Wolli Kangron
Encyclopedia : W : WO : WOL : Wolli Kangron
The Wolli Kangron is the main theological textbook of the Unification Church, held to have the status of scripture by members of the movement. It is also known as the Divine Principle. It is the Unification Church account of God's (God of the Old Testament Bible) relationship with humankind, starting with God's purpose in creating man, the fall of man, and the process through history by which God is working to remove the ill effects of the fall and restore humanity back to the relationship and position that God originally intended. This is interpreted in Unification Church teachings as a literal historical account rather than as a symbolic allegory.
History
Between 1935 and 1946, Sun Myung Moon (not then going by "Reverend") scribbled notes in the margins of his Bible. These notes formed the basis of the original concept of the work.The earliest manuscript was lost in North Korea during the Korean War. Upon arriving as a refugee in Pusan, Moon wrote a manuscript called Wolli Wonbon (the original text of the Divine Principle), he dictated the last chapter to Won Pil Kim, his first disciple. He then guided Hyo Won Eu, the first president of the Unification Church of Korea, to prepare more systematic presentations of his teachings with biblical, historical and scientific illustrations. Moon gave Eu special instruction regarding the content of these texts and then checked them over meticulously. These efforts resulted in Wolli Hesol (Explanation of the Divine Principle), published in 1957, and Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle), published in 1966. Since then, Wolli Kangron has been the basic text of Moon's teachings. According to its preface, Wolli Kangron expresses universal truth; it inherits and builds upon the core truths which God revealed through the Jewish and Christian scriptures and encompasses the wisdom from the Orient.
The term Divine Principle is a translation of the Korean term wolli. The text was first published in English in 1973 and was subsequently revised in 1974 and again in 1996. Manuals were translated to English by Young Whi Kim (president of the Unification Church in Korea during the 1970s) and Chung Hwan Kwak (International Director of Education of the Unification Church). Young Oon Kim (a female church theologian) and David S.C. Kim (the first United States church seminary president) each wrote unofficial texts; according to Church spokespersons, these are now out of print.
Structure and contents
The book follows systematic theology in its structure: God's creation, the human fall, human redemption.The book has two parts, with a total of 13 chapters. The first part deals primarily with theological concepts, such as the nature of God and His creation, the human fall, and others. The second part deals with the process through history by which God continues to work to eliminate the ill effects of the human fall, and restore humankind to the relationship with God that would have existed if the fall had not occurred.
- Introduction
- Part 1
- * Chapter 1: The Principle of Creation
- * Chapter 2: The Human Fall
- * Chapter 3: Eschatology and Human History
- * Chapter 4 The Messiah: His Advent and the Purpose of His Second Coming
- * Chapter 5: Resurrection
- * Chapter 6: Predestination
- * Chapter 7: Christology
- Part 2
- * Introduction to Restoration
- * Chapter 1: The Providence to Lay the Foundation for Restoration
- * Chapter 2: Moses and Jesus in the Providence of Restoration
- * Chapter 3: The Periods in Providential History and the Determination of Their Lengths
- * Chapter 4: The Parallels between the Two Ages in the Providence of Restoration
- * Chapter 5: The Period of Preparation for the Second Coming of the Messiah
- * Chapter 6: The Second Advent
Political statements in the Divine Principle
The Divine Principle asserts that existing modern democracies have been a necessary, but temporary, stage in history and politics:"How can democracy accomplish its purpose?...We need to understand that democracy was born to undermine satanic monopolies of power for the purpose of God's final providence to restore, by the will of the people, a heavenly sovereignty under the leadership of the returning Christ."
- [Divine Principle Section 7.2.6 Democracy and Socialism]
"...Thus, in the ideal world, people of God led by Christ will form organizations analogous to today's political parties..."
- [Divine Principle, Section 3.2 The Significance of the Separation of Powers]
"If we are to realize the ideal world of one global family which can honor Christ at the Second Advent as our True Parent, surely our languages must be unified...then he will certainly use the Korean language, which will then become the mother tongue for all humanity."
- [Divine Principle, Section 5]
See also
- Theology of the Unification Church
- Sun Myung Moon
- Unification Church
- Western world values
- secular democracy
- separation of church and state
- religious pluralism
- Theocracy
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.