The Non-Existent Existing God

The Non-Existent Existing God:

An East Asian Perspective with specific

Reference to the Thought of Ryu Yŏng-mo

BY

YOUN JEONG−HYUN

A thesis submitted to

The University of Birmingham

for the degree of

DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY

Department of Theology

School of Historical Studies

Faculty of Arts

The University of Birmingham

December 2002

ABSTRACT

This thesis is an interpretation of the religious thought of the twentieth century Korean theologian, Ryu Yŏng-mo, a pioneer figure who sought to re-conceptualise a Christian understanding of the Ultimate Reality in the light of a positive openness to the plurality of Korean religions. Ryu Yŏng-moconsidered that it was possible to present an overall picture of harmony and complementarity between the three traditions of Korea and Christianity and this is endorsed by the present thesis.

The starting point of this thesis comes from my own experiences during forty-seven years of my life in the context of the pluralistic religious society of Korea, and my fourteen years of parish ministry. My experiences among the faiths show the necessity of overcoming conflicts within the inner self of the individual, who daily encounters other faiths in the context of the multi-religious, pluralistic society.

This thesis is aimed at providing a religious rationale for inter-faith dialogue.Using the principles of ‘Change’ (易, i)and ‘Yin-ying’ (陰陽), this thesis lays out a methodology for envisaging harmony and mutual complementarity between traditions. The effect of some central concepts from within Confucian, Buddhist and Taioist tradition on the Christian thought of Ryu Yŏng-mo’s is then analysed.

In this respect, the thesis argues that the Ultimate Reality is not only both personal and impersonal as well as both transcendent and imminent, but also neither personal nor impersonal as well as neither transcendent nor imminent.

Essentially, therefore, this thesis accepts that Ryu Yŏng-mo’s equating of the Christian idea of God with the ‘Great Ultimate’(太極) in Confucianism, with ‘Nothingness’ (無) in Buddhism and with the ‘One’ in the thought of Lao-Chuang (老莊思想) of Taoism is a legitimate equivalence to make and that this does indeed pave the way for a potentially fruitful dialogue between Korea’s main religions.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

In the process of studying for this thesis, I have received the invaluable advice and constructive criticism of many people with help in practical matters as well as in my thinking and academic work. First of all, I would like to express my regards and thanks to the professor Dr. R. S. Sugirtharajah who has supervised my dissertation during my study in the UK from MA to the doctorate course. My encounter with him at the University of Birmingham has provided me with a wonderful opportunity to widen and deepen mytheologicalinsights concerning living together, mutual respecting and coexisting with other faiths.

I would also like to thank the Reverend Dr. Andrew Wingate, who produced for me the varied programme for interfaith dialogue. He guided me to visit the Sikh Temple and community, Hidu, Buddhist vihara, and the Convent of St. Mary the Virgin in Smethwick near Birmingham. Also in undertaking various meditation programmes with people from various faiths. In addition, I wish to thank USPG and the United Colleges of the Ascension, who gave me an opportunity to study in the environment of the multi-racial, multi-religious, and multi-cultural city of Birmingham, UK.

I am also grateful to my Korean colleagues, Fr. Amos Kim and his wife, Anna, the Reverend Dr. Chang Jong-sik and his wife, Kim Nan-sil, Fr. Micah Kim and his wife, Deborah, Dr. Lee Hee-bong and his wife, Park Hye-chŏng, the Reverend Kim Ch’i-sŏng and his wife, Hwang Mee-kyoung, the Reverend Jung Ji-suk, the Rev. Zoh Byŏng-ho and his wife, Im Sŏng-ha, Dr. Rhee Min-soo and his wife, Shinobu Kuwahara, and Ms. Rebecca Sŏng and her husband Bob Polley, whose friendship I have shared while in Birmingham. I also wish to thank the congregations and the ministers, who come from various denominations of the Birmingham Korean Church with whom I have shared the ecumenical team ministry.

