Decolonial Pastoral Care for Cultural Trauma: Pastoral Theological Intervention in the Korean Context

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Very well argued paper that weaves the sociological, psychological, and pastoral theological disciplines very well together. 

In the conclusion, lines 483-484 state the following: "In the love and care of God, pastoral theology plays a key role in practicing restoration for cultural trauma.". It would be much stronger if you would specify more clearly what exactly this "key role" looks like. This could be by stating clearly how the bringing together of jeong and han implied in the section (4.2) on Decolonial Pastoral care for Korean Cultural Trauma would look like.

Author Response

I sincerely appreciate your willingness to take the time to review this manuscript. As I thoroughly agree with your comments, I added clearer descriptions of the function of the "key role" of pastoral theology by portraying the role of han/jeong dynamics in the process of cultural trauma. The descriptions are as follows: Through the caring activities facilitated by pastoral theological intervention, divine love can be actualized for the Korean cultural trauma by re-membering the dis-membered identity of the Korean collectivity through the han/jeong dynamic embedded in the Korean culture (Rogers-Vaughn 2016). On the one hand, han can promote a collective rupture in the mourning process through which the trauma can be remembered and reimagined in a reconstruction of healthy cultural interpretation (Alexander 2004; Watkins and Shulman 2008). On the other hand, jeong reconnects the ruptured relationship between “us” and “others” in restoring mutuality and a liberative view of the colonial world.

This paragraph will be added between lines 484-485.

Please let me know if you have any other comments. I am eager to accept and reflect on your constructive feedback for my essay.

Thank you.

Reviewer 2 Report

Methodological notes:

The author uses the works of J. Alexander as a conceptual framework. Why doesn't he use other methodological works on the study of injuries? For example, Caruth C. Trauma: Explorations in memory. – Baltimore (MD): Johns Hopkins univ. press, 2014; Caruth C. Listening to trauma: Conversations with leaders in the theory and treatment of catastrophic experience. – Baltimore (MD): Johns Hopkins univ. press, 2014.  Alexander J.C. On the social construction of moral universalism: The «Holocaust» from war crime to trauma drama // European j. of social theory. – L., 2001. – Vol. 5, N 1. – P. 5–85. Hirsch M. The Generation of Postmemory. // Poetics Today, 2008, 29(1), p. 103-128. Assman A. Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archives (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2012);

It is unclear why the author examines the situation with Nakba in such detail. It looks like an attempt to show the author's political views. And this contradicts the principle of scientific objectivity. Rather, we should turn to traumatic memory in Vietnam (the division into north and south Vietnam in the 1950s and 1970s). If we are talking about the influence of Christianity and Christian theology in a situation of occupation or constant pressure in society, we should also turn to the history of Hitler's Germany (1933-1945) and post-war divided Germany (1945-1989). We could also consider the traumatic memory of people who survived the Soviet Gulag.

Notes to the content:

There is no general overview of the history of the Church in Korea. What denomination or denomination is the article about? Is this Pentecostalism? Has the author seen Alan Anderson's writings on Korean Pentecostal theology and the history of the Korean Pentecostal movement?

In general, the article is largely devoted to describing the situation in other countries and practically does not touch on the Korean context. Although based on the content of the abstract and the title of the article, I would like to read more about Pastoral Theological Intervention

proofreading required

Author Response

Thank you so much for your review. Please see the attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I thank the author for his detailed responses to the review. I do think the article addresses an important and interesting topic. Undoubtedly, the topic of studying trauma in the Third World is important for the contemporary decolonial agenda.

However, I have a few questions. So, I believe that the author should more clearly explain that when he talks about the Korean Church, he is writing about Protestantism, and not about Christianity in general. The first time he mentions Protestantism is in a quotation from Wells (1990, p. 1) (see lines 299-305).

I think that the statement about the similarities between Israeli nationalism (Zionism) and Korean nationalism can be considered fair. But I still don’t understand why it is so important for the author not only to point this out, but also to devote almost an entire section to discussing Jewish and Israeli problems. Maybe he should have described the Korean Church in more detail instead.

The reference to Bashir and Goldberg (line 287) will be confusing to readers because it refers to the topic of Israeli-Palestinian relations rather than to the topics of anti-Japanese discourse and anti-communism.

In my opinion, the quality of the English language of the article has improved.

Author Response

I deeply appreciate the reviewer's comments and am willing to revise some confusing terms, such as Christianity to Protestantism, for clarification.

However, I still view that the discussion of Israel/Palestine relations is necessary to explain the significance of colonial nationalism. The discussion describes the colonial denotation of Israeli nationalism, which is similar to the Korean. Also, I wanted to add a decolonial view of Jewish cultural trauma that Alexander successfully examined.

I deleted the confusing reference, Bashir and Goldberg from the line.

Thank you.