Heup Young Kim (Kim, Hŭb-yŏng; 김흡영 金洽榮, b. 1949, South Korea) is a Korean Christian theologian and a scholar of East Asian religions ( Confucianism and Taoism), specialized in Asian constructive theology, interfaith dialogue, and religion and science. He is the founding director of the Korea Forum for Science and Life and was the Distinguished Asian Theologian in Residence at Graduate Theological Union. He was Professor of Systematic Theology at

Kangnam University Kangnam University is a private university in Yongin, South Korea. Founded July 1, 1946 by Reverend Yi Ho-bin as the Choong-ang Theology Institute, the school initially met at a lecture hall in the local YMCA in Seoul, South Korea. The universit ...

in South Korea where he also served as a dean of the College of Humanities and Liberal arts, the Graduate School of Theology, and the University Chapel. Kim is one of the founding members and fellows of the International Society for Science and Religion and an Advisor to the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. He was a co-moderator of the 6th and 7th Congress of Asian Theologians and a president of the Korean Society of Systematic Theology.

Early life

After graduating from the Engineering College of

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a national public research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is largely considered the most prestigious university in South Korea; it is one of the three "S ...

, he worked as an airplane mechanic for Korean Air Lines and then was hired to work in the Planning Office of Daewoo Corporation. During the Korean economic boom of the 1970s, he became a representative of Samhwa Corporation in New York City, a general trading company (

import An import is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. In international trade, the importation and exportation of goods are limited ...

/ export) for many products, such as shoes and silk. Then, he had a religious conversion from Confucianism to Christianity, which made him dramatically move into theological studies.

Academic life

He earned a M.Div. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from the

Graduate Theological Union The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) is a consortium of eight private independent American theological schools and eleven centers and affiliates. Seven of the theological schools are located in Berkeley, California. The GTU was founded in 1962 ...

in Berkeley, California (directed by

Claude Welch Claude Welch may refer to: *Claude Welch (theologian) (1922–2009), American theologian *Claude E. Welch Claude Emerson Welch (March 14, 1906 – March 9, 1996) was an American surgeon who was internationally recognized,O'Shea, Arthur, ...

). He has carried out extensive research in the areas of Asian constructive theology, interreligious dialogue, comparative theology, and science and religion dialogue. He was a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions in Harvard University and the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions in Doshisha University, a visiting fellow at the Centre for Advanced Religious Theological Studies in the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, as well as a visiting scholar at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) in the

. Kim has received numerous honors and awards, including the

Alum of the Year for 2009, the Global Perspectives on Science and Spirituality (2005-6), John Templeton Research grant (2004-5), and

Most Distinguished Research Professor Award (2003). He has published numerous works in the areas of interfaith dialogue, theology of religions, Asian theology, and science and religion, including monographs such as ''Wang Yang-ming and Karl Barth: A Confucian-Christian Dialogue'' (1996), '' Christ and the Tao'' (2003), and ''A Theology of Dao'' (2017); and chapters such as in ''The Cambridge Companion to the Trinity'' (2011), ''Religion and Transhumanism: The Unknown Future of Human Enhancement'' (2015), ''Many Yet One? Multiple Religious Belonging'' (2016), ''The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Ecology'' (2017), ''The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Nature'' (2018), ''The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Korea'' (2022), and ''The T&T Clark Companion to the Doctrine of Creation'' (forthcoming).

References

External links

Interview: GTU Alum of the Year
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kim, Heup Young Members of the International Society for Science and Religion Converts to Christianity Graduate Theological Union Princeton Theological Seminary alumni Seoul National University alumni South Korean Christians 1949 births Living people Harvard Divinity School faculty World Christianity scholars South Korean theologians