Faith, Agency, and Reconciliation: A Case Study of Clergywomen Navigating Polarization in Korean Protestantism

Abstract

Feminist and women religious scholars seek reconciliatory resources beyond the conservative/progressive binary that fuels conflicts, undermines communication and agency, and sustains oppressive structures. Drawing on feminist theology and religious anthropology, this qualitative study investigates how progressive clergywomen in South Korea exercise agency to move beyond this binary. It argues that their agency integrates resistance with measured accommodations of conservative elements, reflecting reconciliatory self-reconfigurations shaped by Korean historical and theological shifts across democratization, an intertwined conservative—progressive landscape, and personal influences, especially family. Central to this shift are (1) anthropological and theological reorientations that emphasize human vulnerability, resilient Christian faith/identity, and a shared foundation of Christian life transcending dichotomies—faith/activism, personal/social salvation, and oppressed minjung/oppressor—and (2) a rediscovery of conservative elements, including biblical centrality and everyday sharing. These reorientations find practical expression in contextual sensitivity, embodied faith, and a gradualist approach. Building on earlier scholarship—especially in Korea—that highlights conservative laywomen’s agency, this study analyzes rare cases of progressive clergywomen pursuing change amid tensions with conservative congregations, identifying feasible and sustainable pastoral resources. Their resistance to binary anthropology and their reconciliation of faith and social engagement contribute to renewing Minjung theology. The study further enriches religious anthropology by illuminating the organic interplay between personal and public motivations.

1. Introduction: Flourishing Through Tension

In exploring the Korean feminist Bible study model within the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PCRK; Han’guk Kidokkyo Changnohoe, Kijang)—a denomination known for representing the progressive strand of Korean Presbyterianism—I began my fieldwork by connecting with pastors in the Clergywomen’s Association. A male PCRK pastor I knew introduced me to one of its executive members, who invited me to join an upcoming educational program and noted that relatively few clergywomen lead Bible study—especially from a feminist perspective. She suggested several possible pastors to observe. The program, held in a small roundtable setting, offered two sessions on feminist biblical interpretation, and it was there that I first met Revs. Yeonhee Lee and Kyungok Ko.1 Both participated actively, showing particular interest in applying feminist biblical interpretation in congregational settings.

Revs. Lee and Ko belong to the generation that entered ministry after the institutional barriers to women’s ordination in Korean Protestantism had begun to loosen. While they gained new opportunities, both share the common challenge of securing their place within church settings that remain patriarchal. Recent data show that women remain a small minority among pastors and elders, and that ministry roles are still divided along rigid gender roles (Lim 2014; Ku and Na 2022; Pastoral Data Research Institute 2025).2

In light of these circumstances, there are three reasons for focusing on these two pastors. First, they represent rare examples of clergywomen who, in the face of the shared challenge, have sought meaningful change grounded in progressive/feminist consciousness. Second, their ministries exemplify the characteristic tension faced by Korean clergywomen—namely, negotiating between resistance and accommodation within a conservative, patriarchal structure. Other cases within the PCRK were situated in comparatively “safe zones,” such as churches where progressive values predominated, and resistance to feminist perspectives was minimal; a liberation-oriented congregation where a clergywoman engaged in co-pastoring with her progressive husband; or positions within denominational institutions. By contrast, these two pastors served in ordinary local congregations composed largely of conservative members, where they faced the constant risk of conflict and tension. Their trajectories not only illuminate the representative struggles of Korean clergywomen but also reveal the concrete approaches through which women negotiate ministry.

Meanwhile, my fieldwork prompted a gradual shift in my research perspective—from trying to define “feminist” or “progressive” ministry within a binary framework to recognizing that reconciliatory, contextually grounded practices may more effectively foster transformation in Korean Protestantism, not as abstract reform, but as concrete change in people’s lived lives. As I came to know the two pastors’ stories and ministries, I moved beyond the categories that had initially shaped my vision and began to reimagine a more grounded model of transformation.

Building on this reorientation, the present qualitative study explores the ministerial and personal agency of Revs. Lee and Ko, two clergywomen in the PCRK, focusing on how they navigate and reinterpret the conservative–progressive binary, through which they bring about transformations in both faith and practice.3 Rev. Lee serves as the primary case, while Rev. Ko offers a comparative lens that illuminates the broader context and diversity among PCRK clergywomen. The fieldwork consisted of individual interviews4 and direct observation of worship in both cases, along with participant observation of a Bible study group in the primary case.

1.1. Background

Rev. Lee recalls that in her early days of ministry, many congregants had never encountered a clergywoman before. Similarly, Rev. Ko recounted resistance during her appointment process. They recalled:

I began to work as a pastor at the age of thirty-four, five years after being ordained at twenty-nine. However, wherever I went, a female pastor was considered strange. In the event people had to address me, those around sixty couldn’t call me “pastor.” Instead, they would say, “Hey! [Ŏi~].” I remember the shock I felt at that moment.

—Rev. Lee

When I was appointed as an associate pastor, some of the senior deaconesses opposed it at first. One of them was especially vocal. In the church, people often say things like, “a female member detests a female pastor,” and such reasoning is often used as a rationale for not selecting clergywomen.[…] My senior pastor […] once said, ‘A female pastor can’t handle a church with more than 300 members.’

—Rev. Ko

These personal experiences reflect broader structural challenges clergywomen have faced within the Korean patriarchal culture5 and the fundamentalist evangelical orientation of Korean Protestantism.

The cultural matrix most decisive in shaping resistance to Korean women clergy is the Confucian tradition, which Korean feminist theologians identify as a principal source of patriarchal ideology in Korean society (H. A. Choi 2005; Chong 2008; N. S. Kang 1994). As Kim Seung Hae, a leading scholar of Korean Confucianism, has argued, Confucianism—though originally containing both egalitarian and hierarchical elements—was historically subverted into a patriarchal system during the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897) (S. H. Kim 1999). The Neo-Confucian patriarchy adopted by Joseon’s ruling elites entrenched hierarchical norms across social, political, and religious life, codified in household ethics that prescribed female subservience and rigid gender roles.

Although women played active leadership roles in early Korean Protestantism, most major denominations began restricting women’s participation and rejecting ordination from the 1930s, a trend commonly attributed to “fundamentalist theology, patriarchal practice, and clericalism” (Lim 2014, p. 125). Rooted in the Reformist tradition that shaped early Korean Christianity, conservative groups grounded their opposition in biblical inerrancy and literal interpretation, citing texts such as 1 Corinthians 14:34–35, 1 Timothy 2:11–15, and Genesis 2:18 (Kang et al. 2022; Ku and Na 2022).

By contrast, the most progressive denominations—the Korean Methodist Church and the PCRK—were the earliest to ordain women (1955 and 1974), reflecting their openness to biblical criticism, gender equality (Lim 2014, p. 124), and social engagement. The PCRK also became a leading force in the Minjung theology, a Korean expression of liberation theology. The Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK; Taehan Yesugyo Changnohoe Tonghap, Tonghap), a moderate evangelical denomination involved in both Minjung theology and the ecumenical movement, opened its pulpit to women in 1994 (Yi 1997). Korea’s primary Holiness denominations—indigenous Korean Protestant bodies rooted in the Wesleyan Holiness tradition (Korea Evangelical Holiness Church 2016; Chang 2025)—followed in the early 2000s, and the Korea Baptist Convention joined them in 2013 (Ku and Na 2022). Meanwhile, three major Presbyterian bodies—including the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (GAPCK; Taehan Yesugyo Changnohoe Haptong, Hapdong), the Kosin Presbyterian Church in Korea, and the Korean Presbyterian Church (Hapshin)—continue to bar women from pastoral leadership, maintaining a fundamentalist evangelical stance (Kang et al. 2022; Sin 2024).

However, even within denominations that permit women’s ordination—including the PCRK—female pastors continue to face significant institutional and cultural barriers to full ministerial participation. Recent data from a 2025 survey conducted across major Korean Protestant denominations indicate that female pastors still face structural discrimination, including limited opportunities for senior pastor appointments, lower salaries, fewer chances to preach, and persistent stereotypes that frame them as more suited for counseling and caregiving roles (Pastoral Data Research Institute 2025; Jung 2025; Newspower 2025).

Within this structural landscape, a central issue relevant to this study is the persistent binary between conservative (bosu) and progressive (jinbo) orientations that has long shaped Korean Protestantism. While the former has generally been associated with evangelical exclusivism, marked by biblical literalism, gender bias, sectarianism, and an emphasis on individual salvation, the latter with liberal inclusivism, embracing biblical criticism, gender equality, ecumenical openness, and social engagement (Lim 2014; S. Lee 2012). Yet, the boundary between them has never been clear-cut. Conservative evangelicalism contains both moderate and fundamentalist strands, and progressive circles also retain patriarchal and evangelical elements. Nevertheless, in Korea’s postwar context—shaped by the Korean War and the continued division of the peninsula—this binary has become intertwined with broader ideological conflicts, including democracy versus communism and uik (rightist) versus jwaik (leftist). This process has turned the binary into an essentialized socio-political cleavage that intensifies conflict and hostility both within Korean Christianity and across the wider society. For example, democratic and rights-based movements—including student activism for democratization, the Korean Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (KTEWU), and later civic protests demanding accountability in events like the Sewol Ferry disaster6—were frequently labeled jwaik by conservative-leaning individuals and politicians.

