An Intellectual Biography of Ahn Byungmu: A Search for Jesus in History

Abstract

This article, presented as a lecture at ‘the Commemorating Conference for the 100th Anniversary of An Byung-mu’s Birth’ in October 2022, attempts to depict his life and thoughts by reading his writings chronologically. It sets the central theme of his entire life as ‘the search for Jesus in history’ and explains how the theme developed in his thoughts by dividing it into four stages. First, the stage of ‘existence’ centered on the period when the journal of Ya-sung was published in 1951-56. Second, the theological transition taking place during the publication of the journal of Hyun-jon in 1969-80 from the existentialist understanding to minjung theology, Third, the process of establishing full-fledged minjung theology as the ‘theology of event’ with the publication of the journal of Theological Thoughts since 1973. Fourth, a theology of life in the time of the journal of Salim since 1988. Through this process, we can find how he creatively confronted his time and what he suggests to us today.