Protestant Christianity and its Place in a Changing Korea

Abstract

The author examines the changing role of Protestant Christianity in Korea from the time of its introduction in 1884 to the modern era. He argues that this imported faith acted as an agent of modernization in the closing years of the 19th century, emerged as nationalistic during Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, and became submerged in the social and political climate obsessed with the pursuit of economic development in the 1960s and 1970s. Through these times, Protestant Christianity in Korea has shown great resilience: transformative in the beginning, prominently nationalistic during the middle period, and dominant as a religious group today, yet with little sense of responsibility to transcend the status quo.