Recent scholarship has examined how this polarization shaped contemporary Christianity. Y.-S. Ahn (2012) characterizes mainstream conservative Christianity as a unified political force defending the status quo, while N. Kim (2016) argues that the Korean Protestant Right has reinforced patriarchal and hierarchical norms and marginalized groups such as “women, sexual minorities, gender nonconforming people” (N. Kim 2016, p. xii).

Given Korean clergywomen’s ambiguous status—embodying both the opportunities afforded by ordaining denominations and the ongoing negotiations demanded by patriarchal and polarized ministry and cultural settings—this study, grounded in the two clergywomen’s own narratives and ministry practices, examines their real, albeit limited, agency and capacity to effect change, particularly through a reconciliatory shift that destabilizes the polarized conservative-progressive framework.

1.2. Theory and Method

Korean feminist theologians have challenged the essentialization of Korean women as inherently oppressed or as passive victims, and have sought to develop inclusive and reconciliatory resources that move beyond the dichotomy which has reinforced conflict, division, exclusion, and hostility—thereby hindering communication and transformation, and ultimately perpetuating structures of oppression and discrimination.

Korean feminist theologians have emphasized women’s lived experiences as a theological source,7 redefining women as agents while attending to the heterogeneity and power dynamics within women’s communities (N. Kim 2005). Yet H. Yang argues that Korean Christian-centered feminism has often inherited the Western liberal feminist binary of “a secular, liberating West” versus “a religious, oppressive non-West,” thereby recognizing agency only when women seek “liberation from structural oppression” (Hyewon Yang 2019, p. 93). Drawing on non-Western feminist debates—including Islamic and Confucian feminisms—Yang contends that such approaches overlook the “multiple, complex contexts” and the needs that shape women’s subjectivities (Hyewon Yang 2019, p. 93). She proposes instead that agency should be interpreted within the value systems and life projects through which women construct their religious selves (Hyewon Yang 2019, p. 113).

This emphasis resonates with postcolonial feminist theories,8 which—despite their differing emphases—seek to redefine women as social and historical agents embedded in multiple and fluid contexts. Rejecting reductive portrayals of women as victims or “others,” these approaches highlight heterogeneity within the category of women and critique binary frameworks—such as man/woman, white/colored, and center/periphery—as products of colonial and Eurocentric hierarchies. Transnational feminists further stress the diverse geopolitical locations of women’s experiences, proposing, following Grewal and Kaplan (1994), a vision of “proliferating, multiple centers and peripheries” (Grewal and Kaplan 1994, p. 19).

Meanwhile, some Korean feminist and conservative women theologians have explored ways to bridge conservative and progressive Christianity, particularly by engaging anthropological studies that portray lay women in conservative churches as agents and by examining the reconciliatory potential of Scripture reading. Based on ethnographic work in a South Korean evangelical church, Kelly H. Chong (2006, 2008) shows that women’s apparent submission reflects ambivalent desires for subjectivity within the modern Confucian-patriarchal family, with church life fulfilling unmet needs for “social approval,” self-esteem, accomplishment, and moral character central to Confucian notions of human value (Chong 2008, p. 713). Evangelical historical theologian J. S. Lee (2013) interprets this as a meaningful form of agency that subtly resists traditional gender roles. Kang Ho-sook, working within biblical feminism, proposes women’s subjective readings of Scripture within conservative theology (H. S. Kang 2024).

Together, these studies complicate simplistic binaries—submission versus resistance, passivity versus agency, and conservatism versus progressivism—by illuminating the contradictory needs and subjectivities of lay Korean Christian women and by highlighting Scripture as a resource for agency. Building on these insights, my research positions itself within emerging reconciliatory approaches, shifting the focus from lay women in conservative contexts to clergywomen in progressive settings. It examines the dynamics of their agency and the theological and practical resources embedded in their reconciliatory shifts, drawing on anthropological studies of religion and on memory and auto/biographical studies.

This research draws on key insights from religious anthropological studies—especially those of Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, Sherry Ortner, Saba Mahmood, and Marla Frederick—whose work illuminates diverse forms of women’s agency across religious contexts.

Rosaldo (1974) distinguishes power from “culturally legitimized authority,” showing that women, even when excluded from formal authority, still exercise forms of power that extend into broader communities (Rosaldo 1974, pp. 32–34). Ortner (2006) further conceptualizes agency as socially embedded, taking shape within mutually constitutive relations of solidarity and power. The former encompasses “family, friends, kin, spouses or partners, children, parents, teachers, allies, and so forth,” while the latter includes “structures of inequality, and competition” (Ortner 2006, pp. 130–31). She concludes “agency does not exist as some natural or originary will; it takes shape as specific desires and intentions within a matrix of subjectivity9—of (culturally constituted) feelings, thoughts, and meanings” (Ortner 2006, p. 110).

Mahmood’s ethnography of women’s piety movements in Cairo reframes agency beyond resistance, foregrounding embodied, interior forms of agency such as piety and ethical self-cultivation (Mahmood 2011). Similarly, challenging the assumption that activism must be public (Frederick 2000, p. 34), Frederick’s study of African American Christian women portrays faith as a dynamic process of spiritual formation rather than fixed rituals or overt activism. Their spiritual path weaves together “accommodation and resistance” (Frederick 2000, p. 8), grounded in personal desires for growth and authentic concerns, as they draw on diverse resources—the Bible, ritual, embodied practices, institutional structures, and care for others (Frederick 2000, p. 15). Through this interplay, they critically negotiate their positions rather than simply conforming to external expectations. Frederick interprets this internal spiritual struggle—what she calls a “reconfiguration of the self” (Frederick 2000, p. 35)—as a subtle yet powerful form of agency (Frederick 2000, p. 34). She further destabilizes progressive/conservative binaries by showing that women’s desires often encompass tenderness, communion, and other values not captured by political framings (Frederick 2000, p. 11). Collectively, with attention to particular context and needs, these scholars broaden agency beyond resistance, activism, or formal authority, showing that it is shaped by social conditions and that its internal expressions are as essential as its public ones.

This study also draws on memory and auto/biographical scholarship—especially feminist approaches10—which reconceive memory and biography as shaped by the interplay between subjective experience and social contexts. This continual interaction generates new meaning and interpretation and shapes both collective and personal identity, as well as processes of transformation.

Taken collectively, these theoretical and methodological insights not only recognize women’s subjectivity beyond essentialist or victim-centered frameworks, but also promote a holistic and contextual approach that is needs-oriented and life-centered. Analytically, they highlight the heterogeneity and multiplicity among women’s experiences and underscore that agency must be understood as relational and dynamic, emerging not only in external and public domains but also in internal realms of faith, morality, solidarity, love, and emotional connection.

1.3. Arguments

This study argues that the lives and ministries of Revs. Lee and Ko, progressive clergywomen in Korea, cannot be confined to a monolithic framework of “progressive resistance.” Their agency involves not only overt resistance but also a spontaneous openness and accommodation toward traditionally conservative elements. This reconciliatory turn is not a form of compromise, but a dynamic process of self-reconfiguration shaped by interrelated forcess in the Korean public sphere—a democratization movement grounded in collective solidarity, a historical and theological reorientation spanning the pre- and post-democratization periods, and the paradox of a formally divided yet theologically and practically intertwined, progressive–conservative landscape—alongside personal factors, particularly family relationships.

Central to this shift are their anthropological and theological orientations: (1) a lived awareness of human vulnerability and sinfulness, which serves as the experiential grounding for a deepened emphasis on faith; (2) a recognition of the importance of forming a firm Christian identity rooted in confessional faith and understanding the church as a community of faith; and (3) a search for a shared ground of Christian life—embodied, for instance, in practices of sharing and socially engaged faith grounded in confession—beyond dichotomous conceptions such as conservative versus progressive, faith versus activism, personal salvation versus social engagement, oppressed minjung and oppressor. Equally significant is their rediscovery of two elements within conservative faith traditions—scriptural centrality as both a key source of empowerment and a core expression of the Christian vision, and everyday practices of sharing and love—which serve as vital theological resources.

Examining how this anthropological and theological reconfiguration has shaped their current ministries, this study finds that, in practice, their ministry is characterized by three key features: (1) contextual sensitivity, grounded in an awareness of the conditioned nature of human reality and the accompanying difficulty of transforming entrenched mindsets, which forms the foundation for adaptive and relational leadership; (2) an embodied faith that prioritizes lived experience over abstract ideals, and (3) a gradualist approach attentive to spiritual and contextual readiness and theological formation—together transforming rejection or silence into reflection and openness, cultivating a delicate yet gradually evolving relationship.

By closely tracing the processes through which the two clergywomen exercise their agency under the intersecting influences of Korea’s distinctive historical and religious context and their personal relationships—with a particular attention to their ongoing self-reconfiguration and how these changes are being applied in their present ministries—this study identifies the anthropological–theological reorientations and practical strategies and leadership that constitute their reconciliatory shift. In doing so, it demonstrates how their agency contributes to the flourishing of the congregations they serve. Building on these findings, this research proposes feasible and sustainable resources for embodying a reconciliatory vision of faith within Korea’s polarized yet heterogeneous religious and social landscapes.

