Yung Suk Kim

Education: Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA M.Div., McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL, USA B.A.Econ, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea Current Appointment: Asst. Professor of New Testament & Early Christianity 2005 to present, Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia Editor of Journal of Bible and Human Transformation (JBHT) Current Projects: *Editing a volume on 1-2 Corinthians (Texts@Contexts Series, Fortress Press) *Editing: "Reading Ahn Byong-Mu's Minjung Theology in the Twenty-First Century: Selected Writings by Ahn Byong-Mu and Modern Critical Responses" (Pickwick Publications, 2013) *A Lilly Theological Scholars Grant project on the Fourth Gospel Research Interests: Theories of biblical interpretation, Paul's letters and his theology, historical Jesus and gospel studies

Curriculum Vitae PDF Asst. Professor of New Testament & Early Christianity at the School of Theology Virginia Union University

ABOUT ME?

The best thing I have heard about me in academic circles: "An up and coming authority on New Testament interpretation and the search for the historical Jesus." I know this evaluation is yet to be seen in my life. My vocation is to communicate God's love for all people through a critical yet faithful scholarship.

“Yung Suk Kim possesses one of the most original, refreshing, and urgent voices among the rising generation of New Testament theologians. Kim has a rare ability to synthesize various critical approaches in constructing Paul’s theology: historical criticism, sociological analysis, and post-colonial interpretation interact productively. Kim’s Theological Introduction to Paul’s Letters invites readers to rethink crucial aspects of Paul’s theology – “righteousness,” “faith,” “embodiment” – as avenues of subjective participation in the politics of love.”
–Laurence L. Welborn, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Fordham University

"Although much has been written on the Pauline notion of the "body of Christ," this contribution by Presbyterian scholar Kim offers a thoughtful and provocative insight worth considering"
– Donald Senior, The Bible Today

Teaching Philosophy
I teach to engage in the knowledge of who we are in this world where we see one another as diverse. Diversity is not taken for granted but utilized as a source of critical engagement with others. I value both a critical and self-critical stance toward any claim of knowledge, truth, and reality and emphasize the following as pedagogical goals: learning from others, challenging one another, affirming who we are, and working for common humanity through differences. All in all, the goal of my teaching is to foster critical diversity and imagination in their learning process.

I have a passion for human transformation, rooted in self-knowledge and self-criticism. Traveling many Latin American countries during my business career, I learned a great deal about cultural diversity and the need of human solidarity. With a new vocation of theological education, I now ask: What does it mean to live in this world in relation to each other (i.e., meaning of the Other -- which resonates Emmanuel Levinas' "the face of the other," Paul Ricoeur's inter-subjective narrative identity, or Jacques Derrida's "relationless relation"), and How can we do theology in our thoughts and deeds, while moving pointedly away from individualism? How can we read biblical stories with each other when we differ?

Favorite topics for talk and reflection
1. The Eighth Century BCE prophets and Today: justice and righteousness
2. Paul’s body metaphor and Christian life
3. Diversity and hermeneutics: celebration and challenge (JEDP)
4. Jesus’ death in context: Moral challenge
5. Paul’s theology and ethics: then and now (two pillars of faith)
6. Hannah and Han: Human transformation
7. Abraham’s faith (Gen 15:6) and Paul’s letters
8. Sarah and Hagar: sorrows and tears
9. Job: conflict between theology and wisdom
10. Reading John 14:6 in a context of pluralism
11. Biblical anthropology: Adam and dust and human life
12. Theodicy and survival in apocalyptic literature
13. Multiple interpretations and education: critical contextual study
14. Historical Jesus and today: earth and spirituality
15. Kingdom and righteousness in Matthew (6:25-34)
16. Yuprakboonbon and Paul’s theology of “die and live”
17. Image of “death” in the Bible: positive and negative aspects
18. Identity of Nicodemus, Pilate and Jesus (John's Gospel)
19. Lament Psalm 13 and transformation
20. Law and gospel in Romans and Galatians: truth of the gospel and the law
21. Three figurative body discourses in 1 Corinthians
22. The lost gospels: Q and community
23. Women in Paul’s letters and Pastoral Epistles
24. John’s cosmos: life and light
25. John Bunyan and Abraham: piety and ethics
26. A new reading of Lot’s wife becoming a pillar of salt: nurture and risk
27. The Marxist reading of Monarchic Israel
28. Retaliation law (lex talionis in Exod 21:22-25) in a village context
29. Jesus and Paul: continuity and discontinuity of the old
30. Shamanism and Jesus (Christology)
31. Biblical hermeneutics today: history and trend
32. Paul and stoicism: Whose Paul?
33. The origin of “afterlife” in Rabbinic Judaism
34. The “Gospel of God” in Romans
35. Christianity in South Korea: a history and social change
36. Theology of marginality: Eastern thought and insights
37. Common humanity in difference: solidarity and diversity
38. Power (“I know”) and conversation: Eli the priest, Nicodemus
39. The art of biblical interpretation
40. Threefold theology of Paul
41. Threefold human transformation (Transformative reading of the Bible)
42. Naaman and human transformation
43. Naaman and Hanah: crossings of human transformation
44. Faith and reason (religion and science): The living of truths