Moral and Theological Virtues of the Oppressed: Practicing Salim in the Face of Violence [Hardcover]

This book focuses on discovering particular moral and theological virtues of the oppressed, embodied in their daily practices of survival, resistance, and flourishing.

Wonchul Shin calls for a holistic vision of flourishing, including both individual and social flourishing, from an explicitly Korean cultural and historical context. Specifically, Shin considers the victims of political violence during the Korean regimes under Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan in the 1970s and 1980s and concurrent family resistance movements. In questioning virtues of sacrifice for a greater cause, this book argues that conventional Christian virtue discourse, which uplifts Jesus' total sacrifice unto death, can reinforce unjust sociocultural structures that sustain structural and cultural violence against the oppressed. Shin uses the sacrifice and resistance of these Korean mothers and wives to suggest an alternative moral virtue, the virtue ofsalim, which envisions a particular virtue of the oppressed through resistance against oppression and celebrates the virtue of daily practices of survival, resistance, and flourishing

Dr. Wonchul Shin makes an important contribution to the literatures on virtue ethics and Christian social movements. This book, one of the few in English to examine South Korean social resistance movements of the 1960s to the 1980s, informs readers about this specific crucible of political experience and how it sheds light on the implementation of Christian virtues in social movements. I especially enjoyed the book's well-told history and its use of poetry and novels. These features, plus the author's interviews and use of archival materials, keeps the narrative humane anlcå