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  • 한국천주교회사. Han’guk Ch’ŏnju kyohoesa [A History of the Korean Catholic Church] ed. by 한국교회사연구소 Han’guk Kyohoesa Yŏn’guso
  • Franklin Rausch
한국천주교회사. Han’guk Ch’ŏnju kyohoesa [A History of the Korean Catholic Church]. Vols. 1–4. Edited by 한국교회사연구소 Han’guk Kyohoesa Yŏn’guso [Korean Church History Institute], Seoul: Pundo Ch’ulpansa, 2009–2011.

In the past, studying Korean Catholicism within the context of Korean history could be quite difficult. In general, narrative histories, such as that of Father Charles Dallet (skillfully translated and annotated by Ch’oe Sŏgu and An Ŭngnyŏl) were written from a faith perspective, which while fulfilling their own purposes and meeting the standards of that genre, did not take the critical approach that historians who would like to include Catholic history within a general history of Korea or Korean religions might find useful. Such critical work does exist. The scholars of the Korean Church History Institute (Han’guk Kyohoesa Yŏn’guso) and many others have produced excellent studies of Catholicism in Korea that have been published as monographs and within the pages of the institute’s own journal, Kyohoesa yŏn’gu [Studies on Church History]. However, the depth of these works can make them intimidating to those not already familiar with the history of Catholicism in Korea and a nonspecialist could spend a lot of time trying to find that one piece of information he or she needs. Fortunately, the Institute’s Han’guk Ch’ŏnju kyohoesa [A History of the Korean Catholic Church] fills this gap in the history of Catholicism in Korea. This unique series of books, written in Korean, is made up of four volumes consisting of collections of chapters by different authors from the Korean Church History Institute chronologically covering the history of Catholicism in Korea from its roots in the European voyages of exploration to the early 1900s.1

Volume one, published in 2009, contains chapters by Kim Sŏngt’ae, Yi Changu, Pang Sanggŭn, and Yang Insŏng on the age of exploration and worldwide Catholic missions, the work of mission societies in Asia, the introduction of Catholicism to Chosŏn Korea, the reaction of Korean Confucians to Chinese-language Western learning texts, the establishment of the Catholic [End Page 133] Church in Chosŏn Korea, and its activities and growth up to the entry and mission work of Father James Zhou Wenmo. Volume two includes articles by Cho Hyŏnbŏm, Yang Insŏng, Ch’oe Sŏnhye, and Yi Changu on the 1801 Persecution and the Hwang Sayŏng “silk letter” incident, the rebuilding of the Catholic Church in Korea after that persecution ended, the outbreak of anti-Catholic violence in 1815 and 1827, and the establishment of Korea as a missionary territory independent of China and the entry of French missionaries. Volume three, which includes the work of Pang Sanggŭn, Ch’oe Sŏnhye, and Yang Insŏng, examines the 1839 persecution, the ordination of Korean priests, and the growth and development of the Catholic Church to the persecution of 1866. Volume four includes articles by Cho Hyŏnbŏm, Yang Insŏng, Ch’oe Sŏnhye, and Yi Changu on the 1886 treaty between France and Korea and freedom for missionary work, the development of the Catholic Church during this time period, its educational and cultural activities, and the conflict between the Catholic Church and modern society, in particular, friction between Catholics and their non-Catholic neighbors and the government (kyoan). A fifth volume is currently underway.

While written by a host of different authors, the chapters flow smoothly into one another. The prose is clear and concise, with a great deal of information packed into each chapter. The various chapters do an excellent job of striking a balance between providing enough detail that even specialists in the history of the Catholic Church in Korea are liable to learn something from these texts while avoiding jargon and offering succinct explanations that make them easily accessible to those largely unfamiliar with the subject matter. An excellent index and detailed chapter section and subsection divisions makes this work especially useful for non-specialists who wish to only find...

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