Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the usefulness of process thought for developing and correcting the doctrine of eschatology in minjung theology. More precisely, the dissertation attempted a synthesis of process metaphysics with minjung theology and explored the hypothetical notion of a "minjung-process" eschatology. Such a synthesis requires some transformation of both minjung theology and process theology. In order to achieve this project, this project was divided into five chapters. ;In the first chapter, the question of minjung eschatology and twentieth-century eschatology was engaged in general, and minjung theology introduced in particular. Some preliminary studies about the purpose of this project were given. In considering the question of eschatology in minjung thought, we discussed the fact that it is not possible to approach the doctrine of eschatology without any presuppositions in terms of a Third World context. We briefly suggested discussed the initial possibilities of process thought for liberation theology. ;The second chapter discussed the doctrine of eschatology in minjung thought. In order to understand the doctrine of eschatology, the debate over eschatology in the thought of Young-hak Hyun, David Kwangsun Suh, Nam Dong Suh, and Yong-bock Kim was critically treated. In particular, the question of eschatology was discussed in terms of the doctrinal structure of han, liberation, God, and a millennial Kingdom of God. In this chapter, the doctrine of eschatology was assessed and reevaluated. ;The third chapter examined the neoclassical metaphysics of Charles Hartshorne and the philosophy of process or organism of Alfred North Whitehead, with a view to developing their usefulness in reconstructing a minjung eschatology. In the third chapter, eschatology in the Whiteheadian-Hartshornian system was reviewed in general. Also, the limitations of the process alternative was critically treated from a Third world perspective. ;In the fourth chapter, a new vision of eschatology in the context of a minjung-process synthesis was reached. I examined the possibility of this minjung-process synthesis as a third way between process and minjung thought. In this chapter, since minjung thought needs metaphysics and transcendent spirituality, a careful reexamination of process conceptualizations of openness, creativity, utopian impulse, interrelatedness, or egalitarianism was given, and the final chapter reaffirmed the possibility of a new understanding of eschatology in terms of the Korean situation