From Hurt to Healing

Publisher Notes

In his book, From Hurt to Healing: A Theology of the Wounded, Andrew Sung Park explores the subject of abusers and the abused and how Christian theology has approached these very different sets of personal situations with one vocabulary and one solution.

Traditionally, we have had only the language of sin to describe these very different human predicaments. We are right to speak of the sinner’s need of forgiveness, but we have forgotten to take the next step: to seek healing for the victims. Having drawn the map of salvation for sinners, we have left it to those who have been sinned against to find their own way to wholeness and peace.

Park proposes that the Korean religious term han can serve as an instrument in this endeavor. While it is an intricate concept, in short han can be defined as the psychic and spiritual hurt caused by unjust oppression and suffering, and can be a powerful tool, allowing pastors and other caregivers to explore the depths of anguish that victims experience.

It can illustrate the fact that, having sinned against their victims as well as against God, the perpetrators of violence and abuse must seek salvation not only by asking for God’s forgiveness, but also by working for the healing of those they have wronged.