The interplay between shame and religious pathology in Korean culture : a pastoral and anthropological assessment within the Korean Presbyterian Church

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The difficulties attending our understanding of the experience of shame are widelyrecognized. This work is concerned with the interplay between the experience of shame andreligious pathology in Korean culture, especially regarding theological anthropology.Religious pathology implies the sick or distorted faith when people's belief system orcontents, particularly inappropriate God-images and negative self-identity, becomesnegatively influenced due to painful experiences of shame. It was hypothesis that thephenomenon of shame in Korean culture needs to be understood in terms of multidimensionalperspectives including psychological, sociological, socio-cultural and a theologicalperspective as well. It was argued that parishioners' biased understanding of, and response tothe experience of shame, is associated with inappropriate God-images and negative selfidentitywhich hamper spiritual maturity and spiritual growth.The empirical research reported in chapter 5 shows that the parishioners' experience of shameis associated with disharmony between values and expectations in a specific community. Thisphenomenon has a huge impact on position (habitus; attitude; aptitude) within culturalcontexts.The study proposes the use of a pneumatological model of understanding of God, based onLouw's four-stage counselling model, in order to respond constructively to an existentialproblem such as shame within the Korean Presbyterian Church.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University