1. Summary

The title of this dissertation, “The Transforming Praxis Toward Ecclesiogenesis”, was inspired during my reading of several key works: Leonardo Boff’s Ecclesiogenesis, T. Richard Snyder’s Once You Were No People, Ahn Byung-Moo’s Christ in the Minjung Event, John Bradshaw’s The Family and Homecoming, Paul F. Knitter’s No Other Name, Orlando E. Costas’ Christ Outside the Gate, Joe Holland and Peter Henriot’s Social Analysis, Fred & Anita Prinzing’s Mixed Messages: Responding to Interracial Marriage, James H. Cone’s God of the Oppressed, Quentin Lauer’s Hegel’s Concept of God, Richard M. Zaner’s The Context of Self, Donald Dorr’s Integral Spirituality, Sallie McFague’s Metaphorical Theology and Models of God, Andrew Sung Park’s The Wounded Heart of God, H. Richard Niebuhr’s The Responsible Self, Walter Brueggemann’s Finally Comes the Poet, and Roger G. Betsworth’s Social Ethics.

The concept of “transforming praxis” first took root in me 23 years ago when I was a theology student at Methodist Theological University in Seoul, Korea. I was deeply influenced by the life and theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. My participation in urban industrial mission training in the Cheonggyecheon slum introduced me to praxis through conscientization, humanization, and organization. This journey began in my second year of seminary and has remained unchanged throughout my ministry—whether in Korea or the United States, among Koreans, English-speaking Americans, or Korean immigrants. This path is God-given, and I intend to continue walking it.

On this journey, God has introduced me to particularly marginalized communities—immigrants facing racial discrimination and, most painfully, women in interracial marriages who suffer both racial and gender-based discrimination. I founded the Korean American Women United Mission to serve such people, focusing particularly on the dehumanized and the ostracized.

This dissertation highlights two extreme forms of marginalization: domestic violence within immigrant families and prostitution as a symbol of deep social and personal brokenness. In both cases, the need for transforming praxis is urgent. At the same time, I fully acknowledge that there are many successful cases of women in intercultural marriages between Koreans and Americans who have built truly happy families and play significant roles in mainstream American society.

After World War II, American churches were full, but as fear of war receded and economic stability increased, people began to leave the church to follow other “gods.” Like the Israelites who, after entering the land of Canaan, were seduced by surrounding pagan gods, modern people abandoned divine communion. This led to two forms of brokenness: individualism locked in narcissism and fundamentalism trapped in fear and anger. Both lost the capacity for dialogue—thus losing the essence of divine image. Biblical ecclesiology requires that the church embody transforming dialogue, through which genuine community becomes real and embodied in the present. The identity of the church is found in the communal life of transformed selves. Thus, Christian life is a continuous transforming relationship between God and human beings.

Since the 1970s, Korean immigrant communities in the United States have seen a growing number of intercultural marriages. This demographic shift includes not only Korean women who married U.S. servicemen but also 1.5 and second-generation Korean Americans, and even some first-generation Koreans. As the number of broken families increases due to the challenges of immigrant life, Korean immigrant communities must now view themselves as generative communities rooted in this new reality.

This dissertation emerged from a research group within an American congregation, which eventually gave birth to a Korean immigrant church through the initiative of Korean women married to American men. From this congregation also came the Korean American Women United Mission. The core of this dissertation is therefore the pursuit of humanization for marginalized individuals through transforming praxis. More broadly, it represents the effort to move the Korean immigrant community from alienation to shalom by fostering transforming base communities.

For immigrant women—especially those in intercultural marriages—transforming praxis is urgently needed. This praxis involves three stages:

1. Conscientization—a rediscovery of identity and the noble, equal value of all human beings, which I call Exodus-Genesis.
2. Dialogue in equality—where individuals with affirmed identities engage in communal conversation, leading to ecclesial transformation. I call this Cross-Genesis, the transformation of dehumanization into relational identity.
3. Lifelong transformation—an ongoing practice of Life-Genesis, where responsible selves are continually formed through voluntary service, echoing God’s incarnational self-giving.

Transforming praxis is not optional. It is the Missio Dei—God’s very mission. The church must embody communion with the marginalized—especially women and immigrants—for it to be biblically authentic.

2. Discovery

First, the Bible presents the recovery of the human archetype that was lost in Adam through the person of Jesus. God’s holy history comes alive in the present with meaning when this truth is recognized—bringing the past and future into the now. In Christ, the self that has been healed finds restoration, and this can be understood as the discovery of true identity. Moses’s identity changed three times. Paul was once Saul. In immigrant communities, the transformation of the self often reveals itself in the form of divided church identity and fractured families. Divorce may be visible, but addictions such as gambling, alcohol, prostitution, and domestic violence remain hidden, with little reported, yet they are increasing as frightening signs of inner self-fragmentation. Through research, I realized that the issue of consciousness and identity is far more serious than it appears.

