My Trip to Seoul, Korea (May 5-11, 2008)
I realize I haven’t posted for a while. I’ve been a bit busy.
I have a lot of back-logged ideas for posts here, but I just got back from a week long trip to Seoul. Now, my intention remains to keep this website as a place for biblical theological reflections in our contemporary world, and a post like this might appear to be somewhat off topic. In my view, however, it is not.
First, I should say that this was not my first trip to Korea. I had the privilege of visiting twice before, in 1998 and 1999. Both were a week long and both times I was accompanied by my friend, and former professor/colleague, Tremper Longman III (plus I needed someone to hold open the doors for me). It’s been nine years since my last trip, so when I got the invitation in February, I was very eager to accept.
My main host was Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology (TTGST) and the invitation came through the chair of the Biblical Research department, Dr. Yoon-Hee Kim. (Dr. Kim’s father is the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, and has a rather harrowing story about survival in Japanese occupied Korea.). TTGST is the only theological school in Korea where English is the language of instruction (although accommodations are certainly made for Korean speakers in certain situations). TTGST is an interdenominational school with students from all over the Far East and elsewhere with a wonderful faculty educated in a variety of schools, many of them western. They are celebrating their 10th anniversary and I am honored to have been asked to speak.
I stayed on their campus for the entire week while, in addition to speaking at TTGST, I made excursions to lecture at: International Theological Seminary, Seoul Presbyterian Seminary, and the Korean Bible Society (all in Seoul). I was also one of three keynote speakers at the 51st annual meeting of the Korean Evangelical Theological Society (KETS). I also gave a second paper at KETS in their Old Testament section.
Accompanying me for much of the week was Professor Bernard Combrink, NT professor from the University of Stellenbosch. He has quite the Reformed pedigree, with a wonderful Afrikaans accent to boot. He gave papers on salvation in Mark as well as Socio-Rhetorical Criticism and Reformed Theology. (The man knows his Ridderbos, by the way.)
My lectures were on Ecclesiastes and the Gospel, Exodus and Historiography, Theological Exegesis, and (stop me if you’ve heard this one) the NT’s Use of the OT. All told I lectured six times, spoke in chapel at TTGST, and preached at a church on Sunday before returning home. I was also treated to a wonderful day of sightseeing and shopping by members of the WTS Korean Alumni Association, topped off with a dinner at Outback Steakhouse. (Don’t laugh: Australia is closer to Korea than it is to Philadelphia. Plus I had mistakenly eaten eel the day before and I figured I needed a worry-free dinner.)
How does all this link up with BT and the contemporary world? Mainly, in terms of the latter. If I may state the obvious, the world is far bigger than suburban Philadelphia. Call me a slow learner, having taught at WTS for 14 years with a significant international population, but there was something about this trip that drove the point home much more so than in the past. Even in my previous two trips this did not hit home, but perhaps I am a different man than I was 10 years ago (let’s hope).
This trip I felt like the foreigner, not coming to grace the Koreans with my presence, but permitted, so to speak, to be a part of something very wonderful that will—and you may want to sit down for this—continue regardless of whether I or anyone else from the west comes to speak. Korean theological education is a multinational, sophisticated, and Christ-honoring movement. I keenly felt that I had no right to address their gatherings apart from their gracious invitation. Moreover, my words were spoken into a context where the same types of hermeneutical and theological questions many of us in the west are involved in have already been addressed and wrestled with significantly. The interaction was nothing less than stimulating and eye opening for me.
Simply put, I was struck by how the questions that engage me as I try to be a responsible biblical interpreter in a changing world are the same ones others face around the world. It stands to reason that we can learn from each other, because we face many of the same questions, even if we address them from and for different contexts. We in the west do not hold an automatic edge in the task of theological education. It was a good reminder to me of how big God is and that he is at work in places and ways I cannot understand.
