A Confucian Reappraisal of Christian Love: Ahn Changho Contra Augustinian Studies Conducted in South Korea

Abstract

This paper tackles the dominant views of Augustine’s notion of ‘love’ in South Korea which have been described as the puritan pathos of distance from civic commonality. A complete guide to the reception and transmission of Augustine’s philosophy in South Korea would be almost unmanageable. However, the essential key to understanding the place of Augustine’s philosophy in South Korea can be found in the interpretations of Augustine’s notion of love. In all its complexity in these interpretations, the legacy of Augustine in South Korea turns out to consist exclusively of anti-political or non-communal eschatological longings for salvation. In a similar vein, the dominant views of Augustine’s notion of love have been convoluted with their emphasis on the superiority of love of God over love of neighbor. Based on these observations, this paper suggests Ahn Changho’s Confucian reappraisal of Christian love as an alternative to the dominant views of Augustine’s notion of love in South Korea, by investigating his view of filial piety as mutual love with respect to the possible implications of Augustine’s notion of love for shaping or consolidating civic friendship beyond brotherly commonality in Christianity.