The church in Korea as a communio in context

English: We intended to prove the fact that the church is a faithful and ethical communio in context. For this purpose, we used historical (Chapter 2), biblical (Chapter 3) and theological data (Chapters 3 and 4). And we critically evaluated the Korean church from the viewpoint of what a faithful and ethical communio entails, and of horizontal contextualization (Chapter 5). In Chapter 2, our research focused on the doctrine of the church as revealed in different historical periods. The important theologians of the Patristic Period were Justine, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian and Augustine. They mostly understood the church as a spiritual communio of people bound together in faith and ethics. In the Middle Ages, Erasmus defined the church as an ethical communio against the background of secularization and the unethical hierarchical system. The monastic theology was built on the basis of vertical contextualization. The theologians of the Reformation era described the nature of the church with the use of the ideas of communio in faith and ethics. Anabaptists recognized the church as a communio in faith only without emphasis of the contextualization. The Orthodox Reformed Confessions defined the church on the basis of communio in faith and ethics. In the Modern Period, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Liberal Protestantism, Feminism, Liberation and Black Theology have claimed that the church is a horizontal communio established for the social purposes of human beings only. They developed the ecclesiology on the principle of the vertical contextualization. The doctrine of the church throughout history reflected the different contexts of these historical periods. But some doctrinal teachings emphasized the context only, while some emphasized the text only. Both groups are in the error. The doctrine of the church is rightly designated through the bipolarity of text and context. This study examines the doctrine of the church as derived from the lips of Jesus Christ in Chapter 3. We mostly focused on the Greek words EKKANOLa. and OIKODOUNOW as used in the Gospel of Matthew, in Chapter 16 and 18. Matthew recorded Jesus Christ's use of the Greek word EKKANOLa in two chapters only, with Jesus Christ predicting that the first Church would be built on the day of Pentecost. She would be established as a communio linked by faith and ethics. The communio would be a body of people who demonstrate self-denial for the sake of others. The facts of faith include the already accomplished events (Jesus Christ's Incarnation, Suffering and Death on the Cross; the Resurrection, the Ascension, the baptism of the Holy Spirit) and a not yet accomplished event (the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). The ethics is revealed in the practical life of Christians, as was portrayed in the life of Jesus Christ. His life (humiliation and exaltation) is summarized by the word 'love.' The love for others is the formative fact of Christian ethics. Paul practiced the church as a communio of people bound together in faith and through the ethics that determined how they lived. In Chapter 4, we proved that horizontal contextualization is a foundation of the church. The church is effectively developed in horizontal contextuallzation. This contextualization originated in the works of Jesus Christ and Paul. This is the theological command of God. Horizontal contextualization is intended to overcome the horizontal gaps between Palestine of the 1st century and Korea or South Africa of the 21st century. God sometimes uses even the contexts of secular religions to develop His final purpose. For this, we analyzed the Korean history from the viewpoint of religion. The Korean religions selected were Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. On the concept of the horizontal contextualization, we concluded that God used the above religions to make Koreans receptive to Christian doctrines, even if non-Christianity per se bears no similarity to Christianity. We have evaluated the Korean churches, namely the Roman Catholic Church, the fundamentalist church and the evangelical church in Chapter 5. The former two have ignored the need for horizontal contextualization, while the latter has over-emphasized the contextualization with ignorance of the Biblical text. All of the Korean churches have failed to effectively evangelize the Korean Peninsula. In conclusion, we suggest that the church or the doctrine of the church can be effectively established and developed on the bipolarity of text and context. .Jesus Christ, Head of the Church, presented the principle to develop His Church in the Gospel of Matthew 16 and 18. The concepts of faith and ethics as the essence of the church are derived from the words of Jesus Christ. Horizontal contextualization as the theological command also provided the important foundation to develop His Church. Without Jesus Christ, the church cannot be built to last forever. He is the only builder.