Page 29 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy
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decided on issues concerning the separation church and state, faith and politics, in attempts to
19
protect the infant Korean Church from political tempests. The resolutions reached by this
gathering sought to confine missionaries to the preaching of “doctrinal matters of individual
20
salvation and inner ecclesiastical life.” In addition, they focused on the future Kingdom of
God and heaven with “a strong eschatological belief – the premillenarian view of the Second
21
Coming of Jesus Christ.”
The form of their sermons was mainly topical and thematic. Sung Ku Chung supports
this fact when he remarks that “this tendency of preaching topical sermons is attributed to the
22
influence of the preaching style in early part of the twentieth century of American churches.”
23
Moreover, some sermons also utilized allegorical interpretation. This style of theology and
preaching dominated over the first generations of Korean preachers who received their thought
and methodology as responsible disciples, thus following their teacher’s style during these early
days.
19
S. Chung , A History of Preaching, 64.
20 Kim, “Handbook,” 43.
21 Eun Kim, “Faith Comes from Hearing,” 20. See also the negative as well as positive
evaluations presented by the Korean Church historian, Kyung Bae Min. He evaluated the first
missionaries as “lack of theology, lack of ecclesiology, focus only on individual salvation
excluding social one, pietism of political indifference, lack of rationality, and presupposition of
dualism. Kyung Bae Min, Hankuk Kidok Kyohyoesa (A History of Christianity in Korea)
(Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1982), 144.
22
Sung Koo Chung, “Historical Study of Preaching in Korean Church,” Presbyterian
Theological Quarterly 192 (October 1981), 179. See also Nam Ki Paek, “Structural Study of
Sermons of the Korean Pulpit,” Monthly Ministry (July 1982), 253.
23 Ki Young Kim, “An Analysis of Problems in Korean Pastor’s Preaching from the View
Point of Expository Preaching: A Structural Analysis and a Positive Proposal,” D.Min. proj.,
Fuller Theological Seminary, 1990, 128, 136.
