Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan as the Archetype of Bridge Citizens: A Life History Approach to Reimagining Peacebuilding Citizenship Education for Dismantling the Division Habitus

ABSTRACT

[Objective] The study aims to reinterpret the life history of Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan (1922-2009) as a historical archetype of the bridge citizen and to reconceptualise peacebuilding citizenship education (PCE) as a means of dismantling the division habitus. [Contents] Combining the seven capacities of the Peacebuilding Capacities Creation Framework with four attributes of bridging civic identity, this integrated framework was applied using a qualitative design that merges Mandelbaum’s life history approach with Schüze’s biographical-narrative interpretive method. Through this combined lens, the research analyzes Cardinal Kim Sou-hwan’s oral memoirs, relevant biographical literature, and multimodal narrative records such as the documentary Fool and the radio drama script The Fool Kim Sou-hwan. [Conclusion] The findings reveal that Cardinal Kim’s life embodied the core capacities of peacebuilding and the attributes of bridging civic identity across multiple biographical dimensions and layers of Korea’s division habitus. Crucially, his trajectory demonstrates that these bridging attributes emerge in a biographical sequence anchored at the institutional center and unified by a kenotic disposition. Consequently, his life history not only serves as a robust pedagogical foundation for a multi-stage peacebuilding citizenship education model across diverse learning contexts, but also expands scholarship on Kim into peace studies, religious education, and citizenship education.