Jung Mo Sung

Jung Mo Sung (* 1957 in Korea ) is a Catholic theologian in Brazil .

Life

Jung Mo Sung was born in Korea and has lived in Brazil since 1966 . He did his PhD with Clodovis Boff . Today the lay theologian is professor of religious studies at the Methodist and Catholic universities in São Paulo . His work represents an attempt to redefine liberation theology under the changed political conditions since the end of the East-West conflict . One focus of his work is the relationship between religion and economy.

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According to Sung, the medieval notion of a transcendental kingdom of God has turned into the earthly hope of a utopian final state of human history with the dawn of modern times. However, the realization of such a utopia is not possible within the framework of the human condition , since it causes imperfections and contradictions. Consequently, the historical creation of a society free of contradictions is not feasible. The transcendental expectation of the kingdom of God, however, generates an excess of hope that manifests itself as a prophetic criticism of social grievances.

According to Sung, an emancipatory political project does not have to deal with overcoming the conditio humana, but rather it is the task of humans to recognize and love God in the face of one's neighbor within the conditio humana . This is fundamental for Sung so that people can recognize each other as subjects endowed with dignity. However, since capitalism is based on a fetishization of the market, as a result of which people are restricted to their social role as market participants, there is a constant process of exclusion that affects large social groups . Sung attributes this to the fact that people who do not have the means to fulfill their role as market participants are sacrificed to the functioning of the market by being excluded from the economic system. For him, this “victim logic” of capitalism is in contradiction to human being. Sung relies here on René Girard's mimetic theory.

Sung's criticism of capitalism aims to abolish the self-sacrificing process of fetishization and exclusion, not the abolition of the market itself. Sung's aim is to create a more just society that does not deny human beings the subject. From this “market economy” perspective, Sung can z. B. call for an expansion of free trade, which would give emerging countries like Brazil access to European and North American sales markets.

Sung also sharply criticizes liberation theologians who approve of the use of the term victim in the name of liberation struggles.

Remarks

1. ↑ Sung, Jung Mo, The Human Being as Subject. Defending the Victims, 6-11, in: Petrella, Ivan (ed.), Latin American Liberation Theology. The Next Generation, New York: Orbis Books 2005
2. ↑ Ibid.

Works (selection)

• Teologia e economia: repensando a teologia da libertacao e utopias (1994)
• Desejo, mercado e religiao (1998)

In German and English translation

• The God of Life and the Economic Challenges for Latin America, in: Fornet-Betancourt, Raúl (ed.): Does Faith Change the Economy? Theology and Economics in Latin America (Theology of the Third World 16), Freiburg / Breisgau a. a .: Herder 1991, 86-111.
• Evil in the ideology of the free market, in: Concilium 33 (1997) 5, 606-614.
• Economy and Spirituality. For a different, fairer and sustainable world, in: Concilium 40 (2004) 5, 596–604.
• The Human Being as Subject. Defending the Victims, in: Petrella, Ivan (ed.): Latin American Liberation Theology. The Next Generation, New York: Orbis Books 2005, 1–19.
• Desire, Market and Religion (Reclaiming Liberation Theology), London: SCM Press 2007.