I am also most grateful to the Bishop of Whitby, the Right Reverend Robert Ladds and Mrs Roberta Ladds who assisted my study of English and cared for our family with continuous love during our stay at their Rectory. And also, the Reverend Dr. Neil Kendra and his wife, Denise who gave our family warm love and much concern as a sister and brother during my study in the UK. I am specially grateful to Dr. David Cheetam and Mr. Edmond Tang, who recommended me to the Spalding Trust, the Allen & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust, and the Hibbert Trust, which gave me financial support and encouragement. I would like to thank sincerely these Trusts and Mr. Stanley Tee, Mrs Tessa Rodgers, and Ms Kay Millard. I thank Mrs Eileen Sewell, Dr. Eve Richards, Mrs Almurt Koester, Mrs Janna Bacon, and Mr. Matthew Collins, for their labour in reading and correcting this thesis.

I also thank the Bishop of Taejon Diocese and Primate of South Korea, the Most Reverend Paul Yoon, who recommended me for study and cared for my congregation during my absence from my Parish Church, the Sacred Heart Anglican Church in Chŏngup. Without their great help and prayer for me, I could not have finished this thesis.

Most of all, my warmest thanks go to my father, who died in January 2002 during my study in the UK, and to my brothers and sisters. Also to my mother-in-law, and my sister and brothers-in-law. During my study, both my families have given me much concern and financial support. I am in particular, thankful to my beloved wife, Magdalena, and to my son, Francis, for their patience and ceaseless assistance. I express gratitude to the congregation of Chŏngup Anglican Church, and to my former Parish Church, the Mukbang Anglican Church, for their patience, prayer and financial support. Finally, I would like to thank the Sisters of the Holy Cross Community; Ether, Helena, Catherine, and Sister Teresa of the Community of St. Paul’s Daughters, who gave me encouragement with prayer. Also the Right Reverend Simon Kim, the Bishop of Pusan Diocese, Right Reverend Joseph Lee, Fr. Zechariah Moon, the Bishop of Seoul Diocese, Right Reverend Matthew Chŏng, Fr. David Kim, Fr. Michael Lee, Fr. Luke Lee and his wife, Lucy, and the staff and members of my Self-help Promotion Agency of Chŏngup.

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1. Motive and Aim of the Study

1.2. Methodology and Key Terms

1.2.1. Reconceptualisation of the Notion of God

1.2.2. The Key Logic Words

1.2.2.1. The principle of yin-yang (陰陽原理)

1.2.2.2. Either this or that

1.2.2.3. Both this and that

1.2.2.4. Neither this nor that

1.2.3. The Sources on Ryu Yŏng-mo

1.2.3.1. The Primary Sources

1.2.3.2. The Secondary Sources

1.3. Limitations and Structure of the Thesis

1.3.1. Limitations

1.3.2. The Structure of the Thesis

Chapter Two

God as the Great Ultimate

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Names of the Supreme God in Confucianism

2.3. God as the Great Ultimate (太極, T’ai chi )

2.3.1. Neo-Confucian’s Notion of the Universe and Reality

2.3.2. Chou’s Diagram of the Great Ultimate

2.3.3. Chang Tsai’s Idea of the Great Ultimate

2.3.4. Criticism of Chu Hsi’s Interpretation of the Great Ultimate

2.3.5. Chang Tsai’s Idea of Universe and Mankind

2.3.6. Chang Tsai’s Criticism of Buddhism and Taoism

2.3.7. Unity of Mankind and Heaven as Oneness with God

2.4. Conclusion

Chapter Three

God as Nothingness

3.1. Introduction

3.2. The non-existent existing God

3.2.1. Nothingness and Emptiness

3.2.2. Emptiness is Form, the very Form is Emptiness

3.2.3. Immanent God within the True Self

3.2.3.1. The Self, Non-Self and The Universal Self

3.2.3.2. The Buddhist Doctrine of Non-Ego

3.2.3.3. Self-denial and Asceticism

3.2.3.4. Vacuum-Plenum

3.3. Conclusion

Chapter Four

God as the Tao or the Absolute Truth

4.1. Introduction

4.2. The Nature and Principle of Tao (道)

4.2.1. The Notion of the Tao

4.2.2. The Tao and Non-Action

4.2.2.1. The Notion of Non-Action

4.2.2.2. Non-Action and Sŏn Buddhism (禪佛敎)

4.2.2.3. Non-Action and the Double Negation

4.3. The Tao as the Ultimate Reality

4.3.1. The Tao as Non-symbolic Nature

4.3.2. God as the Non-Symbolic Nature

4.3.3. The Tao as Ultimate Reality in the Void

4.4. Conclusion

Chapter Five

A Summary and Evaluation of Ryu’s Theology

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1. Motive and Aim of the Study

