Moral and Theological Virtues of the Oppressed

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 Korean 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 of salim,” which envisions a particular virtue of the oppressed through resistance against oppression and celebrates the virtue of daily practices of survival, resistance, and flourishing

Author Biography

Wonchul Shin is Catherine of Siena Teaching Fellow in the ethics program at Villanova University.