From Hurt to Healing: A Theology of the Wounded

by Andrew Sung Park

Look around at any gathering--whether it be a sporting event, a civic meeting, or a worship service--and you will likely see representatives of two groups of people. On one hand there will be someone who has caused grievous harm to another person by physical mistreatment, emotional abuse, sexual victimization, violence, or any number of other ways. On the other hand will be those who have been harmed by just these same evils.

While the two groups are inextricably linked, and while it is far too often the case that an individual can be both abused and abuser, nonetheless the two groups stand before God with very different sets of needs. In Christian theology, however, we have approached these very different sets of personal situations with one vocabulary and one solution. Traditionally, we have had only the language of sin to describe these very different human predicaments. What's more, we have offered but one solution to the problem, the two-way transaction of God's forgiveness of sinners. Yet when one person harms another, that action not only violates God's will, but also unleashes anguish and misery in the victim, scarring his or her soul. We are right to speak of the sinner's need of forgiveness, but we have forgotten to take the next to seek healing for the victims. Having drawn the map of salvation for sinners, we have left it to those who have been sinned against to find their own way to wholeness and peace.

Andrew Sung Park argues that it is time for the church and its theology to face this issue and work toward its remedy. It is time to give a name to the suffering of those who have been sinned against and to seek their healing. He proposes that the Korean religious term han can serve as an instrument in this endeavor. While it is an intricate concept, in short han can be defined as the psychic and spiritual hurt caused by unjust oppression and suffering. As the church seeks to play its distinctive role in healing the wounds of abuse and violence, the idea of han can be a powerful tool. It can allow pastors and other caregivers to explore the depths of anguish that victims experience. It can illustrate the fact that, having sinned against their victims as well as against God, the perpetrators of violence and abuse must seek salvation not only by asking for God's forgiveness, but also by working for the healing of those they have wronged.

Genres: Theology

200 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2004

About the author

Andrew Sung Park is a Korean American Methodist theologian. Park teaches at United Theological Seminary in Trotwood, Ohio. He specializes in systematic theology, global theology, cross-cultural theology, Asian American liberation theology, Christian mysticism, and the relationship between religion and science. He has expanded the theology of emotional pain by exploring the Korean concept of han.

Park was born in South Korea. His family emigrated from South Korea to the United States in 1973. He lives in Beavercreek, Ohio with his wife Jane Myong, and has two children, Amos Park and Thomas Park.

In 1973, Park received a B.A. at Methodist Theological Seminary. At Iliff School of Theology in 1978, he received M.Div.. Then he attended Claremont School of Theology and obtained a M.A. in 1981. Park finally received a Ph.D. at Graduate Theological Union in 1985; his dissertation there discussed minjung theology. He would go on to join United Theological Seminary in Ohio in 1992.

Reviews

[SAL]

Stories of redemption abound in Christian discourse and secular ones too. The trajectory is familiar: sin—repentance—redemption. But what kind of story can we tell about those sinned-against? What awaits them? This issue has been a sorely neglected in Christian discourse. In the absence of a familiar model to rely on, we've more often than not superimposed the one we are familiar with — the sinner's redemption — but in doing so have driven ourselves into the proverbial corner of trying to find a sinner in the the sinned-against (you must've done something wrong, you have been tainted, therefore you must purify yourself). It's bad enough that they were mistreated by the sinner. But now, they're rendered sinners themselves, for that's the only route made available to them. The shoe fits only one size... And all this because a narrative or model for the sinned-against is lacking, is under-theorised (I mean, how often have you heard the term 'sinned-against' that Park uses in this book?) and that is the admirable and long-overdue task that Park sets for himself. And, by God, does he succeed. What the sinned-against need is not redemption, but liberation — and in theorising we find the way towards it.