In The Way of all the Earth, John Dunne expresses his conviction:“The holy man of our time, it seems, is not a figure like Gotama or Jesus or Mohammed, a man who could found a world religion, but a figure like Gandhi, a man who passes over by sympathetic understanding from hisown religion to other religions, and comes back again with new insight tohis own. Passing over and coming back, it seems, is the spiritual adventureof our time.”[1] This point is very important for interfaith, and such a spiritual adventure is not only a new possibilitybut also a prerequisite for it.

I see such a figure as a pioneer of religious pluralism in twentieth century Korea. Ryu Yŏng-mo (1890-1981), whom I will examine in this thesis, passes over and comes back from his own faith to other faiths with a synthetic understanding of them in the pluralistic religious context of Korea. Ryu engages in a direct, intimate and intense personal interaction with Korean religious pluralism, and through this experience he developed Christianity in terms of the East Asian way of thinking.

Over the last couple of decades, interfaith dialogue at an academic level has been increasingly studied and developed by the categorisation of the diverse methods and models, but its limitations appear consistently. In our times, I specially think it more important to practise internal dialogue rather than study it academically. Furthermore, it is important to people who encounter other faiths in their daily life and are driven by dire necessity to live with them in a pluralistic religious society. As a priest of the Anglican Church of Korea, I am working for my Parish Church and as a Christian, live in a multi-religious society, too. Surprisingly, I sometimes find myself a Confucian and yet becoming a Buddhist too without ceasing to be a Christian. One of the main motives for this is – strange as it may sound – that I can not enter into the faith of the present-day Buddhism but am nevertheless not able to reject Buddhism altogether. As for Buddhism, I cannot become anything more than a Buddhist in the making; insofar as I am a Christian in multi-religious pluralism, I cannot but become a Buddhist. Nowadays, I realise the “profoundly different” experiences of Buddhists and Christians are not contradictions but mutually enriching contrasts through my own experiences of life. Moreover, I do not consider Buddhism as a false religion. Within myself, of course, I find various ideas of faith come from other religions such as Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and I try to harmonise, complement, and reconcile to them.

Some people consider me a good priest, but question whether such an attitude is possible or not. Above all, this requires the necessity of a personal dialogue within inner self. In other words, in my case, an inner personal dialogue is a premise for inter-faith dialogue. This means that I admit to the possibility and necessity of entering into the religious experience of another religions. In fact, only when this is attempted does the conversation really get off the ground. I cannot begin the inner personal dialogue from my own religious experience and then consider other faiths only as false religions or as set of doctrines, either. Somehow, I try to penetrate the faith-experience behind and within the doctrine. I also believe that a true encounter with other faiths and cultures cannot take place “from the outside” but “from the inside,” in particular, in the context of religious pluralism of Korea. Hence, we have a personal dialogue it must prelude an internal dialogue. This must involve my entire religious being and proceed from the depths of my religious attitude to these same depths in my partner in dialogue.[2] In my view, a true encounter with another tradition can take place “from inside,” in the context of pluralism. I cannot truly expect to grasp another religion by standing outside it and looking in. Somehow, I believe that we must enter or be “inside” the other tradition by sharing its religious experience.[3]

I find Ryu’s understanding of God offers this possibility. When I first read the books on Ryu Yŏng-mo, they impressed me profoundly, for I never expected that any Christian thinker, ancient or modern, could or would cherish such daring thoughts as expressed in these books. His expounded ideas of harmony and mutual complement closely approached Buddhism or the thought of Lao-Chuang, so closely indeed, that one can stamp them almost definitely as coming out of Buddhist speculations or of Taoist’s. As far as I can judge, he seems to be an extraordinary Christian. Accordingly, Ryu Young-mo’s Christianity is unique and has many points, which make us hesitate to classify him as belonging to the type we generally associate with rationalised modernism or with conservative traditionalism. Ryu stands on his own experiences, which emerged from a rich, deep, religious personality. He attempts to harmonise them with the historical type of Christianity modelled after legends and mythology. Ryu tries to give an esoteric or inner meaning to them, and by so doing he enters fields, which were not touched by most of his historical predecessors.

