The Korean Concept of Han

Andrew Sung Park makes a compelling argument for a rereading of the scriptures by most western Christians. He argues that the scriptures clearly show that Jesus came into the world to free those who have been wronged from the grief they suffer and the burdens they carry from having been wronged, and to forgive the wrongdoers.

Citing Mark 2:17 (New King James Version)

17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

If the major concern of the Bible is caring for the afflicted, liberating the downtrodden, and freeing the oppressed, then surely we must learn to read the Bible from the perspective of the oppressed. Unfortunately, traditional Christian theologies have typically read the Bible from the perspective of sinners (oppressors), “emphasizing Jesus’ redemptive work for them.”

"Whenever the powerful exercise control over the interpretation of the Bible, the interpretation is usually bound to be unilateral for them."

Those in power often used the Hebrew Scriptures as a tool of oppression and captivity, and it was often the voice of the Old Testament prophet who cried out against this type of oppression and called people to account for their misuse of God’s name. Jesus was such a figure in the New Testament. He protested the mistreatment of the people, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the impoverished, who were suffering at the hands of the religious elite. He demanded that people be freed from the tyrannical laws, abstruse codes, and ritualism imposed on them by the religious folk – This should be scaring some people.

Constantinian Christianity has always focused of the powerful -- Those who beg forgiveness without giving due heed to the “deep pain of the sinned-against.”

"Whenever the Bible was in the hands of religious leaders and political rulers, its hermeneutic was in danger of being distorted."

We live in an age marked by clear division between the “haves and the have-nots.” When interpretation of the Bible is in the hands of the “well to do,” they will inevitably understand the Bible from the perspective of their own experiences, and this will only lead to neglect of those who Jesus came to touch, to heal, and to deliver.

“Han” can be described as the “the experience of the powerless, the marginalized, and the voiceless in the world.” It is the painful scar of having been sinned against. It rests as a yoke on the neck of the oppressed. It looks like helplessness, and it partners with despair. It is a void.

"The abysmal darkness of wounded human beings."

"Han is a physical, mental, and spiritual repercussion to a terrible injustice done to a person, eliciting a deep ache, a wrenching of all the organs, an intense internalized or externalized rage, a vengeful obsession and the sense of helplessness and hopelessness."

Those who suffer at the hands of Han can resolve it in one of two ways… they can seek revenge, or they can use it as a source of transforming power. Holding on to Han only deepens the pain.

The New Testament was primarily written for a people who were “persecuted and sinned-against;” however, the keepers of Christianity today have often failed to uphold its tradition in the west. We have taken Christianity and used it as a tool to free us from the guilt of our own sin, the culpability of the misuses of our time, our resources, our talents, and our energy… We have failed to reach out to the orphan, the widow and the stranger in our midst. The sin of alienation, mistreatment, and marginalization can cause a human being to become maladjusted, but is one to be blamed for this maladjustment? Does this maladjustment have anything at all to do with an inner attitude of defiance or anger, or of a self imposed alienation? OR is this psychological alienation the result of a society alienated from one who it sees as less than, as not good enough, as not wealthy enough, as not beautiful enough, as not white enough, as not thin enough, as not smart enough, as not strong enough, as not from the right side of town, as not…

…Justice will never be accomplished with a unilateral view of sin… we must strive to see sin from the side of the persecuted, the guiltless… the victims of sin, if we are ever to see the “captives set free."