Kang Won-yong

Life

Kang was born on July 3, 1917, into a Confucian family in Iwon County, South Hamgyong Province, and embraced the Protestant faith while in elementary school. At Eunjin Middle School in Longjing, in the Bukgando (North Jiandao) region of Manchuria, he befriended Yun Dong-ju and Moon Ik-hwan and met his teacher, Kim Chai-choon. After studying English literature in Japan, he worked as an evangelist in Manchuria. In 1944 he was arrested by the Japanese police and later released on bail for medical reasons.

After Korea's liberation he moved to Seoul, where in December 1945 he founded Kyungdong Church together with Kim Chai-choon. He also took part in the Left–Right Coalition Movement led by Kim Kyu-sik and Lyuh Woon-hyung. He graduated from Chosun Theological Seminary (now Hanshin University) in 1948, was ordained a minister in 1949, and succeeded Kim Chai-choon as pastor of Kyungdong Church. In 1953 he went to Canada to study, and he later studied social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York under Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich. He returned to Korea in 1957 and served at Kyungdong Church until 1986. He died on August 17, 2006, at the age of 89.

Ministry and Achievements

• Christian Academy: Building on the Korean Christian Social Problems Research Association, which he organized in 1959, he founded the Christian Academy in 1965. Through a "dialogue movement" that brought together people from differing circumstances, he pursued "humanization," that is, a society in which a truly human life is guaranteed. In the 1970s the academy conducted "intermediate group education," which trained leaders of the labor, farmers', and women's movements; in 1979, however, members of its staff were arrested on charges of violating the Anti-Communist Law. The academy was later renamed the Dialogue Culture Academy.
• Interreligious dialogue: In 1965 he convened the first gathering ever to bring together leaders of Korea's six major religions. He served as president of the Korean Conference of Religions for Peace and as co-president of the World Conference of Religions for Peace.
• Church unity: He served as moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea in 1966 and as president of the National Council of Churches in Korea in 1980. He was also active as a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and as president of the Christian Conference of Asia.
• Public activities: In 1974 he took part in the movement against the Yushin system as a representative member of the National Council for the Restoration of Democracy. He served as chairman of the Korean Broadcasting Commission and as chairman of the Advisory Council on Unification, and in his later years he founded the Peace Forum.

Influence on the Korean Church

Because he put the church's social engagement into practice through both pastoral ministry and activism, he is regarded as a leading figure of the Korean ecumenical movement and of the Christian social movement in Korea. He is also credited with serving as a bridge between the Korean church and the wider currents of the worldwide church.

Assessment

He is regarded as a leader devoted to dialogue, reconciliation, and democratization, and he received the Niwano Peace Prize (2000) and the Manhae Peace Prize (2002). He has also drawn criticism.

• Controversy arose over his alleged cooperation with the military regime, including his acceptance of a post as a member of the Advisory Council on State Affairs under the new military authorities in 1980. He recalled that at the appointment ceremony he urged Chun Doo-hwan to spare Kim Dae-jung from the death penalty.
• Evangelicals criticized his progressive theology, aligned with the WCC, and what they saw as his excessive political involvement, and some in the church criticized his interreligious dialogue as religious pluralism.