2. Case Presentation: The Ministerial Journeys of Revs. Lee and Ko

Revs. Lee and Ko have enacted meaningful change through various initiatives. While this study focuses on their reconciliatory practices, a brief overview of their feminist and progressive efforts provides necessary context. Rev. Lee gradually gained recognition as a pastor, as people came to address her as “pastor.” She guided her early congregation—initially resistant to female clergy—to embrace and continue appointing women ministers. Rev. Ko eventually built a positive relationship with the senior deaconesses who had once opposed her. At Cham Church, where Rev. Lee currently serves, she has introduced gender-inclusive practices—such as sharing kitchen duties regardless of gender—and has gradually guided the congregation to move beyond a literalist approach to the Bible and become more open to diverse interpretive possibilities. The church has also engaged with the Small Church Movement and explored lay-led preaching models, though these have not yet been fully adopted by the congregation. In alignment with the shift toward Beyond-Growth, Beyond-Sexism, and Beyond-Clericalism, Rev. Lee has already implemented joint blessings and intends to encourage lay preaching when the congregation is ready. Rev. Ko likewise introduces various feminist theological interpretations and progressive perspectives through diverse sources, though she does so with careful discernment. While their ministries reflect enduring commitments to progressive and feminist ideals, it is their reconciliatory approach—manifested in diverse and creative ways—that ultimately defines their pastoral trajectories.

2.1. The Embodied Theology of Rev. Lee: Between Minjung, Faith, and Pastoral Praxis

Cham Church, a small PCRK congregation where Rev. Lee has served as senior pastor for about five years, was located in a modest hillside building that reflected the limited conditions in which its members lived. Still, the rooms were neat and warmly arranged, showing the quiet care Rev. Lee brought to the place. The interviews with her took place in the common room area.

2.1.1. Faith Formed Through Maternal Piety

Rev. Lee traces the beginnings of her faith to her mother’s conservative Holiness Church tradition. Remembering her mother’s faith and the vow made during her own illness, she said:

My mother originally came from the Holiness Church tradition—not the Yesŏng but Kisŏng. After she married, she founded a church in my father’s hometown, using the proceeds from selling three hundred pyŏng of rice paddies for its construction, and she evangelized her mother-in-law. She lived out her faith through her everyday life. She was skilled at sewing and cooking and always shared what she made, […] Everyone wanted to come to our house and stay there.

She raised her children in faith. When I was born, I suffered from a condition like asthma and had difficulty breathing, so at the hospital she dedicated me to Hananim [God], praying, “If You let this child live, I will offer her as Hananim’s servant.” From then on, she would often say, “Hananim saved your life, so you must serve Hananim.” Then, when I was in the third grade of elementary school, I underwent surgery for peritonitis, and again I prayed, “Since Hananim saved me once, You must save me again.” That was when I made my first confession [of faith].

The terms Yesŏng and Kisŏng refer to the two main branches of the Korean Holiness movement—the more fundamentalist Jesus Korea Holiness Church and the more moderate Korea Evangelical Holiness Church. Her clarification that her mother was Kisŏng indicates that their faith was shaped within this more moderate stream.

She recalls her mother with a sense of pride as a devoted believer who embodied her faith through a life of sharing with neighbors. Although Rev. Lee once dreamed of studying literature, she ultimately followed her mother’s wish that she become “a famous female revivalist like Rev. Choi Ja-sil.”11 During her school years, she refrained from drinking or smoking and devoted herself wholeheartedly to church life.

2.1.2. The Minjung Activism Period

She spent her early formative years in a conservative Holiness church, but when her family moved, it was a natural transition to shift to a progressive PCRK-affiliated church, which was attended by an elder who lived in their neighborhood, and she came of age there. However, she said her faith was conservative in that she “came to become a pastor as [her] mom had vowed after that healing experience.” When she studied to become a pastor at Hanshin University, the PCRK-affiliated seminary, she was initially uninterested in the program. That changed as she was gradually introduced to “Minjung” and feminist theology.

Minjung theology, rooted in the lived realities of the poor, laborers, and oppressed—collectively called the minjung—emerged in the 1970s under South Korea’s military dictatorship. Grounded in Jesus’ identification with the minjung, it seeks to continue his mission of liberation (Suh 1983, pp. 29–31; B.-m. Ahn 1990, p. 33). The minjung are understood not simply as “people,” “crowd,” or “Volk” (Suh 1983, p. 53), but as victims of political, economic, and social oppression and contradictions (Suh 1983, p. 31; B.-m. Ahn 1990, p. 33)—“those without rights” or “those who followed Jesus unconditionally and placed their hope in him” (B.-m. Ahn 1990, p. 25). Both Suh Nam-dong and Ahn Byung-mu locate theology in the hyŏnjang (“the lived site”) of the oppressed, rejecting abstract doctrinal approaches and instead interpreting historical events as sites of God’s ongoing work (B.-m. Ahn 1990, p. 26; Suh 1983, p. 79). Theology thus arises from participation in the struggles of the marginalized, reading their lived reality as a locus of divine revelation. Korean feminist theologians later expanded this perspective by developing a theology of “minjung women”(Y.-S. Choi 2013, p. 320), identifying oppressed women as theological and interpretive subjects (Y.-S. Choi 2013).

Influenced by this theological movement, many Christian university students stood in solidarity with the minjung, actively engaged in their struggles, and immersed themselves in the everyday realities of the minjung. The Minjung Church Movement emerged in the 1970s, as segments of the Korean church began to participate in the democratization movement in which many citizens were actively involved, under the country’s military dictatorship. Throughout the 1980s, numerous Minjung churches were established as communities oriented toward serving workers and the poor.

Prompted by Minjung and feminist theology, Rev. Lee began advocating for women sex workers in military camp towns. When college students attempted to teach them hairdressing skills, the women responded bluntly: “How much money can we make by learning that? We do [sex work] because we want to. You guys are only in your 20s and don’t know what you’re talking about. We’ll keep doing it because it pays better.” The encounter shocked her and exposed the harsh reality of the minjung—poor, abandoned, and trapped in cycles of suffering. This experience led her to envision the church as a church of the poor, and sparked skepticism towards conventional institutional churches. She also witnessed fighting and divisions within the church12 she attended, which made her struggle even worse. So, after college, she went to work in factories. While working first in an undershirt factory and later in a sewing factory that produced teddy bears, she was deeply shaken by the exploitative conditions endured by the women workers around her. Moved by their struggles, she began to serve them through education.

She then served for more than a decade at Danpoong and Hyang Churches—both rooted in the Minjung church movement and committed to ministry among laborers. At Danpoong Church, she worked as a junior pastor, laboring alongside congregants in the factories. She would clean for them when they were too exhausted, visit the sick in the middle of the night, and live among them as if they were family. After her ordination, she became the pastor of Hyang Church. During those six years of ministry, she encountered a series of turning points—each deepening her awareness and ultimately compelling a radical reorientation of her theology and practice.

2.1.3. Faith-Centered Reorientation

Before Korea’s democratization, the Minjung church operated under a collaborative leadership model, in which coordinators oversaw specific areas such as ministry, culture, and labor, and the pastor served as one among equals. The June 1987 uprising, which signaled the end of decades of military dictatorship, marked a decisive turning point in South Korea’s democratization. Responding to growing public calls for reform, the government issued the June 29 Declaration pledging direct presidential elections. Following democratization, the denomination underwent significant restructuring: the labor and culture sectors were reorganized into independent centers, and the church redefined itself as a faith-centered community.

At this juncture, Rev. Lee was appointed pastor of Hyang Church. She struggled to redirect the church’s orientation toward faith but faced resistance from the remaining laborers. She recalled a deep tension between her understanding of the church’s spiritual identity and its activist direction. She said:

There was a Christian Workers’ Training Camp in the summer. They said since most of our church members were young laborers, nearly everyone would go there, leaving only three or four representatives behind to attend Sunday worship. That was completely the opposite of my idea of church life. In my view, everyone should first attend worship, and then a few delegates could participate in the training. There were about twenty people in total, but when all of them left together… I felt… this isn’t right. Something is off here… (long pause)

They liked me and I did them too, but still, it was difficult to walk together in ministry. […] I thought, if I were volunteering at a labor center, that would be fine. But this is a church; its identity lies in faith. Because of that issue, I constantly clashed with the labor representative. He was older than I was, had attended the church longer, and even served as the regional head of the Christian Workers’ Association. […] At that time I wondered, Should I just stand there as a symbolic supporter? That might have some meaning, but isn’t that in conflict with my confession? Then I can’t do it. I resigned, right before Christmas.

Her decision came only after long hesitation and inner struggle. It marked the culmination of years of conflict, affection, and pain within the community—a quiet yet resolute step that closed one chapter of her ministry.

Another disorienting incident occurred during this period: a young male church member stole 200,000 won from her bag (equivalent to about $200 USD), money she had set aside to pay an afterschool teacher in the children’s program run by the church. Late one night, the young church member had dropped by the church. While she briefly stepped away to make him a cup of coffee, he was left alone. When she returned, he suddenly said he had to leave due to an urgent matter. The next morning, when she opened her bag to retrieve the teacher’s payment, the money was gone. It turned out that the young man had taken it—and he never returned to the church afterward. Given the economic context of the early to mid-1990s, it was quite a substantial amount of money. However, what distressed her most was the sense of betrayal—especially within a community where laborers were often idealized as near-messianic figures.

