Park Yune-sun

Life

Park was born into a farming family in a seaside village in Cheolsan County, North Pyeongan Province, the second of two sons in a family of five children. As a child he studied the Chinese classics, and after attending Sinseong Middle School in Seoncheon he studied in the English department of Union Christian College (Soongsil) from 1927 to 1931. In 1931 he entered the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang, and in 1934 he went to the United States to study at Westminster Theological Seminary. After returning to Korea, he taught Greek and Hebrew at the Pyongyang seminary. When the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea resolved in 1938 to approve Shinto shrine worship, the Pyongyang seminary closed its doors of its own accord. That same year Park returned to the United States to study apologetics (the discipline that argues for the validity of the Christian faith) under Cornelius Van Til. After being ordained in Fengtian (Mukden), Manchuria, in 1940, he pastored a church for Korean expatriates and taught New Testament at the Manchuria Theological Seminary.

After Korea's liberation he moved south and, together with Han Sang-dong and others, founded Koryo Theological Seminary in Busan. When the school opened in September 1946 he served as acting president, and from 1948 to 1960 he served as its second president. During that period, from October 1953 to March of the following year, he studied in the Netherlands. In 1960, after disagreeing with denominational leaders over lawsuits between churches and over Lord's Day observance, he resigned from the seminary and left the Kosin (Koryo) denomination. According to some accounts, the dispute arose after he took a taxi on the Lord's Day to preach at a farewell service for a missionary.

He then pastored Dongsan Church in Seoul. From 1963 he taught at the General Assembly Theological Seminary (now Chongshin University), and in 1968 he planted Hanseong Church. At the end of 1974 he went to the United States to devote himself exclusively to writing his commentaries, and after returning in 1979 he became dean of the graduate school at Chongshin. In 1980 internal conflict broke out at Chongshin, and a number of professors and students left the school. At their request, Park founded Hapdong Theological Seminary (now Hapdong Theological Seminary University), where he taught until his death in 1988.

Ministry and Achievements

Park's greatest achievement was his biblical commentary. Beginning with a commentary on Revelation, he continued writing for about forty years, and in 1979 he completed the publication of commentaries on all sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments. The first hardcover edition comprised twenty volumes: twelve on the Old Testament and eight on the New Testament. He adopted as the standard for his commentaries the principle that "Scripture interprets Scripture," together with the Calvinist method of interpretation. Underlying his commentaries is the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, the belief that Scripture is without error.

Theologically, he introduced to Korea not only American Calvinist theologians but also Dutch Reformed theologians such as Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck. He sharply criticized Karl Barth's doctrine of revelation and view of Scripture. In his Commentary on the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in Korea, he emphasized that presbyteries and the General Assembly are not higher bodies ("superior courts") standing above local congregations but broader assemblies that gather the wisdom of a larger number of people.

Influence on the Korean Church

Along with Park Hyung-ryong and Han Sang-dong, Park is regarded as one of the first-generation Calvinist theologians of Korean Presbyterianism. Because he trained many students at Koryo Theological Seminary (the root of present-day Kosin University), Chongshin, and Hapdong Theological Seminary, the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Kosin), the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong), and the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapshin) all regard him as their theological teacher. Revised editions of his commentaries continue to be published, and pastors across denominational lines have widely used them in preparing sermons.

Assessment

• His followers regard him as a scholar devoted to prayer and the study of the Word. They hold that because he did not build a personal faction, he was able to lead the seminaries of several divided denominations.
• His departure from Kosin in 1960 is treated as an episode in the history of Korean Presbyterian schisms. Scholars on the Kosin side also record his departure as regrettable, though they acknowledge that it ultimately became the occasion for his Reformed theology to spread into the Hapdong and Hapshin denominations.
• His commentaries are conservative works that presuppose Calvinism and biblical inerrancy. Consequently, their starting point for biblical interpretation differs from that of theological camps that do not share these presuppositions.