The East Asian Rediscovery of ‘Sin’

Abstract

Christian teachings on ‘sin’ have met a number of barriers in their historical encounters with the East Asian context. However, since the end of World War II, indigenous Christianities in China, Japan and South Korea have experienced growing interests in this hated doctrine. ‘Sin’ has become a valuable category to address the existential concerns found in those societies. This has developed in an East Asian discourse about intellectual foundations and, in certain instances, has resulted in a revival of Christian belief. This paper will discuss the development of this rediscovery and connect it to a re-evaluation of millennia-old understandings of the existence of evil.