Double gesture on the cross: Toward a postcolonial feminist Christology of jeong (Korea)

This project is framed by interdisciplinary methodology that is heavily drawn from postcolonial theory, feminist psychoanalysis, and theology. This project examines the Korean concepts of han and jeong in order to construct a postcolonial feminist Christology.; Feminist theologians are critical of conventional theological interpretations of the cross that have put emphasis on Jesus' obedience to the will of the Father as Jesus accepts his crucifixion on the cross. As feminist theologians have argued, there is nothing that is redemptive about the symbol of the cross. For them, the cross signifies only the power of the Symbolic, or the symbol of imperial execution. In contrast, theologian Jurgen Moltmann finds the cross to be redemptive since it signifies not only a tool of imperial execution but also God's radical solidarity with the Son in his suffering.; While radically taking into account feminist critiques of the conventional interpretations of the cross, this project seeks to answer whether or not it is possible to speak of “the cross” as signifier of redemptive agency. Christology of Jeong agrees with feminist critiques as well as Moltmann's understanding of the cross that point toward a radical solidarity of God with the Son. Christology of Jeong proposes that the cross signifies not only radical solidarity of the Father with the Son but also the Son for the Father. The cross performs a double gesture by exposing the abject/han on the cross while it simultaneously discloses the profound depth of jeong for and in the world. The cross reveals the fullness of jeong that Jesus embodied even at the risk of the cross. This cross reaches us in our abject suffering to empower us to continue to live in the fullness of jeong that risks the wrath of the Symbolic, dominating power.