Protestantism and Politics in Korea

Notes

notes introduction 1. On the celebration of the centennial of Protestant evangelism in 1984 and 1985, see “Kaesin’gyo paengnyon kinyom haengsa ilchong” (Schedule of the celebration of the centennial of Protestantism), Han’guk ilbo [The Korean times], August 16, 1984. Also see Kurisuch’an [Voices of Christians], August 25, 1984, and September 1, 1984; Kidok sinbo [The Christian times], April 13, 1985; and Han’guk Kidokkyo paekchunyon kinyomsaop hyobuihoe, Han’guk Kidokkyo paengnyon: Kinyomsaop yoram [Hundred years of the Korean Protestant church: An outline of commemorative events], (Seoul: Han’guk kidokkyo paekchunyon kinyomsaop hyobuihoe, 1984). 2. The following data are provided by the Korea Overseas Information Service, a government agency: Year Number of Adherents 1978 5,293,884 1979 5,986,609 1980 7,180,627 1981 7,637,010 According to the statistics, the number of Protestant Christians increased by a yearly average of some seven hundred thousand from 1979 to 1981. One can reasonably assume that Christians numbered around one-fourth of the total population in South Korea in 1984. See Statistical Data on Korea (Seoul: Korean Overseas Information Service, 1982), Section 50. Also see Kim Chunggi, “Han’guk kyohoe ui songjang kwajong” (The process of church growth in Korea), Hyondae sahoe, vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring 1983), pp. 101–26, especially p. 104. According to more recent data, Protestant Christians numbered 11,888,374 in 1990. See Han’guk chonggyo sahoe yon’guso, ed., Han’guk chonggyo yon’gam 207 [The yearbook of Korean religions], (Seoul: Han’guk chonggyo sahoe yon’guso/ Hallimwon, 1993), p. 83. 3. Samuel H. Moffett, “Korea,” in The Church in Asia, ed. Donald E. Hoke (Chicago: Moody Press, 1975), pp. 369–83, especially p. 369. 4. For a brief description of Christianity in South Korea today, see Donald N. Clark, Christianity in Modern Korea (Lanham, Md., New York, and London: University Press of America/The Asia Society, 1986), p. 1. According to Chung’ang ilbo [Central daily news], Chicago version, February 25, 1994, p. 4, five of the ten largest Protestant churches in the world are in Korea. They are Youido Full Gospel Church (the largest), Nambu Full Gospel Church in Anyang (second), Kumnan Methodist Church in Seoul (seventh), Sungui Methodist Church in Seoul (ninth), and Chuan Presbyterian Church in Seoul (tenth). This report is based on Almanac of the Christian World, 1993– 1994. 5. Martin E. Marty, “Foreword,” to Everett N. Hunt, Protestant Pioneers in Korea (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1980), pp. ix–xi, especially p. x. 6. See my article “Protestantism in Late Confucian Korea: Its Growth and Historical Meaning,” The Journal of Korean Studies, vol. 8 (1992), pp. 139–64, especially pp. 142–44. For Christian evangelism in other Asian countries , see Richard H. Drummond, A History of Christianity in Japan (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971); Irwin Scheiner, Christian Converts and Social Protest in Meiji Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970); Yamaji Aizan, Essays in the Modern Japanese Church: Christianity in Meiji Japan (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1999); Ka-che Yip, Religion, Nationalism, and Chinese Students: The Anti-Christian Movement of 1922–1927 (Bellingham: Western Washington University, 1980); Daniel H. Bays, ed., Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996); and George Thomas, Christian Indians and Indian Nationalism, 1885–1950 (Frankfurt am Main, West Germany: Verlag Peter D. Lang, 1979). 7. For details, see the works cited in note 6. 8. A leading Korean historian, Han Woo-keun (Han Ugun), has said that “the progressive, democratic spirit of American Protestantism made the institutions founded by missionaries the natural breeding places for leaders of the resistance. With practically all public institutions controlled by Japan, large numbers of young people turned to the Protestant churches and the mission schools.” See his survey, The History of Korea (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1971), trans. Kyung-shik Lee, p. 458. However, most scholars have ignored the subject of relations between the Protestant church and Korean progressive 208 Notes to Pages 3–4 and nationalist movements. Recently, Kenneth M. Wells has discussed the issue in his New God,New Nation: Protestants and Self-Reconstruction Nationalism in Korea, 1896–1937 (Honolulu: University Hawaii Press, 1990). 9. See chapter 4. 10. See chapter 5. 11. Christian ministers and lay leaders accounted for 25 percent of the first National Assembly. See Kidok sinmun, June 25, 1952. Also see Allen D. Clark, A History of the Church in Korea...