Ryu receives the diverse ideas or thoughts from outside, but does not cling to them and tries to view the whole world through various religious beliefs with holistic insight. These attitudes make him understand other faiths and be tolerant towards them. All these religions including Christianity have to rediscover themselves, and reinterpret their Scripture and Bible, as well as the concept of God, in a distinctive pluralistic religious context in Korea. This is why I examine his religious thoughts in terms of an internal-faith dialogue within an individual self.

Thus various factors of other faiths within myself come from my life, which encounters and experience other faiths in multi-religious pluralism. There are seven important things during the forty-seven years of my life, which make my Christian life firm, while understanding other faiths and transforming my thoughts from the perspective of Western theology to that of Eastern theology.

Firstly, the Buddhist lifestyle and merciful heart of my mother as a pious Buddhist believer, influenced my life. When I was young, my lovely mother died at forty-two years of age. In my mind she is still alive as a good philanthropist, who would feed the poor, and provide vagabonds with shelter for the night. Her kindness for them has influenced my own mission to the poor. When I was in year four of primary school, aged nine, my mother died. Even though I do not remenber my mother’s maternal affection well, my vivid memory still holds that she was a sincere Buddhist. She would go to offer prayers at the Buddhist Temple after performing her ablutions. The figure of my mother’s upright back in the Buddhist temple still remains deep in my heart. One day we had a lot of rice stolen, I recall her affection when she said, “my dear, don’t worry, you know, they have satisfy their hunger, haven’t they?” When I was young there were many poor people in our village who ate one or two meals a day. Accordingly, we had often lost rice from our fridge. Whenever we lost it I used to say to my mother, “mommy, let us catch the thief.” However, my mother gave me the same words, “my dear, they have to starve off their hunger.” My mother's pious adherence to Buddhism and her charitable life still affect me. The image of my mother has influenced me to attempt to lead a good life.I grew up in these circumstances, but my mother’s faith gradually faded in my mind after I started to go church.

In contrast to my mother’s kind heart, my father was strict and easily offended. Whenever I did something wrong, my father would flog me mercilessly. Even though he was a strict Confucian, he respected my mother’s belief in Buddhism. He enjoyed drinking and smoking very much. I have gone to church since the age of nine. My father has not prevented me from going to church due to his understanding that Christians do not drink or smoke. He would say to me, “well, since Christians doesn’t drink or smoke, you should live with integrity as a Christian. One must be righteous and conscious. One must never give up standing by one’s conscience and right opinion against any threat with the sword. One would rather die than suffer disgrace.” My father’s favorite motto is to live uprightly, according to one’s conscience, and to tell the truth, and that human beings can become true people when they offer their life up to righteousness and to their country.

In the multi-religious context of my family, the main conflict used to occur within myself during ancestor worship as my father would force me to make a deep bow. He used to say to me, “you are right to believe in God but you must also bow to your ancestor.”I often had to be drawn to my knees by his exaction. While I internally stood strongly against doing so within myself, it was impossible for me to resist externally due to my father’s authority. At the time, I struggled to free myself from such conflicts occurring both externally and internally. I thought that I worshipped idols at the time, and usually prayed to God to forgive my sin. Sacrificial rites to my ancestor often came many times a year. I felt it was excessive. It was not reasonable for me to beg God to forgive my sin every time. Going to church was very hard because of the different faiths among my family. From ten to eighteen years of age, nevertheless, I attended Morning Prayer at 4 am everyday. Under such circumstances I have believed in God until graduating from senior high school in my hometown. It was an inevitable situation that I should encounter conflicts between Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity.