This article is composed to give some clues for researching Corpus Ignatianum continuing since 1960s through interpreting the letter to Romans. It contains some unique and special points, namely martyrdom as the main theme, not monepiscopacy. About the martyrdom of Ignatius only one letter says, that is Polycarp’s letter to Philippians. But in this letter Ignatius appears not only as dead(9, 1) but as living.(13, 1) It could make so interpret, that the unknown person Ignatius has somehow found the Polycarp’s letter and disguised himself as Ignatius. That means the Corpus Ignatianum. is pseudonymous. It’s terminus post quem must lie later than Polycarp’ letter. And seeing the praising Polycarp so many times in almost every letter we could believe, that the Corpus Ignatianum had to be composed after the dead of Polycarp as martyr, namely A.D. 165. Then the insist of some experts ‘the Corpus Ignatianum appears during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius’ could be acceptable. So, the end of the letter to Romans, in which the pseudo-Ignatius who might have not died did hope so eagerly to die for God as demanding the Romans not to prevent his martyrdom, is not to hope a martyrdom, but to confirm the authority of the author of the Corpus Ignatianum. Ignatius wrote the letter to Romans in order to realize the idea of the Corpus Ignatianum, that is, monepiscopacy. Then man must accept the idea the seven letters couldn’t be sent to the addressees in every letter, but to one. For example in the letter to Polycarp he talks in the beginning to Polycarp, but from chapter 6 to the Church Smyrna. More than this, in the letter to Smyrna the name of the renowned bishop Polycarp is astonishingly not mentioned. In this researching situation the church in Rome has been called the addressee(Schmithals), because of no mentioning the names of bishop and the members. But this fact couldn’t be the master key into the solving the problem, because it is of nature, that the person coming to Rome for the first time does not know their names. On the contrary, the letter to Smyrna deliver in the thank and farewell address several names clearly, but first in a name of some Philon of Cilicia and then in his own name. It says, that Ignatius knows the milieu and persons in the church Smyrna very well. Every letter has some relation with the name Smyrna. Moreover regarding no mentioning Polycarp in the letter man could so speculate, that the Corpus Ignatianum is composed to subside the accurately unknown problems in the Smyrna after the martyrdom of Polycarp. Though the monepiscopacy against some heresies, especially the docetism of gnosticism, is persuaded unanimously in every letter, the chief concern of the Corpus Ignatianum is to earn the stability of the church Smyrna.

The purpose of this thesis is focussed on the explanation of the meaning of Origen’s prayer theology, the valuation of his contributions, and the comparision with Jesus’s understanding of the prayer. Opponents against the prayer argued that there is no need to pray, because God knows what the human wants and needs. In addition, God loved the creation and led them to salvation without prayer. Not only the divine will and providence can not be changed by the human prayer, but also human free will is opposed to God’s providence. In relation to that arguments Origen asserted that human prayer means that God’s providence and human free will work together. The human is cooperating with God through the prayer as an expression of man’s free will. According to Origen, “euché” has two meanings, namely “vow” and “petition”, but “proseuché” “petition or ask”. However, in the Gospels, Jesus say “proseuché” for the “petition”. Therefore, Origen see, that the criticism raised by opponents are easily refutable, if we understand “euché” to mean “vow”. And in relation of the personal egoism or self-centeredness in the korean church the meaning of “vows” ist more necessary and demanded than the of “petition or ask”. And everywhere in our society there is people, who are still facing problems, as well as food, clothing, and the right to live dignified, and violations of human rights and being happy. if the social, economic, and political conditions are in a relatively relaxed situation, petition praying is more suitable than “vow praying”. Thus, Jesus asked to pray his disciples and people gathered around him in the meaning of “petition”, because they were living in that socio-economic and political isolation and discrimination. Anyway, Origen’s rediscovery of the meaning of “euch” as vow would have been the best counter-weapon against his opponents. In that sense, it is suitable of us to vow in a relatively relaxed situation, but in a desperate situation, to ask or petition.

“And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward.”(Mt. 10:42) With this saying the local followers were ordered to submit to the authority of itinerant missionaries and to support them. However, when the local congregation formed itself and grew up, they needed the resident leaders. There arose competitions and conflicts between the resident leaders and the itinerant missionaries. Thus the missionaries transferred gradually from the itinerant life to the resident one. Then the house community became the center of mission and meeting, which was supported materially by the patron. However, the house community with patrons disappeared gradually, because it could not overcome the problem of difference among member’s social status. Therefore the Christian congregation should solve the economic problem, without patrons, with the egalitarian spirit and the brethren love. The early Christians who knew the Judaic custom of offerings offered the donations for the church. The donations and the immovables which the members offered formed the church property. Notwithstanding Jesus’ critics of the wealth, the early church gathered the property for the solution of the economic problem. The early church could not furnish her preachers with the nourishment regularly. But as the Christian believers increased and the church grew up, professional ministers were needed. “For the workman is worthy of his meat”: Jesus intended this saying originally for his itinerant disciples, but the history proved that this was said for church ministers. It is a invariable truth that the change of the life conditions brings about that of the economic life. In the situation of itinerant life Jesus criticized the wealth (to say more exactly, the dependence on the wealth). But thereafter his disciples gave up the itinerant life for the resident life. By the above research I intended to show that a new possibility of the economic life had beginned. The choice of the resident life led to a new economic life, so that the church developed in the other direction than Jesus intended originally. This is the teaching which the history gave to us.

This study is caused by the argument of Wendy Meyer, who argues that to characterize Chrysostom as a “lover of the poor” is to misunderstand him against the argument of Peter Brown. She insists that it is more accurate to call him not “champion of the poor,” but “champion of the voluntary poverty.” But the author is not to focus on the contrast argument of above two scholars but to investigate their argument from view point of the monk-bishop leadership. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to present how the leadership of monk-bishop leadership is forming and figuring out. In fact, “the lover of voluntary poverty” and “the lover of the poor” seems to have the deep gap, which could not overcome. Nevertheless, the new leadership, which evolves above two strange factors, is emerging in the name of monk-bishop leadership in late Antiquity. By focussing on life, work and time of John Chrysostom, this investigation will, portray the transitions of how “the lover of voluntary poverty” and “the lover of the poor” are connecting. John Chrysostom (d.407) lived the monastic life for the several years in the mountain. And he was the presbyter and bishop of Antioch and the Bishop of Constantinople. He is very strong position. in its examination of late-antique poverty. He had an enduring influence on his communities with abundant references to the poor and/or almsgiving to be found in his 823 homilies, 242 letters and fourteen treatises. Particulary, in studying of church and state in late Antiquity, this work has great depts on the study of Peter Brown.

In this article, I have analyzed certain features and theological themes as found in Noah’s Ark (De archa Noe) composed by Hugh of St. Victor, an Augustinian regular canon who lived at Paris in the Twelfth Century, by collating with his Booklet on the Making of the Ark(Libellus de formatione arche). My findings are summarized as follows: first, in the perspective of medieval biblical hermeneutics, the Victorine author elucidates certain senses that may be implied by the biblical image of Noah’s ark. In accordance with this exegetical method, the ark is understood, first of all, as a vessel that Noah made with wood and pitch as indicated in its literal and historical sense; also the Church as the body of Christ in its allegorical and doctrinal meaning; and, finally, the ark of wisdom, as signified in its tropological or moral sense, which is to be constructed within our soul by the discipline of lectio divina. Second, Hugh concentrates on the motif of spiritual ascent as implied by the tropologia of the ark. It is a highly Augustinian theological theme about a journey of the soul which, seeing how instable a situation it is driven to by the disordered love of self, becomes stimulated to ascend to the love of God. The Victorine construes this procedure to be a process for restoring to the soul the image of God that has been shattered and dispersed by the destructive effects of the original sin. In poetic imagery reminiscent of The Song of Songs, he depicts how the uplifted and integrated soul, being liquefied by the flame of love in the final stage of contemplation, flows into the mold of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, indwelling the center and summit of the ark and is re-formed to His likeness at the end. Third, as regards Dionysius’s influence upon the formation of Hugh’s theology and spirituality, I have noticed that his treatises on Noah’s ark are built up on the Dionysian symbolic principle of proceeding from visible things(the image of the ark) to invisible realities(the inner contemplation). Additionally, I have highlighted that the three ascents starting from the respective corners of concupiscence, ignorance and goodness are certainly associated with the three hierarchical actions of purification, illumination and perfection as presented in the Dionysian Celestial Hierarchy. The Victorine master, however, understands the uplifting process in terms of tropological ascent for restoring the divine image to the soul by the practice of virtues whereas the Dionysian anagogical ascension is all about attaining to the union with the unknown God by way of negation, namely, via negativa. Concerning the topic of Dionysius-rezeption in the medieval Latin Christianity, the recent scholarship remarks that Hugh has laid the first steppingstone for affectivizing the intellectual mysticism of the Areopagite by intensifying the superiority of love over knowledge. In consideration of these observations, the Hugonian treatises on Noah’s ark, permeated with the central motif of love that gives impetus to spiritual ascent and makes possible the restoration of the divine image, should be numbered among certain textual evidences illustrating the Victorine affective reading of the intellectual Dionysianism.

Luther hat sich sein Leben lang mit dem Tod befasst. Denn der Tod war in Luthers Zeit allgegenwärtig und Luther selbst hat reiche Erfahrungen mit dem Tod gemacht. Es kann gesagt werden, dass Luthers Theologie des Todes der Ernstfall seiner ganzen Theologie ist. Luther hat aus Anlass der Bestattung des Kurfürsten Johann von Sachsen die Leichenpredigt am 18. 8. 1532 gehalten. Diese Predigt erschien mit der am 22. 8. gehaltenen Predigt im Druck. In diesem Aufsatz geht es darum, Luthers Todesgedanken in seiner Leichenpredigt zu untersuchen. Denn der Verfasser ist der Überzeugung, dass uns die Leichenpredigt Luthers Aspekte des Todes vermittelt. Für Luther ist der Tod der Schlaf. Der Christen Tod ist nicht ein Tod, sondern ein Schlaf. Und das (leibliche) Sterben ist leicht und äußerlich gegenüber dem geistlichen Sterben. Drittens, der Christen Tod ist Tod in Christus. Zusammenfassend gesagt hat Luther den Tod christianisiert. Für ihn ist das Sterben die Glaubenssache, d.h. die Christen sollen den Tod nicht nach den fünf Sinnen und der Vernunft sehen, sondern allein nach dem Wort Gottes und mit geistlichen Augen.

