The Gospel through Healthy Bodies: Vaccinations and American Foreign Missionaries to Korea in the Late Nineteenth Century to the Mid-Twentieth Century

Abstract

By the mid-twentieth century, various vaccines were available and considered as useful preventative medicine. However, though vaccination technology had developed into an advanced state, the safety and efficacy of these vaccines were doubted and vaccination policy in the United States was controversial. This study delves into how American foreign mission boards managed the health of missionaries through vaccinations during this highly controversial era. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, some American Christian denominations stipulated mandatory vaccinations for their foreign mission candidates and their family members. Following the trajectory of these changes, this paper discusses how American Christian mission boards employed vaccination technology as a method of protection for their foreign missionaries and what experience the missionaries, especially those in Korea, had regarding vaccination at the practice level.