Speaking In-Between: Vernacular Spirituality of a Woman in Late Chosǒn Korea

Abstract

precis: This essay presents a transcultural and transhistorical case that exhibits the impact of everyday language use in the practice of Christian spirituality, which stems from the biblical sermo humilis of late antiquity Christians, across and throughout the history of Christian mission and evangelism. In the specific case of Yi Suni, a Korean female martyr, I argue, this manner of sermo humilis kindles such Spirit-led influence in a mission field without a Western missionary’s intervention, as the Christian message spreads through the raw language of ordinary people. Even though there has been some research on Yi Suni’s in-between identity as an ordinary Confucian woman and a Catholic individual subject, there has not been enough attention to how her manner of speech in her letters reflects her struggles in the liminal space of her transcultural context. Her letters written in the real voice of Korean vernacular ǒnmun exhibit the rawness of the impact of the appropriated Catholicism in the everyday life of a Korean Confucian woman and her family. This rawness of her language, along with the core biblical message, I suggest, is the hallmark of Christian spirituality that Yi Suni revealed without direct influence from any Western missionary.