Situated Theologies in South Korea and Argentina: A Comparative Study of Minjung Theology and the Theology of the People During 20th-Century Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract

The history of Christianity in Korea dates back to the 18th century; however, it was not until the 1960s and 1970s that Korean theology professors developed original formulations of an autonomous theology that had a major impact not only on Christianity but also on democracy movements. Unlike Korea, the origin of Catholicism in Argentina dates back to the Spanish conquest during the 16th century, long before the existence of the Argentine state. However, like Korea, nativist theological discussions first emerged in the 1960s. This Christian revisionism gave rise to Korean Minjung Theology and Argentine Theology of the People, which share significant similarities in their categories of people and popular culture as key principles for understanding the history of people's struggles and suffering in their respective contexts. Despite these similarities, there are no comparative works on the two theological movements. Recovering the debates on theological indigenization from the comparative methodology proposed by Geertz for the study of beliefs, the hypothesis guiding this article claims that, at the antipodes of the world, in two dissimilar religious contexts without contact with each other, two contextual theologies similar in their key theological principles emerge at the same time. This study is based on a qualitative methodology with triangulation of sources and fieldwork conducted in Argentina and South Korea between 2022 and 2024.