Second, the church tends to fall into two extremes: a self-centered faith that seeks God’s favor for personal and family success, and an other-centered blind obedience that leaves everything to God. Both lose the essence of being human—dialogue. People attend worship, participate in education and sing praises, yet at times, these appear to be mere extensions of functionalism or a profit-driven society. When big events are considered a sign of God’s blessing and smaller ones seen as a lack of faith, a prosperity gospel and materialistic mindset dominate. In such religious attitudes and practices, we see alienation and a loss of genuine dialogue. Those who lose the ability to converse spiritually often become proud, trapped in themselves, and lead exhausting lives trying to prove they lack nothing. Without the humility to recognize their need, they also lose the spiritual capacity to intercede for others. This is another form of brokenness and loss of identity. The peak of such fragmentation is the complete loss of dialogue. Consequently, the dynamics of domination and subjugation take the place of dialogue, and instead of community, the church begins to mirror the structures of a profit-oriented society. It is worth noting that the church may sometimes have more cases of domination and victims than the broader society.

Third is the church’s role within society. The church must not position itself as a competitor among other social organizations. Today, many corporations donate part of their profits for social good. Then what makes the church different? Is it because we don’t drink or smoke? Because we don’t play sports on Sundays? No—the church is different because it “goes first” to seek out others and “gives freely” without expecting anything in return. It lives the life of “communion”—a shared life through voluntary service. This means taking responsibility for sharing. It is not an optional matter; rather, it is what makes the church truly the church, and the Christian truly a follower of Christ. This was a key discovery.

3. Proposal

First, a Christian is someone who stands as a truthful human being before God. In other words, to be truly human means to discover one’s true self. The original image of humanity, as God created, is represented by Adam in the Garden of Eden—but the archetype of this humanity can be found in Jesus Christ. While honor-based cultures are deeply concerned with how others see us, we must be more concerned with how we appear before God in the context of identity. To seek our identity is to constantly stand before God. Christ becomes the mirror. One must seek oneself. A person who has never searched for their true self tends to harm both themselves and others—imposing dominance with distorted ideas of self. A person who knows their identity does not struggle unnecessarily. One can be proudly both Korean and American, embracing that dual identity with joy. A Korean woman in an intercultural family can be proud to be Korean and American, and further, to be a pioneer in racial reconciliation and a leader in women’s liberation. This identity carries no sense of shame—it is, rather, a distinctive trait and a source of pride. The formation of a true self is a continual process of self-reflection before God, leading to ongoing personal liberation (an exodus). This is what Ruth experienced when she left her homeland with her mother-in-law and settled in a foreign land, eventually becoming the grandmother of King David.

Second, the church is truly the church when it lives a life of communion. The church is the birthplace of relationships. It is where death and life meet, where the past and future converge. Through Jesus, who is the Lord of the Church, past and future are reinterpreted. It is the time and place where humans meet God. Through the church, society must rediscover the meaning of its existence. But when the church loses the source of this reinterpretation, society also loses its standard and plunges into the deep mire of darkness. That place and that time represent absolute disconnection. The essence of darkness is disconnection, while the essence of light is relationship and dialogue. This is the meaning of the “generation of the cross.” The cross is the time and place where God meets humanity, and where human beings meet one another as equals. To be human is to discover one’s identity in the midst of dialogue. The church is the place where this happens, and to make it possible, a foundational community of becoming must be established. Just as the home is a place where love, not law, governs, the church is an expanded form of the home. Dialogue happens when we mutually recognize each other’s dignity and offer mutual respect. The circulation of blood in the body is like dialogue. The church is the most exemplary model of dialogue within society—because Jesus Himself is dialogue. To put it another way, Jesus is relationship itself. In the beginning was relationship, and this relationship took on flesh and dwelled among us, transforming broken and distorted (sick) relationships into true (healthy) ones. The church must demonstrate exemplary relationships to the world. For this, we must continuously train in relationships, develop our ability to engage in dialogue—learning to listen well and speak well—with both God and neighbors. This is how we form the “generation of the cross,” which brings about true humanity. With a new awareness of intercultural families, the relationship between Korean women in such families and the church can be renewed. This also contributes to changing common assumptions in the Korean community and shaping the future of intercultural families in a positive light.

Third, if the church focuses only on its internal affairs, it becomes nothing more than a closed social group, not the expanding kingdom of God on earth. For the church to sustain its life, it must not only develop relational identity within but also function as a vital cell within the society where it exists. If the church is only concerned with its internal operations, it degenerates into a closed-off entity—a relic of the past. But when it opens its doors, reaches out “first” and gives “freely” as a life-giving cell, the profit-driven society may begin to imitate the relational community found in the church. At the core of this relationship is God, and the one who embodies this is Jesus Christ, who is the Word and the Gospel. Forming external relationships is the recovery of the church’s responsible self. In other words, this is what mission truly is. Through this, life flows outward, and the individual Christian also confirms a new sense of identity—standing as a responsible self in completed relational identity. This helps prevent future corruption or disease. This life will transcend and address the evils of racism and sexism. The expansion of the kingdom of God is God’s purpose and the very essence of Jesus. It is not optional but is the very foundation of the church’s existence. Therefore, ministry for intercultural families must be recognized as an essential mission.

In conclusion, the method of transforming praxis toward the generation of a biblical church is conscientization, humanization, and communal becoming—and its content is the event of relationship. This must occur within existing churches and among believers. In this, time becomes eternal—and that eternity signifies the holiness of the present.