. Koreans seem to be qualified for this job. Why? Because we know the weaknesses of all things better than any other people. As a matter of fact, we know how bad Confucianism and Buddhism, and how harmful material civilization can be. We also know the true natures of communism and capitalism." Ham Seok-heon, "Uri minjok-eui isang," pp. 361-362. 133. Ibid., pp. 361-363. 134. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae yulli" (New Ethics), in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 348. 135. Ham Seok-heon, "Cheongch'i-wa chonggyo," p. 301. 136. Ham Seok-heon, "Saenghwal ch'eolhak," in vol. 12 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 232. 137. Ham Seok-heon, "Minjok t'ongil- i chonggyo" (The Religion of National Reunification), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 187. 138. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae yulli," p. 394. 139. Ham Seok-heon, "Saenggakhaneun paekseong-iraya sanda," p. 115; Ham Seok-heon, "Sae shidae-eui chonggyo" (Religion for the New Era), in vol. 3 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 194. 140. Ham Seok-heon, "Sae yulli," pp. 347-348. 141. On the structure of Monk Wonhyo's idea, see Kim Hyeong-hyo (1999), pp. 22-23. 142. Yi Eu l-ho (1984), p. 14. 143. Wuwei (nonaction), in Chinese Taoism, the principle of yielding to others as the most effective response to the problems of human existence. Wuwei does not mean total passivity. Rather, it is natural, nonaggressive behaviour that compels others (through shame, if for no other reason) to desist voluntarily from violence or overly aggressive conduct. Taoism, therefore, is not indifferent to violence, for it counters violence in its own paradoxical way. Ideally, Taoists do not argue or debate. They rely on proper timing to set forth what they believe to be true, and they speak out against unseemly conduct only when their words are likely to be heeded. Taoists view laws and controls as undesirable repressions of human nature. For them a society with the fewest controls governs itself best. Wuwei is thus regarded as the secret to human happiness, for hrough "nonaction" all things can be accomplished (Britannica). 144. Ziran (naturalness), in Chinese Taoism, an ideal state of human existence that results from living in complete harmony with the forces of nature. Taoists, observing that everything in the world has its natural state, strive to attain a state of complete spontaneity in order to become what nature intended them to be. As a consequence, life becomes exceedingly simple; and such things as life and death, good health and illness are accepted as part of the irresistible cycle of nature, which ceaselessly makes and unmakes the world. Unlike the rest of the universe, however, man must resolve to bring his existence into conformity with the forces of nature. He can do this best by first observing the ever-changing world about him and then "fatalistically" abstaining from struggle against powers beyond his control (Britannica). 145. The fact that Ham Seok-heon titled the fifth volume of the collection of his works "Seop'ung-eui norae" (Ode to the West Wind), the title of Percy Bysshe Shelley's ode, "Ode to the West Wind," shows how much influence the poem had on him. Furthermore, he wrote an essay "Kyeoul-i manil ondamyeon" (If Winter Comes) in the fourth volume with the motif taken from the last line in the Ode that says, "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" This also demonstrates how much he cherished the poem. He simply loved the "flaming resistant spirit" depicted in Shelley's poem. Ham Seok-heon, "Kyeoul-i manil ondamyeo n," in vol. 4 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 107 and 112. 146. Ham Seok-heon (1983a), pp. 47-48; Ham Seok-heon, "Teul saram eol" (The Soul of People in the Wilderness), in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, p. 135. 147. Ham Seok-heon accepts Bergson's philosophy of life (Lebens philosophie), in particular, his ideas of the endurance of the pure and the elan vital (vital impulse). Ham Seok-heon, "Sae sal-meui kil," pp. 210 and 214. Also, Ham is especially fond of Teilhard de Chardin. Ham Seok-heon, "Rejiseuttangseu" (Resistance), in vol. 2 of Ham Seok-heon cheonjip, pp. 184-185. 하늘과 땅의 울림 생명살리기에 대한 신학적 고찰 열린 교회/ netschurch.org