August 15, 2024
Dear Mrs. Young Maccarone:
It is my pleasure to write a recommendation on behalf of Dr. Paul S. Chung to serve as the director and distinguished affiliate faculty for the International Public Theology in Forum-Center.
At the request of Paul Chung, I am serving the Forum-Center as Senior Advisor in collaboration with other several distinguished colleagues on the committee. I am convinced that Paul Chung is a qualified scholar and administrator to implement the objectives for the Forum-Center in terms of building a strong communication network among scholars and establishing a partnership with several highly regarded institutions. He is skillful in organizing an international program and conference in collaboration with Germany and East Asia (China and S. Korea).
Given today’s crises—beset by war, cultural strife, and ecological sustainability—I find it critical to develop the Forum-Center for churchwide peace, common good governance, interreligious engagement, and human rights. Therefore, the Forum-Center can contribute to enhancing international relations with East Asia, Germany, and other Pacific Rim areas.
One of Chung’s strengths lies in his effective leadership to introduce articles by American or European faculty and to invite Asian scholars to offer a peer reviewed response. This will foster substantial dialogue and exchange of scholarly communication. His regular communiqué is a good example, helping the colleagues on the committee grasp all necessary contextual information.
Chung worked as one of my colleagues at Wartburg Theological Seminary when I was academic dean. I know well his rich experience of culture and religion in China and S. Korea, as well as engaging theology and culture in Germany. Chung is trustworthy with Christian integrity and a reliable scholar qualified in the field of public theology, the science-religion dialogue, and comparative study of world religions.
We are now in the process of launching the 2026 Seoul Conference on the theme of “Religion, Science, and Sociobiology: Public Theology Perspectives” in collaboration with the University of Bochum and Hanshin Theological Seminary. I encourage you to support the International Public Theology in Forum-Center, reinvigorating Dr. Chung’s work as the director and distinguished affiliate faculty towards international civil society, vibrant democracy, and the integrity of life-world. He would serve as a great asset to your board of trustees/governing body, as well as an agent to strengthen God’s mission and reconciliation in a global context. I appreciate your collaboration on this significant project of Forum-Center at the international level.
Shalom,
Prof. Craig L. Nessan
William D. Streng Professor for the Education and Renewal of the Church
Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa
Senior Advisor, International Public Theology in Forum-Center, Berkeley
cc. Paul S. Chung, Director, Distinguished Affiliate Faculty
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October 4, 2024
Dear Mrs. Young Maccarone and the Board of Trustees,
I am writing to you as a theology scholar, as the founder of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Research Center for Public Theology and a former Dean of a faculty of Human sciences at the university of Bamberg/Germany and now also as the moderator of the World Council of Churches.
I got in contact with Prof. Chung through academic networks. He has impressed me by his very fast and efficient work in conceptualizing a special conference of public theology in Seoul and his deep academic assessment of new work in public theology including my own.
My recommendation of Rev. Dr. Paul S. Chung, the Director and Full Professor of International Public Theology at Forum-Center, Berkeley, however, also rests on his impressive academic credentials and teaching experience.
Following the completion of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Basel, he pursued postdoctoral studies in Public Theology and Sociology of Religion at UC Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union.
Dr. Chung’s postdoctoral book Martin Luther and Buddhism: Aesthetics of Suffering was recognized as the Habilitationsschrift by Wartburg Theological Seminary which has offered a tenure track position in the field of Lutheran Witness and World Christianity (Assistant Professor 2005-2009). He was an Associate Professor of Theology and World Religion at Luther Seminary (2009-2024), and he was then nominated to be a distinguished affiliated faculty at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
Given Dr. Chung’s academic credentials and his directorship, I recommend him to serve as the director and full professor position at the Center. Due to my appreciation for his important work in Public theology I have agreed to act as a Senior Advisor in conjunction with Prof. Craig L. Nessan.
Dr. Chung, with my advice, is preparing for the 2026 Seoul Conference, and he should be devoted to the conference organization as the full-time director and faculty member. I appreciate your service to support the Forum-Center through generous donations over years.
All the best,
Bishop em. Dr. Heinrich Bedford-Strohm
Moderator of the World Council of Churches
Extr. Prof. University of Stellenbosch
Hon. Prof. University of Bamberg
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Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Dr.Theol. Habil.
Professor of Systematic Theology
Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Theology
135 N. Oakland Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91182
Email: vmk@fuller.edu
Tel. 1-626-584-5379
March 25, 2025
Letter of Recommendation for Dr. Paul Chung
It is a great privilege and joy for me to write an enthusiastic letter of recommendation in support of Professor, Rev. Dr. Paul S. Chung. Having known Prof. Chung for over twenty years, I have had plenty of opportunities to collaborate with him in various types of academic enterprises, including co-editing a major monograph on global theology and religious diversity. He has contributed chapters and essays to the books I have edited and vice versa. Moreover, I have had an opportunity to read a number of his manuscripts over the years in their pre-publication stage. On top of these academic enterprises, I have also observed Dr. Chung as a skillful and industrious organizer and innovator of public events, processes, and networks in the service of the church and the society.
Prof. Chung has established himself as a leading public theologian at the international and ecumenical levels. His scholarship is focused on a number of issues and themes relevant to Public Theology, including comparative theology with the emphasis on Buddhism and Hinduism, philosophy of religion, and sociology of religion, among many others. Indeed, he is an amazingly prolific author, extremely active academician, and highly respected colleague among his peers, both American and international. The list of publications in itself is staggering in its length, depth, and width. The many significant editorial tasks add to his publication achievements. What is astonishing to me is that even during his many years in full-time church ministry, Paul has found time and energy to continue academic research and writing.
The diverse and rich multicultural experience of having been trained on three continents, Asia, Europe, and the USA, allows this cosmopolitan Korean-American leader have unique linguistic skills—fluency in Korean, German (including Swiss German!), and English – as well as most diverse cultural, theological, and religious experience. One has a hard time in thinking of a background more suitable for his current position as the Director and Distinguished Full Professor in International Public Theology at the Forum-Center in Berkeley, California, USA.
With the steady and innovative leadership of the Forum-Center, Prof. Paul S. Chung is helping develop, improve, and disseminate a vision of Public Theology in the service of a multicultural, multireligious, and increasingly secular global world of the third millennium. As a member of the Forum Center Committee, I fully support Paul in developing the Korean extension by serving as Acting President. It is one of the greatest gifts for me personally to know a person, scholar, and human being such as Paul. I hope that this brief note of recommendation is able to express my deepest gratitude for his service and commitment for the public good of our troubled world.
Sincerely,
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Dr.Theol., Habil. (University of Helsinki)
Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary
Docent of Ecumenics, University of Helsinki, Finland