[KS] Again, Haneunim (and the Trinity)

[James H Grayson]

15.12.03

Dear List,
John Ross was looking for was an indigenous term for a high god 
which he could use to represent the one and only God of Christian 
theology.  From his writings, quoted by Timothy Lee, and 
elsewhere it is clear that Ross queried his collaborators about a 
number of terms and found most unsatisfactory for various reasons. 
>From what I have read of his writings, I think that if there wasn't a 
'pure' Korean term to use, he would have settled for Sangje. That 
he didn't indicates to me that he was satisfied that the term he 
selected had currency.  I understand the argument about a lack of 
written evidence for a term like 'Hananim' but I think that it is 
unlikely that people such as the leaders of the early Catholic 
community would use terms which weren't Sino-Korean, even if 
they were writing in Han'gul for two reasons - terminology for them 
would have been based on Chinese characters (as we used Greek 
and Latin), and secondly, because Ch'onju was a fixed term for 
them. I think that we do have to distinguish between terms as 
'names' and terms used as descriptors. I suspect that 'Hananim' 
and variants fits into the latter category.  I think that the idea of a 
high god existed before the advent of either form of Christianity, and 
we need to distinguish between names for things, and terms of 
description. 

The attempt to develop a Korean root for Trinitarian theology I 
believe can be traced in the post-Korean War era to theologians 
searching for an indigenous theology, particularly Yun Songbom, 
former President of the Methodist Theological Seminary, Soul.

Best wishes,
James H. Grayson 
Prof. James H Grayson, Ph.D.
Director, Centre for Korean Studies
School of East Asian Studies
University of Sheffield
Sheffield, UK  S10 2UJ

j.h.grayson at sheffield.ac.uk

Office: +44 114 222-8418
FAX:  +44 114 222-8432