Understanding Early American Missionaries in Korea (1884-1910): Capitalist Middle-Class Values and the Weber Thesis

Abstract

Early American Protestant missionaries in Korea were youths of American middle-class homes. The middle-class background of American missionaries is demonstrated by the fact that more than 95 percent of them were children of four mainline denominations. They were also closely related to the SVM, a powerful middle-class missionary organ. Therefore, in order to understand American missionaries, one have to understand their middle-class character. American missionaries’ middle-class character is clearly revealed by their comfortable lifestyle and capitalist values. Missionaries built a miniature American middle-class community in Korea and lived safe and comfortable lives. They were converts not only to Christ, but also to the spirit of industrial commercialism. They created an appetite for American merchandise and hence became pathfinders of commerce. Some were engaged in various gainful activities and ran into conflict with merchants. Missionaries’ capitalist values are puzzling. But Max Weber’s famous thesis helps one understand them in a way it explains seventeenth-century New England Puritan attitude toward money, Weber thesis works particularly well in explaining the effect of missionaries capitalist gospel upon Korean Christians.”