These two events—the unresolved conflict over church identity and the painful recognition of sinfulness even among the socially marginalized—led Rev. Lee to a sobering realization: “People don’t change. My efforts alone aren’t enough—without the Holy Spirit, human strength is insufficient.” This moment marked a profound turning point in her journey, as she came to recognize both the human limitations of the laborers and herself, and the indispensable role of the Holy Spirit in any truly transformative ministry.

On the other hand, during a three-week visit to a Canadian church in the mid-1990s—where she had been invited along with other women pastors—she encountered a pure and selfless faith embodied in the lives of elderly Canadian laywomen. She recalled:

Those elderly women, they would give small offerings—what we’d call one or five thousand won—and with that, they would invite struggling pastors from factory districts and hillside neighborhoods in Korea. They welcomed them with such sincerity and shared what little they had. That kind of simple generosity… it really broke something open in me.

She was, in effect, re-encountering the essence of faith she had witnessed in her mother’s life during childhood— a simple practice of sharing that was unencumbered by ideological frameworks or political rhetoric about the minjung. These experiences not only helped her overcome her skepticism toward conventional, established churches, but also deeply unsettled—and ultimately dismantled—her previously dualistic framework that divided the conservative and the progressive.

2.1.4. Encountering the Sincerity of Conservative Faith

Prompted by her struggles at the Minjung church with church identity and human limitation, and the sincere faith of elderly Canadian laywomen, she resolved to return to a more traditional congregation. She was subsequently appointed as an associate pastor at Jeon Church, a significantly larger congregation affiliated with the PCRK.

At this church, whose membership included some thirty-somethings affiliated with chaebol (major conglomerates) and a number of intellectuals, she experienced another moment of profound self-reflection. She was particularly struck by relatively affluent yet unassuming Christians who consistently shared with the underprivileged. Among them, one woman left a particularly deep impression on her. She said:

She saves even leftover coffee in a cup to avoid waste. She lives with only the bare essentials and is always looking for ways to help others. Encountering her overturned many of my preconceived notions about the wealthy. I came to see […] a certain sincerity and faithfulness in her life. It is said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:24). And yet, I witnessed people like her striving to live out that calling through acts of sharing and humility.

This encounter challenged her long-held prejudices against the so-called “haves” (ga-jin-ja) and became another moment that enabled her to recognize and appreciate the sincerity inherent in conservative faith.

Afterward, Rev. Lee served as an associate pastor at several relatively large churches. In late 2011, she was appointed senior pastor of a new congregation, Cham Church.

2.1.5. At Cham Church

Originally, the space of Cham Church was far from the warm and orderly atmosphere I later encountered. The conditions were harsher than she had expected; the space was lined with black aluminum frames, and the basement sanctuary felt almost completely dark. Only about fifteen members remained, most of them elderly, and many relied on the church for assistance. Worship attendance was irregular, and many left immediately after eating, giving the impression of a gathering centered more on meals than on worship. The first two or three years were particularly difficult. Yet, with the support of many people, Rev. Lee gradually transformed the space into a warm and vibrant place of worship.

The several Sunday worships I attended typically drew ten to fifteen congregants, including two lay leaders who served as primary informants—Hong Sang Gi, a male elder in his 60s, and Oh Chan Soo, a male deacon in his mid-50s—as well as Elder Hong’s wife, another female elder in her sixties, a young mother, and several middle-aged women. The service carried a warm, lively atmosphere, with the aroma of cooking and the occasional sounds of children drifting in from the kitchen. After worship, members shared lunch, coffee, and conversation before continuing into a small-group Bible study.

Her ministry there is best illustrated through the evolving phases of the small-group Bible study practices she has led since her arrival. She began with a loosely structured series of one-on-one Bible study sessions, rotating weekly among the congregants (Phase 1). These early studies focused on foundational theological concepts such as the church, Jesus, and worship. Because some members were functionally illiterate, textbook-based Bible study was not a viable option. Even this casual format proved challenging to sustain, leading Rev. Lee to shift to “mokjang13 worship”—a small-group format centered more on personal sharing than on structured instruction (Phase 2). The group would engage in about an hour of conversation, occasionally incorporating a short Bible passage.

After fostering greater familiarity and trust through this format, Rev. Lee introduced a beginner-level session on fundamental Christian doctrines—covering topics such as the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit (Phase 3). Older participants withdrew from these sessions over the course of time, leaving about seven or eight active members. For approximately one and a half years, these Bible studies were conducted at a relaxed pace, interweaving personal life sharing with theological discussion. Her approach was neither overtly feminist nor progressive, and she articulated concepts such as the Kingdom of God using standard biblical and theological resources.

Over time, she observed that many members struggled with interpersonal relationships and expressing emotions. For example, conflicts would occasionally arise over trivial matters, such as who would take home leftover food after church meals. Recognizing the need for emotional awareness, she selected a book related to anger management (Phase 4). The response was overwhelmingly positive. As she reflected, “They didn’t particularly enjoy the doctrinal study, but liked the book because it involved sharing personal experiences, doing self-assessments, and dealing with specific issues.” Each session began with a discussion of a relevant biblical passage, followed by personal life sharing. Although the workbook was originally designed to be covered in six weekly two-hour sessions, she proceeded slowly, taking breaks when needed, and extended the course across roughly seven months.

Her next choice of curriculum was a book titled The Book of Revelation Is Like Mugwort Rice Cake (Oh 2016) (Phase 5). The presence of religious groups labeled as heretical in the church’s neighborhood, including “Shincheonji”14 and “Hananim-ŭi Kyohwe,”15 prompted her to address the subject of eschatology. She reported that, while it was never confirmed, a former member suspected of being affiliated with Shincheonji had once been active in the church, but eventually left after failing to influence others. Because Revelation is a key scriptural source for such groups, in order to help church members avoid being misled by their claims, it was necessary to offer a clear theological explanation of the text. At the time of my fieldwork, around twelve individuals were participating in the Revelation study. The sessions were introductory in nature, helping members grasp the overall structure of the text. Rev. Lee noted that this was also her first time leading a study on Revelation.

Meanwhile, the distinctiveness of Rev. Lee’s ministry at Cham Church came into sharp focus during an open dialogue between her and the lay participants in one of the Bible study sessions I observed. This conversation gave her her first clear insight into the political leanings of her congregants. To her surprise, more than half identified as conservative—far more than she had anticipated. Elder Hong even alluded to ‘Red complex,’ expressing anxiety that those participating in protests related to the Sewol ferry disaster might be ‘Reds’ (ppal-gaeng-i), a term historically laden with anti-communist sentiment. What struck Rev. Lee most deeply was the fact that these same members had remained silent during previous sermons and activities in which her progressive stance had been expressed.

In a follow-up interview after the session, Rev. Lee recalled several earlier episodes that, in hindsight, hinted at her congregants’ political inclinations. On one occasion, she had suggested attending a prayer meeting for victims of the Sewol ferry disaster with Elder Hong. He drove her to the venue, but to her surprise, dropped her off and left without participating—she had assumed he would join, since it was a worship service. On another occasion, Rev. Lee considered attending a protest organized by seminarians in support of evicted residents. However, when she brought it up with her congregation, she realized that many opposed the idea. “I suggested it gently,” she recalled, “and they said, ‘No, we support the redevelopment. The area needs to be cleaned up and apartments built.’ So I couldn’t go—with the congregation, at least—not publicly. Their perspectives were too different.”

Theologically, too, there remained ongoing differences of opinion and underlying tension. When Rev. Lee introduced a revised version of the Apostles’ Creed, the congregation preferred the traditional one, which she accepted with understanding. Similarly, when feminist theological themes emerged during Bible study, she sought to interpret them through a feminist lens. Anticipating her absence one Sunday, she invited Rev. Seo Ah Kang, a fellow clergywoman, to preach—fully aware that Rev. Kang would address the topic of women’s leadership. Afterward, Rev. Lee overheard Deacon Oh questioning whether such issues were necessary. These moments revealed that, even after five years of ministry, Rev. Lee was still learning to navigate the congregations’ differences—seeking common ground and cultivating a language of communication and persuasion amid tension and conflict.

Despite holding differing theological and political orientations, Rev. Lee and her congregants have been able to practice their faith together without major conflict or disruption. Regarding how she and her congregation have sustained a delicate yet gradually evolving relationship, Rev. Lee explained that while her previous ministry at a Minjung church was “very radical,” she has adopted a more gradual and measured approach at the relatively conservative Cham Church. At the Minjung church, she offered biblical interpretations grounded in Minjung and feminist liberation theology, reformulated confessions of faith, and delivered overtly political sermons. In her current context, she intentionally moderates her tone to match the congregation’s receptiveness, “proceeding slowly, allowing things to gradually soak in.” She recounted the Bible study session in which the congregation’s conservative tendencies became apparent. On that day, she said, she deliberately touched on sensitive topics such as the end times and political power, addressing them cautiously and only in passing. Had she spoken more bluntly, she believed, those holding divergent opinions would likely have remained silent. Further, Rev. Lee explained that she exercises great caution in revealing her progressive stance, often framing her views in a way that resonates with conservative sensibilities and introducing liberal ideas only gradually and in moderation. She interpreted the congregation as perceiving her as leaning somewhat toward the opposition side—moderately progressive, yet not explicitly partisan or political—but as seeking instead to “speak critically from a prophetic standpoint.”

