earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to explore a new understanding of marginality and its practical teachings in order to address the marginal experience of a 17-year-old Korean American youth, called Adam in this study and his development toward Christlikeness. The marginal experience for KA youth is a growing concern in the teaching ministry of the KA church, but many KA churches do not offer their youth appropriate guidance and Christian education. From a practical theological viewpoint, I investigate Adam's critical incident through the four interconnected tasks - descriptive-empirical, interpretive, normative, and pragmatic - by employing the transformational approach of James Loder. This approach seeks to show the complementarity in theology and social science and develop an interdisciplinary model for Christian education in particular and practical theology in general. Utilizing the transformational model, I present a brief overview of Adam's background and incident in the descriptive-empirical dimension, the sociological analysis of his socio-cultural and racial elements of marginality through Everett V. Stonequist's lens in the interpretive dimension, the holistic concept of marginality from the theological perspective of Jung Young Lee in the normative dimension, and the reflective practices and concrete guidelines for the KA ministry in the pragmatic dimension. Through an exploration of Adam's critical incident, this article argues for the need to teach a new holistic concept of marginality in the educational ministry as a faithful space filled with possibility for transformation in Jesus Christ, who is at the utmost margin. Adam's problems are not issues being resolved within his generation. There will be ongoing agony and painful alienation not only among the 1.5 and second generation but also later generations of the KA youth in both American and Korean societies if the concerns of youths such as Adam are not addressed.