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
Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University, Richmond, VA
Asst. Professor of New Testament & Early Christianity, 2005 to present

Curriculum Vitae [pdf]
Korean poems
A Mystery [poem]
Kenotic life [essay]

Teaching Philosophy

I foster and teach to engage in the knowledge of who we are in this world in which we see each other so diverse and different. In my teaching, diversity is not a given but a source of critical engagement with each other. I value both a critical and self-critical stance toward any claim of knowledge, truth and reality. I emphasize the following as pedagogical goals: learning from others, challenging each other, affirming who we are, and working for common humanity in differences. In my teaching, all in all, I communicate critical diversity and transformative identity in a variety of life contexts.

Research Interests

Biblical hermeneutics with a focus on anthropological and cultural studies, Christian origins, historical Jesus and ethics, Gospels and communities, Paul's letters and theological interpretation (body metaphor, crucifixion), and philosophy in the Greco-Roman world

Speaking Topics

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
4. Jesus’ death in context (diversity of the Gospels)
5. Paul’s theology and ethics: then and now (two pillars)
6. Reading Hannah through the perspective of Han: public transformation
7. Abraham’s faith and righteousness (Gen 15:6) and Paul’s letters
8. Sarah and Hagar: sorrows and tears contrasted
9. Job: conflict between theology and wisdom
10. Reading John 14:6 in a context of pluralism
11. Biblical anthropology: history of “dust”
12. Theodicy and survival in apocalyptic literature
13. Multiple interpretations and education (ministry)
14. Historical Jesus and today: challenge of diversity
15. Kingdom and righteousness in Matthew (6:25-34)
16. Yuprakboonbon and Paul’s theology of “die and live”
17. Uses of “death” in the Bible: context and meaning
18. Questions of Identity in John’s Gospel: Nicodemus, Pilate and Jesus
19. Psalm 13 and transformation: lament, search and trust
20. Law and gospel in Romans and Galatians
21. Three figurative body discourses in 1 Corinthians: embodiment (Christic body)
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: different kind of piety
26. A new reading of Lot’s wife becoming a pillar of salt: nurturing risk
27. Marxist reading of Monarchic Israel
28. Retaliation law (lex talionis) in context
29. Jesus and Paul: continuity and discontinuity
30. Shamanism and Jesus
31. Biblical hermeneutics today: limits and hopes
32. Paul and stoicism: Whose Paul?
33. Origin of “afterlife” in Rabbinic Judaism
34. The “Gospel of God” in Romans
35. Christianity in South Korea: history and social change
36. Theology of marginality and beyond
37. Common humanity in difference: solidarity and diversity
38. Power (“I know”) and conversation: Eli, Nicodemus

Theological Vocation: From Korea to the Cosmos in Diversity

I have lived with Korean cultural, religious background until I left for a foreign land to work as a businessman in Panama and throughout the Latin American countries. During that time, I lived with Korean-Latino persona in a way, seeing a common humanity in difference. With new vocation, I had another move -- a risky and unusual decision, that is, leaving my 10 year-job as a sales/marketing manager of a home electronics company. I am now teaching in the area of New Testament and Early Christianity. Through many ups, downs and twists of my life, I come up with a sense of calling to a "theology" (or "hermeneutics") of cross-culture - a field that needs an exploration in a meaningful way. The central questions are, What does it mean to live in this world in relation to each other (meaning of "other" - which resonates with Emmanuel Levinas' heteronomous autonomy, or Paul Ricoeur's narrative identity, or Jacques Derrida's relationless relation), and How can we do theology in our thoughts, deeds and action, while moving pointedly away from individualism? How can we read biblical stories with each other? What are some viable definitions of cross-cultural hermeneutics, if any, by which we can improve the sense of living together in difference.