Although she did not state it explicitly, her inclusive and non-authoritarian style created a foundation for coexistence and gradual transformation amid differences and tension. Elder Hong exemplifies this shift. In the early years, he rarely voiced an opinion, often saying, “Pastor, you can decide.” After nearly three years of her steady encouragement, he gradually began to open up—first occasionally, then with humor and confidence. Though Rev. Lee was initially surprised to discover that more than half the congregation were politically conservative, she was grateful that those who had long remained silent were beginning to speak.

Within this widening space of mutual tolerance, Rev. Lee continues to engage congregants’ perspectives with care, gently encouraging them to explore new theological and social horizons. Reflecting on this shift, she said:

I think the congregation has become a bit freer. In the past, they were very bound by things, but now they are more open about the church and the Bible. For instance, Deacon Oh once said, ‘It’s not as if there’s only one interpretation.’ […] The ability to see the text without absolutizing it is so important. I think they’ve begun to understand—even without saying it aloud—that the pastor doesn’t have the ultimate answer, nor is it found solely in the Bible.

This change signals a gradual movement from rigid literalism toward a more dialogical and reflective faith. Despite ongoing tension between Rev. Lee’s liberationist and feminist commitments and the congregation’s conservative inclinations, both sides continue to nurture a dynamic and delicate yet gradually evolving community of faith.

2.2. From Protest to Confession in Rev. Ko’s Ministry: Navigating Faith Between the Text and the World

My first interview with Rev. Ko took place on a weekday at a café near the church where she was then serving. That congregation, located on the second floor of a large commercial building, had roughly two to three hundred members. Several months later, after an incident prompted her departure from the church, I conducted a follow-up interview at her new—much smaller—congregation, where she had begun serving as an associate pastor. This second interview was held in her small office, crowded with teaching materials, printouts, and various supplies.

2.2.1. Early Formation Through Protest and Kijang Ethos

Rev. Ko began her account of her faith journey by explaining that she grew up attending a church affiliated with the Yejang tradition. In contemporary Korean usage, the term ‘Yejang’ (short for Taehan Yesugyo Changnohoe) generally refers to the two largest Presbyterian bodies—PCK (Tonghap) and GAPCK (Hapdong). She did not specify which of these two bodies she belonged to. She later moved to the more progressive PCRK, a transition she recalled in the following way:

A church elder from Yejang once said he would send me to seminary. I attended a Yejang [-affiliated congregation] until middle school. Then, in my first year of high school, I moved to a Kijang [-affiliated congregation]. At that time, our school principal was corrupt, and we protested against him. I was the student president—or maybe a representative—and the police even came to the school. It sounds funny now, but back then we were completely serious. There was a teacher who was what we used to call a “conscientizing (ŭisik’hwa)” teacher, and perhaps his influence played a part… I came to join the Kijang Church. When I moved to that church, I thought: If it’s not Hanshin, then no other seminary matters.

She located the origins of her faith journey in the intersection of moral awakening and collective resistance, seeing her shift to the Kijang Church not merely as denominational but as a moral awakening.

She also noted that she had been influenced by a teacher associated with ŭisik’hwa. Translated as “conscientization,” ŭisik’hwa (意識化) denotes a transformative process through which individuals move from passive acceptance to critical awareness of social contradictions and inequalities (Seoul National University Institute of Education 1995). In Rev. Ko’s case, this process can be situated within the broader context of the democratization movements of the 1970s and 1980s. Under an oppressive military dictatorship, various sectors of Korean society engaged in educational and organizational efforts to cultivate critical awareness of social structures and promote resistance and social transformation. It is widely believed that some schoolteachers, especially those affiliated with the KTEWU, a progressive labor union composed of primary and secondary school educators, either directly or indirectly participated in these activities.16

From that point onward, she strongly embraced the identity and theological character of the PCRK and Hanshin Seminary—advocacy for social justice and human rights, a quality she explicitly names as “kijang-sŏng (基長性),”17 a term widely used in Korean Protestantism to denote the distinctive ethos of the PCRK. She said:

Though things are a bit different now, I used to be someone who believed any seminary other than Hanshin was worthless. I studied there with that conviction. But after I graduated, I began reading books I had never encountered at Hanshin—those so-called conservative or “evangelical” books—and gradually, my thinking began to change. That’s how I came to be where I am now.

In this statement, she simply attributes her shift toward a more conservative orientation to her engagement with conservative and “evangelical” literature after graduation. However, in the latter part of the interview, she also referred to a more personal factor.

2.2.2. Marriage and Conservative Shift

She observed conservative expressions of faith within her husband’s family, who had endured profound hardships—including the successive deaths of their children and severe business difficulties. Her mother-in-law, who had once relied on fortune tellers and shamanistic practices,18 eventually converted to conservative Christianity. Her reflections suggest that they prompted her to re-examine and study conservative forms of faith from a new angle.

She also noted that many ministers trained at Hanshin Seminary tend toward a conservative orientation—though not fundamentalism—and she counts herself among them:

Except for a few churches like the Hyangrin Church or others that consciously identify themselves as so-called having kijang-sŏng… most Hanshin graduates, in my observation, are not fundamentalists, but many do lean somewhat conservative. Often, it’s not because of deep theological reflection or rigorous training; many pastors, relying on ready-made programs and such in circulation, develop conservative tendencies.

I think I was one of them, too… Still, [this shift] definitely gave me a chance to get closer to the Bible itself. Reading Scripture helped me to make a clearer confession of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And as I grew in that, I began to realize how much I had long neglected what we might call the “kijang-sŏng,” a Christian’s responsibility toward society or perhaps a kind of personal responsibility.

So by establishing the foundation of this confession of faith, one can embrace even those aspects. That seems to be how it works. The more you truly read Scripture and draw near to it—though at times, it may require courage.

This transformation, she explained, clarified her confession of faith and, paradoxically, renewed her appreciation for kijang-sŏng. She added that her ministry has not been strongly “Hanshin-oriented,” and that she has experienced relatively little tension within the denomination, perhaps due, in part, to her years of serving under a male senior pastor who recognized her competence.

2.2.3. Bible and Integration

Over time, she has sought to align herself more consciously with the PCRK’s theological identity, describing her journey as one of integration and reconciliation—an effort to embody what she regards as the essence of Christianity. Her commitment to this integrative vision is mostly clearly expressed in the Bible study ministry to which she has devoted herself with zeal.

Since 2012, Rev. Ko has led a well-received Bible reading program titled “The Whole Bible Reading School” (Sŏnggyŏng ildok hakkyo), originally developed by Ae-sil Lee and centered on her book series Oh? Now I Can Read the Bible (O, Sŏnggyŏng-i ilgŏjine). Lee is a Bible educator whose theological background is shaped by training in conservative Presbyterian institutions,19 and this widely used series arranges the Bible in chronological order so that readers can engage with it as a continuous story. Noting that many congregants had never read the Bible from beginning to end, Rev. Ko adopted the program as a way to guide them through a complete reading.

Although the materials contain some conservative elements, she considers them highly effective for helping people read Scripture with interest and from their own interpretive perspective. Notably, she identifies and evaluates two features of the materials that align closely with her pedagogical and theological aims: first, they encourage participants to read Scripture—even once—with their own perspective in mind, and second, they help cultivate the ability to confess Jesus Christ as Savior, Redeemer, and the living God. At the same time, she pointed out that the program—initially structured as two intensive lecture-based units, thirteen weeks on the Old Testament and twelve on the New—left little room for questions or shared reflection, as each session typically consisted of nearly two hours of continuous teaching. Although congregants enjoyed the lectures, Rev. Ko felt that this format offered fewer opportunities for deeper engagement. As a result, she is now considering pedagogical adjustments—such as reducing lecture time and adding space for questions or one or two guided discussion prompts—to foster more lasting learning.

In this way, she adapts Lee’s program to her own theological and pedagogical aims—emphasizing reading Scripture through one’s own lens, actively drawing on the curriculum’s confessional, Christ-centered orientation, and incorporating a more interactive approach.

More specifically, Rev. Ko described her approach to Scripture as story-oriented, noting that it can at times resemble a literal reading. The background of this interpretive stance became evident in several ways during fieldwork. She implied that most members of her former congregation leaned toward conservative evangelicalism. The senior pastor with whom she had worked for many years preached in an expository, verse-by-verse manner, carefully unpacking each passage—a method commonly associated with conservative evangelical traditions.

At the same time, her interpretive practice has been gradually expanding in scope. To enrich her readings, she draws on a wide range of resources, including biblical commentaries and materials that explore historical, cultural, and social backgrounds. She explained that the messages she discerns through historical contextualization are primarily applied to issues of personal maturity. However, she acknowledged that she has not yet extended these interpretations to address broader social phenomena in Korean society. She is also increasingly attentive to the original biblical text, as she has discovered that the meanings can differ significantly from previously held interpretations, broadening theological reflection.

Notably, Rev. Ko has also been gradually introducing new perspectives. She has presented alternative theories of creation and diverse positions on creation science, suggesting that divine creation may have unfolded through a variety of possible processes. In her efforts to incorporate a feminist theological perspective, she has taken a twofold approach. First, when the textbook used in her Bible reading course presented an androcentric interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative or depicted the story of Adam and Hawah in ways that portrayed woman (Hawah) as entirely subordinate to male authority, she supplemented this reading by referencing interpretations from other resources, including books written from a feminist approach. Second, when the textbook discussed women who played active roles in the New Testament church, she gently introduced feminist theological insights. She is currently studying how to approach the topic of homosexuality in ways that invite reflection rather than rejection. Notably, she observed that as trust deepened between her and her congregants, some became more open to the liberal ideas she introduced.

