Hi everyone. I'm Soo-Young Kwon, Professor of Pastoral Theology at Yonsei University in South Korea. Let me give you a short introduction to my massive open online course, Re-imaging God in Korean Context. Here's a cute little story: After attending church with his mother one Sunday morning, before getting into bed that evening, a little boy kneeled at his bedside and prayed, "Dear God, we had a good time at church today but I wish you had been there." Missing God. That's not only this little boy's issue but also ours, because, most of us can hardly feel the presence of God without clear signs. So, we want our God to be revealed and project with thunder, lightning, earthquake or fire. To Moses, in the Hebrew Bible for example, God spoke through the mountains with a roar and a mysterious fire. In the history of world Christianity, so many church leaders and theologians have wrestled with God's revelation. And yet, God is both outside and inside. In the mountains and the thunder and, in the dark, quiet, sometimes confusing the interior of our human souls. Interestingly enough, many contemporary theologians have put more emphasis on human imagination rather than God's revelation. In fact, along with theologians, all people including you and me imagine their God in their own ways. So, let's take a look at how the interior of the little boy in the story is working. Suppose that the boy had lost his father recently. What if he has some feeling of absence in the family due to the loss of his father? Possibly, that feeling of absence of his own father may have resulted in the boy's inability to feel the presence of "Father God." Not the revelation of God but the boy's own imagination of God, is what makes the boy feel or in this case, unable to feel God. As a Korean theologian, I would love to invite you to my own project to understand a developmental history of the Korean Protestant church and the Korean indigenous Christian movement. Such as, Minjung Theology and the Pentecostal Movement. If you are curious to learn about the rapid and dynamic development of Protestant Christianity in Korea then you're in the right place. Don't miss this course. I believe you will understand the Korean Protestant church and theological movements more easily by exploring several collective, cultural and sometimes self-conscious images of God in Korea. I will endeavor to explore with you the way we imagine God as Father, God as Heaven, God as Rice and God as Spirit, in my own cultural context of East Asia. At the same time, you will be invited to explore your own imagination of God in your own context. I would very much like you to be with me in this journey. God bless.
