Biblical Readings on a Theology of Dao

Abstract

This chapter highlights that the do (dao/tao, the way), a crucial and common concept in East Asian thought (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism), is a more appropriate interpretative lens for Koreans and East Asians to read the Bible than that of the historically dominant logos of Christian theology. It is useful not only for contextual theology but also for autogenous Korean Christian thought. Further, the do is biblically more appropriate than logos as the root metaphor. Jesus never identified himself as the logos but rather as the hodos, a homologous term to the do. The hermeneutical key of do (dao), which means the unity of knowing and acting, overcomes a dilemma in Western theology, namely, the dichotomy between the conventional theo-logos and the liberational theo-praxis. Here, from the third perspective of theo-dao, the Bible may be read from the interpretative metaphor of do.