In essence, Rev. Ko is working to broaden interpretive horizons—maintaining a foundation in faith-based, literal biblical reading while thoughtfully integrating alternative theological and interpretive perspectives and encouraging congregants to develop interpretive agency.

3. Analytic Discussion: Reconfiguring Agency, Reconciling Faith

While I acknowledge that my case presentation inevitably leaves out certain facts and interpretations, I now turn to analyze their ministerial journeys, drawing on anthropological scholarship alongside memory and auto/biographical studies. Attending to the social and subjective dimensions of intersectional experience, this section approaches the clergywomen’s life stories and memories as socially and theologically mediated narratives—dynamic sites in which agency and interpretation are continually reconstituted and desires for transformation surface.

3.1. Context: Struggling at the Intersections of Korea’s Democratization and Religious Landscape

The formation of agency and the transformations in the ministries and lives of Revs. Lee and Ko unfolded at the intersection of multiple factors embedded in their lived experiences. Drawing on Ortner’s concept of the social embeddedness of agents, their agency can be understood as a relational and situated practice—one simultaneously constituted by solidarity and conditioned by power structures. It was nurtured through relationships with parents, family members, spouses, teachers, and various people they encountered in ministry, yet constrained by broader structural and socio-religous configurations of power—including military dictatorship, an undemocratic and unjust educational system, the democratization movement, gender inequality within church hierarchies influenced by Confucian culture, a polarized politico-religious framework divided between progressivism and conservatism, and, to a lesser extent, recurring church schisms. Among these factors, the most formative forces related to their reconciliatory turn were the democratization process and the binary framework of progressivism and conservatism, around which contextual dynamics can be understood.

Their theology and pastoral practices unfolded amid the broader democratization struggle that swept across nearly all sectors of Korean society in the 1980s and beyond, against the backdrop of military dictatorship and unjust, undemocratic social structures. During this period, citizens fought for freedom and survival, while teachers led the so-called “conscientization” movement, challenging corruption in private schools and advocating for a more humanizing education. The democratization movement thus functioned as a collective formation of solidarity—a nationwide alliance grounded in a shared longing for transformation. Progressive Christian activists expressed solidarity with the oppressed through active involvement in the Minjung movement.

Yet, as democratization advanced following the June Democratic Uprising of 1987, the progressive Christian movement faced the challenge of reimagining its theological vision and strategies. The pastoral trajectories of Revs. Lee and Ko illustrate two distinct yet resonant responses to this shifting landscape.

Rev. Lee’s encounter with Minjung theology and the marginalized led her into a radical, Minjung-oriented ministry. In the post-democratization period, her effort to transition the Minjung church from labor-centered activism to a faith-centered ministry entailed deep theological struggles that culminated in what may be described as a reconciliatory turn—a shift from oppositional activism toward a mode of ministry that sought to hold together faith and social transformation, and worship and justice. Similarly, Rev. Ko’s early act of resistance against an unjust school principal—an act shaped by conscientizing teachers—sparked her turn toward a progressive faith grounded in social justice. Although personal circumstances later led her to adopt more conservative positions, this early formative experience laid the groundwork for her own reconciliatory transformation, enabling her to integrate personal piety with social concern in her later ministry.

Furthermore, the ministries of both pastors reveal the pervasive impact of the binary framework of progressivism and conservatism, while simultaneously highlighting that progressive and conservative Christianity are not discrete categories. The PCRK has simultaneously operated as a relational force of solidarity with the marginalized and as a structural entity constrained by patriarchal and hierarchical systems. Moreover, within this progressive denomination, churches with a distinct liberationist orientation remain a minority, and as Rev. Ko explicitly noted, many pastors lean toward conservatism. Conservative Christianity, too, exhibits a dual nature: alongside its restrictive ideologies lie genuine foundations for connection and communion—manifested in love, generosity, and acts of sharing within congregational life. Furthermore, within conservative denominations, there exists a division between moderate evangelical churches that are open to social engagement and biblical criticism and those that remain more fundamentalist.

While they shared the same historical, social, and religious milieu, the two pastors underwent distinct processes of self-reconfiguration, shaped by personal experiences, relational dynamics, and ministry environments. For Rev. Lee, who grew up within a conservative Holiness church and under the influence of her mother’s all-embracing life of faith, key turning points included her immersion in the Minjung movement, engagement with female laborers, church schisms, an incident involving theft by a young worker, and encounters with senior Canadian laywomen and a wealthy deacon. For Rev. Ko, who had been a faithful member of the conservative PCK, formative influences included her confrontation with an unjust principal, the guidance of conscientization teachers, an exclusive yet radical conversion toward kijang-sŏng, and theological and personal reorientations that unfolded through her marriage.

It is notable that, as Ortner suggests, these dimensions of social embeddedness—solidarity and power—are dialectically intertwined, a dynamic most evident in (1) a democratization movement grounded in collective solidarity, and (2) the often obscured heterogeneity of pastoral realities that constituted both progressive and conservative camps. Characterized by these dynamics of heterogeneity and ambiguity, these intersections capture the complex processes that shaped the pastoral agency of both Lee and Ko within Korea’s unique socio-historical landscape before and after democratization, deeply intertwined with the conservative/progressive binary. Such heterogeneity not only complicates the binary framework but also redefines what Revs. Lee and Ko’s agency might mean in contemporary Korean Christianity, particularly amid ongoing struggles with ecclesial polarization and theological realignments after democratization.

3.2. Reconfiguring Agency

Despite occupying marginalized positions, Revs. Lee and Ko act as agents of change grounded in their specific contexts. Even within a still patriarchal ministerial environment—marked by unavoidable tensions and conflicts—they tenaciously seized the opportunities that followed the long struggle for women’s ordination, dedicating themselves to embodying what they regarded as the essence of the Christian faith and to effecting meaningful transformation. Their ministries exemplify the form of women’s power that Rosaldo describes—emerging without formal authority yet extending beyond domestic boundaries to influence the wider community.

A fuller understanding of their agency and the transformation it enabled can be gained through Frederick and Mahmood’s insights into the inner dimensions of agency. As religious female leaders, both pastors sought to improve the lives of their congregations and local communities through faith and practice. They positioned themselves in opposition to the political and religious power structures of South Korea during and after the democratization era, although the intensity and forms of their resistance differed. Their agency—characterized by a desire to transform others’ or public lives and by a resistant will—was more closely tied to public and external motivations than that of the laywomen studied by Frederick and Mahmood. This study argues that, even within a context where their agency was largely oriented toward public transformation, the pastors’ self-aware subjectivity and capacity for inner reconfiguration ultimately served as the primary driving forces in the dialectical process through which their ministerial goals were realized.

For Rev. Lee, four major stages of reconfiguration can be identified. The initial stage of self-reconfiguration, for someone who had held a conservative faith, was shaped by Minjung theology, the realities of the marginalized, and church schisms, leading her to reconceive the church as a community for the poor and to devote herself to the Minjung movement. The second arose from her struggle to transform a labor-centered ministry into a faith-centered community. The third is prompted by confronting human sinfulness among the oppressed—an encounter that shattered idealized images of the minjung. The fourth, influenced by the genuine acts of sharing and humility among conservative laywomen in Canada and Korea, led her to re-embrace certain aspects of conservative faith and to move beyond the binary divide between oppressed minjung and oppressor or the have-nots and the haves.

Rev. Ko’s self-reconfiguration unfolded in three phases. The first was shaped by her resistance to an unjust principal and the influence of conscientizing teachers, leading to a progressive orientation grounded in justice. The second emerged through encounters with her in-laws’ conservative religiosity, which reoriented her toward a conservatism grounded in Scripture and expressed through personal confession of faith. The third, grounded in biblical centrality, paradoxically brought her back to the progressive conviction that the church must pursue social justice, prompting her to integrate this conviction into her conservative pastoral context.

Memory theorists remind us that recollection is not a passive repository but an active medium through which agency is revealed and continually reconstituted. Alessandro Portelli, in particular, underscores the epistemic significance of subjectivity in memory and its transformative force. Memory, he writes, is “an active process of creating meanings” (Portelli 1991), through which narrators reinterpret the past, impose coherence, and situate their testimonies within broader horizons—an effort that itself produces change. Seen in this light, both pastors’ memories of early experiences within conservative faith served as latent catalysts for later reconciliatory reorientation. For Rev. Lee, her recollection of her mother’s practice of sharing—a virtue she later rediscovered among conservative congregants—became a pivotal moment. Both pastors also emphasized confession of faith as both a theological anchor and a hermeneutical compass in navigating their evolving ministries. For Rev. Ko, a distinctive formative memory centered on kijang-sŏng and Hanshin. Taken together, these narratives suggest that what each pastor regards as core to faithfulness—sharing, confession of faith, and kijang-sŏng—emerged from their own contextually mediated interpretations. Whether conservative or progressive, their remembered pasts became generative impulses for their reconciliatory turn.

A closer examination of the processes through which their agency is enacted allows for a fuller understanding of how their efforts orient the faith and everyday lives of their church communities toward flourishing.

