Non homiletical direction in the narrative tradition: A challenge of the postliberal theology of Hans Frei to the contemporary Korean church

This study is a disciplined search for new homiletical directions in the study of the 'Postliberal theology' of Hans Frei for the contemporary Korean Protestant Church in order to rediscover the value of the narrative traditions that shaped early Korean Christianity. Precisely, in this dissertation, Frei's postliberal theology is used as an intermediate link that enables the recovery of the dynamic power of the narrative tradition of early Korean Christianity analogous to the way the liturgical movement of the twentieth century recovered the dynamic power of the early Christian tradition for their denominational reformation in liturgies. Frei's cultural-linguistic model of interpretation approaches Scripture as "the sacred text" which is governed by the "informal rules and conventions" of the community. For Frei, the literal sense of the biblical narrative is essentially related to "the practical discipline" of the Christian community and is "in effect part of the grammar of a linguistic symbol system." Consequently, in Frei's "literal-ascriptive-subject reading of the Gospels," and his/her reading of the gospel narratives in community, especially the narratives concerning Jesus of Nazareth, cannot be replaced by something else which has "a general meaning for its semiotic referent." Therefore, Frei's postliberal theology demonstrates that preaching is a part of the liturgical and communal practices of the Christian community in which the vitality of the story of Jesus has to be continuously and narratively enacted, calling this community to follow the story of Jesus.;This study challenges the preaching-centered church in Korea in light of Hans Frei's postliberal theology. Despite the flourishing of preaching in the Korean context, the Korean Protestant church has not proclaimed the narrative sensus communis of Scripture. This dissertation argues the shift to the narrative as an alternative source for the awakening of Korean Christianity to return to the sensus communis of Scripture. In particular, Frei's postliberal theology can lead preachers not to focus on homiletical techniques and methods which "promise" to attract multitudes to the Church, but, rather, to "build up" through communal patterns of interpretation such as worship and discipleship, the church as "the indirect presence of Christ" in and for the world.