This paper deals with the nature and character of the Reformation, judging from various interpretations on the european Reformation. Scholars have pursued the influences of the Reformation on social conditions in medieval Europe nations and of the Reformation on modern developments. In history of interpretation on the Reformation, there are two salient contrasts. Protestant scholars have argued that the Reformation was the restoration of the original purity of the Christian church, while the Roman Catholic scholars generally regarded the Reformation as religious division or schism. In more recent scholarship the evaluations of the Reformation has given way to recognition that there was an attempt to term with the Reformation in sense of the ecumenism. Therefore the Reformation movement are not fully understood if seen only in terms of Christendom split without account being taken of its historical, political, social, and economic contexts and influences. This paper notes that an ecumenical movement appeared in the sixteenth century in order to repair the breach of Western Christendom. The paper demonstrates that the nature and character of the Reformation is closely interacted with modern developments of Western society. To understand correctly the Reformation, it is necessary to take account of both Christian church and cultural conditions and many things that affect each other. The paper argues that spirit of the Reformation is not limited to the european society of the sixteenth century, but it applies to the regions which needs to change and to reform. Pointing out that there are some cautions in trying to understand the Reformation, this paper contends that the Reformation was not division of Western Christendom, but watershed of history. The Reformers tried to shape the key to the faithfulness of the church in new paradigm. They never were dissidents or heresies but revolutionaries who shout the renewal of the religion and society as a whole.

It was in the year of 2010 that the news, which the thirteenth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches would be held in Pusan in 2013, was reported. Since then, the Korean Protestant church community has been extremely divided. While many Christians welcomed the news in jubilation, some opposed it in anger. Those church leaders and theologians in opposition have said that the WCC denies the orthodox doctrine of proselytism and promotes a religious pluralism through its program of dialogue among various religions The WCC’s theological orientation, they argue, “anti-Biblical, anti-Christian and anti-church.” The WCC’s theology and ecumenical movement ia “a Satanic challenge to the church. Therefore, they oppose the scheduled General Assembly of the WCC. However, their seemingly theological argument and accusation is, it seems, is political rather than theological. An anti-WCC movement in Korea, which began immediately after the Liberation, more specifically after the north-south division, was also begun not by theologians but by some politicians and ultra-conservative church leaders during the Korean War in Pusan. This article aims to explore this historical context in which the anti-WCC movement was begun. Who did initiate it, when and why? This article thus discusses such concepts as the Cold War, the emergence of a new world order, the division of Korea, the Korean War, McCarthy’s anti-communist hysteria, ‘red complex and so forth. All of these elements brought about a new doctrine that communism is anti-Christianity and Christianity is anti-communism. In this peculiar historical context, a strong militant anti-communist element is so strong in the Korean church community that some church leaders have stood militantly against the WCC.

Kyung-Chik Han, indeed and not just in name, was the sole pastor who gained the whole Korean churches’ admiration, a patriot who was recognized from not only the Korean government but also the widely acknowledged Korean religious leader. This is confirmed by the fact that Kyung-Chik Han received much recognition from every denomination in Korea and his winning of the Mugunghwa Medal and the National Foundation Medal bestowed by the Korean government. It also is proved by him being the only Korean recipient of the Templeton Prize, reputed as the Novel Prize in the religious field. As Rev. Ji-Il Bang once said, Kyung-Chik Han was the standard of Korean churches’ ministry work. In this study, we will examine his spirituality as an internal conversion which made Kyung-Chik Han’s personalities, and external changes which was resulted into a transformation of the Korean Church through his ministry. Primary sources such as his sermons, autobiography, and lectures were used to analyze his internal conversion. In addition, for the research of the results of his ministry, we will briefly review the church historians’ evaluations. The spirituality of Rev. Kyung-Chik Han is, all things considered, the spirituality of a steward. It comes from his experience under the japanese colonial regime, the experience of the Korean War, and the experience of facing death and deciding to devote himself entirely to God. His spirituality of a steward has several elements: the spirituality of the Word, spirituality of prayer, spirituality of gratitude, and spirituality of love of country. All of these elements formed a unique system of triangular pyramid putting the spirituality of love of the country at the top of the pyramid; individually independent, but also connected with each other. Kyung-Chik Han’s spirituality reached out to the external world, which made evangelical faith and piety more stable in Korean church history. Rev. Han’s spirituality and works affected Korean churches significantly, especially in ecumenical movement and social service, which led Korean churches to be one of the most influential churches in the world.