3.3. Reconciling Faith

Despite their divergent paths, Revs. Lee and Ko both embody a theologically reconciliatory posture—one that integrates dual trajectories in ministry—though their distinct approaches have been shaped by differences in personal and pastoral backgrounds as well as in the nature of their self-reconfigurations.

For Rev. Lee, who grew up in a conservative family attending a Holiness church, the transition from that conservative denomination to the more progressive PCRK, along with her enrollment in its affiliated Hanshin seminary, brought a certain openness but did not constitute a decisive turning point. By her own account, it was a natural one, guided by a nearby elder. Another possible factor, as Rev. Lee herself clearly noted, may lie in the fact that her family belonged to the Kisŏng branch of the Holiness denomination rather than the more fundamentalist Yesŏng. Her mother, who had vowed to make her daughter a pastor and regarded Rev. Choi Ja-sil, a pioneering female pastor, as a model, suggests that Rev. Lee was shaped by her mother’s more moderate evangelical faith.

The first stage of self-reconfiguration led her faith toward a liberationist shift. Her faith resonated deeply with Minjung theology, which centers on belief in a God who stands with and saves the oppressed. After the democratization era, however, the struggles to transform the Minjung church into a faith-centered community—along with the subsequent self-reconfigurations that occurred throughout her more traditional pastoral journey—brought about significant changes. Most importantly, her experience within the Minjung church exposed the tension between activism and faith, leading her to reaffirm the primacy of faith and the church’s identity as a community of believers.

Her decision to resign from Hyang Church, made after a prolonged inner struggle, reflected her conviction that the church’s true identity must be rooted in worship and faith rather than social activism alone. She came to believe that a sustainable community cannot be built on abstract ideals or external causes, but must instead grow from a clearly formed spiritual and ecclesial identity. Accordingly, she emphasizes nurturing Christian identity through Scripture reading and worship, which she regards as indispensable sources of spiritual strength—elements she found lacking in the Minjung church movement. “Unless the Bible becomes a personal source of strength, and worship remains alive,” she insists, “the church cannot possess real power.”

The reaffirmation of the church’s identity was, in turn, closely linked to her deepened understanding of faith. For Rev. Lee, stepping down was more than an administrative act—it was a confession of faith. Her understanding of faith gradually broadened through her attempts to apply a liberationist vision in practice, during which she came to a profound awareness of the existential limits of human beings—their limited capacity as agents of change and their moral vulnerability. This acute recognition of human limitation awakened her to the necessity of divine grace, and perceiving the work of the Holy Spirit and of Christ as filling it. Thus, she realized that genuine transformation toward her liberationist vision must be grounded in firm faith and in the establishment of spiritual and ecclesial identity—an understanding deeply shaped by her awareness of the limits inherent in any human-centered effort for change and the indispensable need for divine assistance.

Another crucial aspect of her theological reconfiguration is expressed in her pursuit of a shared ground of faith that transcends dualistic divisions. Several meaningful encounters led her to question the binary oppositions internalized through Minjung-theological discourse—such as “the privileged” versus “the minjung,” or “the haves” versus “the have-nots”—deepening her understanding of Christian solidarity not as mere identification with the marginalized, but as a shared journey of humility, stewardship, and faithfulness before God, in which love and sharing constitute the very heart of communal faith life.

In other words, she became acutely aware of aspects that had been less emphasized in progressive faith practices —such as a weakened sense of faith in God, a lack of rooted spiritual identity and devotional life, an overreliance on human-driven change, and an essentialist, dualistic understanding of the human condition. At the same time, this recognition was accompanied by a reaffirmation of the enduring value and sincerity inherent in certain conservative theological practices and faith expressions. Among the most significant elements she came to revalue were Scripture- and worship-centered spirituality, as well as acts of sharing, love, and humility grounded in faith. This theological re-envisioning constitutes a key dynamic in her reconciliatory ministry.

Rev. Ko’s faith journey also developed in a reconciliatory direction, though its concrete expression differs from that of Rev. Lee. She was growing into a promising future leader within the Presbyterian Church. It is unclear whether she belonged to PCK (Tonghap) or GAPCK (Hapdong), as she did not specify this distinction; therefore, it is difficult to determine whether her early faith was more moderate or more fundamentalist. Nevertheless, the transition to the PCRK was a dramatic event that brought about her first self-reconfiguration. Unlike Rev. Lee, who did not use the term kijang-sŏng and instead described her progressiveness through a Minjung-theological orientation, Rev. Ko repeatedly articulated hers through the term kijang-sŏng. Her narrative—emphasizing that, at the time, she deliberately and exclusively aligned herself with Hanshin University and kijang-sŏng—suggests that, following the decisive moral incident in high school, she radically redefined her faith identity within the binary framework of PCK (Yejang) versus PCRK (Kijang), or more broadly, of conservatism versus progressivism. In this process, the justice-oriented values symbolized by kijang-sŏng and Hanshin—set in contrast to the conservatism of the PCK to which she had belonged—most likely became for her a coherent and restorative interpretive framework that helped her recover a sense of spiritual and moral integrity in the midst of the moral conflict she had experienced in the face of injustice. In this respect, her faith, compared to that of Rev. Lee, emerged more explicitly from the conservative–progressive binary framework.

Subsequently, after completing her studies, she did not devote herself to the Minjung movement but instead got married and served in several conservative congregations within the PCRK, most of which were, in fact, conservative despite the denomination’s progressive reputation, where she engaged in ministry similar to that of other moderate evangelical pastors in the denomination. Her family history and pastoral experiences in conservative congregations most likely enabled her to recognize the value of conservative faith—particularly its capacity to sustain those who struggle to overcome the tragedies of family loss and economic hardship. At the same time, these experiences appear to have shifted her focus toward personal growth and salvation, deepening her appreciation for Scripture-centered spirituality and the personal confession of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Redeemer. In particular, the biblical centrality emphasized in conservative churches became a key catalyst for her reaffirmation of the essential significance of kijang-sŏng, marking an important turning point in her reconciliatory journey.

That is, her dialectical pastoral journey led her to explore the possibility of integrating the confessional, Bible-centered faith—one that affirms an exclusive Christian identity and emphasizes the spiritual formation of individual believers—found in conservative circles with the social justice-oriented practices characteristic of progressive ones. She now seeks a point of convergence between the two, with Scripture as the bridge. Her articulation of “moving toward a socially engaged faith grounded in a firm confession of belief” aptly encapsulates the essence of her current approach. This is also clearly reflected in the ways Rev. Ko modifies Lee’s conservative-leaning biblical education program to align it with her own pedagogical and theological aims, particularly through interactive-oriented and agency-oriented adjustments.

Recent developments in Minjung theology help situate these pastors’ struggles—especially Rev. Lee’s—within its evolving horizon. Scholars caution against idealizing the minjung as a static category. Suh’s rich/poor and oppressor/oppressed binary (Suh 1983, p. 35) exemplifies this tendency, though Ahn had warned that conceptualization risks detaching the minjung from lived reality (B.-m. Ahn 1990, p. 27). Yoon Chul-Ho notes that Scripture portrays the minjung ambivalently—both as followers of Jesus and as those calling for his crucifixion (J. Kim 2022). A second major concern is theological and biblical grounding. Kim Young-han argues that Minjung theology sometimes replaces salvation from sin with socio-political liberation, calling for encountering the minjung as those redeemed by Christ (J. Kim 2022). Yoon likewise stresses that human solidarity alone cannot bring salvation apart from Christ’s redemptive work. Im Tae-soo identifies “holistic reading of the Canon,” together with the “historical–critical method” and “socio-economic interpretation,” as key tools (Yim 2001, p. 1). Taken together, these perspectives indicate that the vitality of Minjung theology lies in resisting idealization and grounding its vision in faith and Scripture.

Within this recent reorientation of Minjung theology, the pastoral journeys of Revs. Lee and Ko—Christian leaders who, in the post-democratization era, have faced the challenge of reshaping theological and ministerial vision—offer an alternative model. Their approach moves beyond essentialist binaries (the oppressed minjung vs. the oppressor, the poor vs. the rich) and embodies a reconciliatory praxis that integrates social engagement with Christian spiritual identity.

3.4. Embodied and Gradual Approaches to Reconciliatory Ministry

The outcomes of their self-reconfigurations centering around reconciliatory shifts in faith are reflected in their current ministerial practices, most notably in a Bible study program. The specific approaches evident in their ministries illuminate both the potential roadblocks that Revs. Lee and Ko have wrestled with—and continue to wrestle with—in moments of tension, and the potential resources that enable the application of such reconciliatory perspectives in actual pastoral contexts.

Above all, Rev. Lee’s approach is rooted in contextual sensitivity, based on genuine recognition of human conditions as contextually shaped. She acknowledges the challenge of shifting deeply ingrained frameworks, such as patriarchal mindsets and binary theological and political worldviews. While she remains personally committed to progressive social activism and church reform, she accommodates her congregants’ hesitations toward social engagement and their tendency to view democracy versus communism in moral dualisms of ‘good versus evil’. She also takes into account individual factors such as age and education. This underlying approach is also evident in her leadership, which is adaptive, relational, and inclusively receptive. While she does not share her congregants’ political dualism, she refrains from direct confrontation, choosing instead to respect their current positions while quietly nurturing gradual change. She creates an open and safe space in which Elder Hong can finally express his own thoughts and opinions. She noted that the trust built within the group during Phase 2, which followed a mokjang-worship format, enabled her to move into Phase 3, where she began studying Christian doctrines. Understanding these layered dynamics is crucial to grasping the conditions that make a reconciliatory shift possible.

