Punching Korean Protestantism: Challenging from within through a Televised Theological Roundtable

Abstract:Little attention has been given to religious television that counters dominant views within the same tradition. In this paper, I examine a South Korean TV show as a ‘‘mediated critical insider movement’’ that challenges mainstream Protestant Christianity in South Korea. Naensi Raeng ŭi sinhak p’ŏnch’i (Nancy Lang’s Theology Punch), with its incisive questioning of taken-for-granted beliefs, critically engages dominant Korean Protestant discourses. While it debunks some of the popular teachings in the Church, the show also disseminates discussions and debates from diverse theological perspectives. By analyzing the show, and through interviews with some of its producing agents and invited guest theologians, I argue that this mediated arena is a critical-insider movement that attempts to democratize theology by exposing theological information and promoting rational-critical argumentation, a practice that is marginalized in the Korean Protestant Church.