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 2008.11.14 Review (Amazon): Book, Christ and the Tao
 
Christ & the Tao
by Heup Y. Kim
Edition: Paperback
 

 
4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging Effort in Contextual Theology, September 6, 2008
Kim has produced an engaging, if at times repetitive, volume which seeks to offer East Asian Christians (and any others interested in the dialogue) a synthesis of Christianity and Confucianism/Taoism.

This synthesis is *not* however an attempt at syncretism but rather contextual theology. For East Asian Christians (especially Koreans), Kim says, (Neo-)Confucianism is simply a cultural given. Thus, any Christian theology done in this context must reckon with the cultural and linguistic heritage of East Asians.

Kim's book unfolds in six chapters which were originally produced independently of each other (hence the repetition); hence this book is essentially a collection of essays. The first three chapters comprise the "descriptive-comparative stage" (p. 7) of Kim's work in which Kim sets the Neo-Confucianism of Wang Yang-ming alongside of the theological anthropologies of Karl Barth and John Calvin. (Presbyterian-Reformed Christanity is the most prevalent form of Christianity in South Korea.)

The second half of the book (which comprises 1/3 of the book) represents the "normative-constructive stage" (p. 7) of Kim's project. The synthesis Kim tries to achieve amounts to seeing Jesus as the Tao (and vice-versa). "Tao" simply means "way," and Kim points back to the NT where Jesus describes himself as "the way" to God (Jn 14.6) and the nascent church goes by the name of "the Way" (e.g., Acts 16.17).

The payoff of this connection for Kim is the reconceptualization of Christianity it offers. For too long, Kim suggests, Christianity has been laboring under "logos"-understandings of Jesus/theology, which then creates a dualism between thinking and action, or theology and ethics. While noble in its efforts, liberation theology perpetuates the dichotomy by essentially substituting and/or collapsing orthopraxy for/into orthodoxy. The idea of "tao" however moves beyond both of these and the dichotomy they support by conceiving of right-thinking and right-action as dynamically unfolding *within* the life lived by love, that is, modeled after the supreme embodiment of Tao/Way, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the "crossroads" of the Heavely Tao and human tao. That is, Jesus embodies in his life *true humanity* which is itself a function of living according to the "Way" of the universe which comes from God. Jesus' "way" or embodiment of "true humanity" becomes a paradigm for his followers to embody as well, and as such this embodiment supports no dichotomy between "thought/theology" or "praxis/ethics." Following the "tao/way" of Jesus is "being [human] in the process of becoming [human]."

Kim's work can be fairly situated within the broad stream of liberationist and post-colonial theology/discourse, as exemplified in its emphases on the "preferential option" for oppressed life, an ecological sensibility, the advocacy of feminine images/metaphors for the Deity, the rejection of monarchical and androcentric models of power, etc. One perhaps, however, does not sense in Kim the level of antipathy towards Western Christianity that frequently characterizes this stream of discourse. And this is refreshing. At the same time, though, one wonders what is to become of "orthodoxy" for Kim. True, dogmatic-doctrinal-creedal systems are no substitute for the faithful embodiment of Jesus' "Tao," but neither are they dispensable *for Christians* in coming to know *who Jesus is* and thus *what they are to do.* But perhaps this difficulty of mine is due to my "Western mindset" which automatically differentiates between "propositions" and "praxis"--the dichotomy Kim is explicitly trying to overcome for his context.

At any rate, Kim has produced an interesting book which could function as a nice model for inter-religious dialogue and contextual theology.

Click!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/AIQZ9Q502YPK8/ref=cm_pdp_rev_more/191-2343046-0919946?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview#R21ZFYG0FD3JUB

 
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