Second, her ministry foregrounds an embodied and practice-oriented understanding of faith, grounded in the conviction that transformation arises not from abstract ideals but from “a life lived confessionally.” This conviction has been shaped by two key observations: the love- and sharing-centered practices of conservative believers and the dissonance she perceives between progressive theological claims and the lived realities of their proponents. These insights prompt her to move away from an ideal-oriented ministry to a ministry grounded in lived experience. In response to immediate concerns, such as emotional distress and theological confusion arising from heretical groups, she tailors biblical instruction to the specific contexts of her congregants. Her approach embodies an ongoing negotiation between theological ideals and everyday realities, seeking to integrate faith and Scripture into daily life and communal care in ways that are both accessible and sustainable.

Third, her method is best described as gradualist—an approach that resists abrupt reform. She carefully attends to her congregants’ specific socio-religious conditions and immediate needs, emphasizing steady growth through sustained faith practices. This orientation informs her broader ministerial strategy, which proceeds through cautious and negotiated steps. She prefers to “gently infuse radical messages into the rhythms of everyday life.” This is evident in the five phases of her Bible study program, developed in close response to congregants’ readiness and immediate concerns, as well as in her wider progressive initiatives. Her approach to theological education also follows an incremental logic, aiming to integrate faith and life experience with intellectual reflection. She emphasizes that such integration requires a slow and embodied process: “Transformation rarely happens quickly… if we are impatient, we will fail.”

Meanwhile, regarding contextual sensitivity, having been shaped by her early years in a conservative church and by ministerial experiences marked by relatively conservative orientations, Rev. Ko appears even more attuned to her congregants’ perspectives. She carefully discerns what her community is able to accommodate and gradually introduces alternative viewpoints.

Regarding embodied faith, her current reaffirmation of a socially engaged faith constitutes her expression of it. Furthermore, in Rev. Ko’s second process of self-reconfiguration, her opening to conservative faith—prompted by witnessing its impact on her in-laws’ lives—reflects her attentiveness to how faith lived out in concrete life situations.

She employs a conservative, story-oriented Bible study curriculum that leans toward literal interpretation and emphasizes professing Christ as Lord. At the same time, she nurtures interpretive agency by providing resources for contextual and critical engagement. Over time, she has gradually incorporated feminist hermeneutics, alternative creation narratives, and LGBTQ-inclusive perspectives, while underscoring the value of reading biblical texts in their original languages. At the heart of her strategy is the gradual introduction of alternative theological and interpretive resources. She also complements her traditional lecture style with interactive elements. She seeks to cultivate conditions for incremental transformation through trust-based, dialogical relationships.

Grounded in contextual sensitivity, embodied faith, and a gradualist orientation, Rev. Lee conducts her ministry in ways that respond to her congregants’ immediate needs while gently guiding them beyond literalist interpretation, individualistic faith, and authoritarian or patriarchal religiosity toward a more diverse, socially engaged, democratic, and inclusive spirituality. Rev. Ko’s ministry unfolds through a dual movement: pastorally engaging a conservative context while subtly challenging its dominant interpretive paradigms from within, and grounding itself in confessional faith while reawakening its socially engaged essence through engagement with the Bible—ultimately seeking to integrate personal growth and salvation and social transformation.

4. Conclusions: Practicing Reconciliation at the Intersection of Doctrine and Life

This study is grounded in the paradoxical and deeply textured reality in which female pastors in Korean Protestantism, despite long struggles that have opened opportunities for leadership and ministry, continue to live within structures of persistent discrimination. By attending to the intersections between the individual and the social, this research demonstrates that the agency of Revs. Lee and Ko has been shaped through the interplay of Korea’s socio-historical and theological transitions (before and after democratization), the heterogeneity and complex dynamics within both conservative and progressive strands, and their lived personal and relational experiences. The reconciliatory transition they embodied does not represent a mere compromise or an uncritical alignment with either conservative or progressive theological paradigms. Rather, it constitutes an agentic and critically reflective process of self-reconfiguration—emerging from direct engagement with the lived experiences of their congregants and contemporaries, and marked by an ongoing theological inquiry into the essence and mission of the Christian faith, transcending conventional boundaries between progressivism and conservatism.

To summarize the key elements that constitute their reconciliatory shift, we begin with their anthropological and theological presuppositions. Three shared convictions undergird their practices. First, both exhibit an awareness of humanity’s need for God’s help, more explicitly in Rev. Lee’s case. She arrived at this understanding through lived experiences of human sinfulness and weakness, and the consequent limitations of human-driven efforts for change. For Rev. Ko, the re-accommodation of a conservative faith shaped by her in-laws’ conversion, itself fostered by their desperate needs, hints at this awareness, which is further reflected in her emphasis on the confession of Christ as Savior.

Second, affected by the discernment of human vulnerability, the necessity of grounding ministry in a firm faith and a clearly articulated spiritual and ecclesial identity as Christian believers is recognized. Both pastors emphasize a confession of faith in Jesus as Savior. Rev. Lee highlights that a church life is sustained through practices such as Scripture reading and worship, which serve as essential sources of strength.

Third, their journeys are marked by a continual search for a shared ground of Christian faith and practice—embodied in lives shaped by love, sharing, and a socially engaged faith grounded in confession. Their theology has become increasingly multifaceted, heterogeneous, and inclusive, transcending the dualisms of Minjung theology, the conservative—progressive divide, and the tension between personal salvation and social transformation. This shift represents a movement from singular, ideologically driven commitments toward an integrative faith that weaves together social engagement, personal care, and a broadened theological and anthropological vision.

In addition to their three central commitments—(1) a theocentric awareness of human limitation, (2) an affirmation of confessional faith and ecclesial identity, and (3) an integrative and shared vision of faith—two further resources drawn from conservative faith practices also constitute vital foundations of their reconciliatory ministries, even where they intersect. The first is their shared commitment to the centrality of Scripture as both a source of empowerment and a core articulation of the Christian vision. Both Revs. Lee and Ko employ Bible study as a principal pastoral tool. Rev. Lee engages Scripture as a practical resource for addressing everyday concerns, whereas Rev. Ko encourages participants to interpret it through diverse perspectives—particularly progressive and feminist theological frameworks—thereby deepening its meaning beyond a literal reading. For Rev. Ko especially, Scripture functions as a critical medium of reconciliation. The second is the practice of genuine sharing and love in daily life, more prominent in Rev. Lee’s ministry. This practice became a decisive turning point for her.

These interrelated convictions and rediscovered resources form the theological and practical foundation of their reconciliatory ministries and educational approaches. Their emphasis on these core theological commitments represents a practical response to the challenges encountered in applying progressive or liberation theologies, particularly Minjung theology—its anthropocentric orientation, its prioritization of social justice over faith and spiritual formation, and its essentialist dualism. Their engagement with conservative faith, therefore, should not be viewed as a retreat from their progressive commitments, but as a discerning and appreciative recognition of the complexity and inner vitality of Korean Christian lives.

In terms of specific methods and approaches, three key elements grounded in intersectionality inform their reconciliatory turn. First, their journey has led them beyond a posture of resistance toward a more discerning engagement attuned to the circumstances and needs of their faith communities. Grounded in contextual sensitivity, Revs. Lee and Ko exercise adaptive, inclusive, and relational leadership that attends to situational factors characterizing their congregants’ conservatism—such as patriarchal mindsets, literalist interpretations, and binary theological or political worldviews (e.g., progressive/conservative, democracy/communism, right/left)—as well as individual factors including age, educational background, and temperament.

Second, their ministry foregrounds lived, embodied faith over abstract ideals, shaped by attentive engagement with conservative faith practices, recognition of the gap between progressive ideals and lived realities, and a vision for socially engaged faith. The core of their reconciliatory shift lies in a reorientation of focus: from viewing progressive transformation as an ideal goal to embracing a relational commitment to the people they serve. This marks a turn away from rigid theological prescriptions toward dynamic, embodied practices grounded in daily life.

Third, both employ a gradualist approach—resisting abrupt reform. This approach is reinforced by a pedagogical commitment to cultivating a trust-based safe space that fosters ongoing dialogue and reflection rather than rejection.

In conclusion, while earlier scholarship—especially in Korea—largely shaped by anthropological studies of how conservative laywomen negotiate agency—has offered valuable insights, this study shifts the focus to clergywomen whose commitment to public transformation is more explicit. Sharing a progressive vision, the two key informants demonstrate a stronger orientation toward social engagement and transformative vocation. By examining clergywomen who minister to conservative congregations while pursuing progressive change, this study illuminates rare instances of pastors who navigate complex tensions and enact gradual transformation within restrictive contexts. Ultimately, its contribution to reconciliatory inquiry lies in identifying feasible and sustainable transformative resources directly relevant to conservative pastoral settings where such tensions are most acute.

Further, the key elements that constitute their reconciliatory shift—resisting the romanticization of minjung and the binary anthropology underlying it, while integrating social engagement with spiritual identity—contribute to renewing Minjung theology in the post-democratization era. Building on recent anthropological studies of religion that have illuminated the inner dimensions of agency, this study contributes by examining cases of progressive female leaders whose strong commitment to public transformation reveals how internal and external motivations interact organically to generate change in faith.