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CHAPTER TWO THE HOME BASE. THE KOREAN CHURCHES’ INTEREST IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
Introduction
By almost any measurement, the growth of Christianity in Korea in the last century is one of the most amazing stories of our time. Korea’s Catholics date their history from 1784, while the first Protestant missionaries arrived in 1884. There were periods of remarkable growth during the years of Japan’s occupation of the country (1910-1945). Indeed, Christianity in Korea has grown significantly since the end of the Second World War in 1945, with the division of the country into North Korea, ties to the USSR and China, and South Korea, and its being allied with the United States. The Korean War between the Northern and Southern halves of the country and their respective supporters (1950-1953) ended in an armistice, but large groups of Christians and other refugees fled to the South, where they swelled the already expanding Christian population. (Phillips & Coote 1993:142) Patrick Johnstone’s (1993) research revealed that 35.03 percent of the total population of South Korea are Christians today.
On the other hand, the Korean church has rapidly changed in a significant fashion from a mission field to a sending field. The missionary movement in Korea continues to grow faster than any other national missionary movement in the world. There were 93 Korean missionaries in 1979; by 2006 there were 14,905 Korean missionaries and 174 mission agencies serving in 168 countries (Kidok Shinmun 2007.10.18). This is the second largest number of serving missionaries world wide, which is exceeded only by the USA. This number is conservative, for it includes only missionaries belonging to mission agencies, not independent missionaries sent directly by a local church. Nor does it include workers who have committed themselves to missionary service for less than two years (Steve S. C. Moon http//krim.org/2007/sub3-crc).
This also indicates that the missionary movement is moving from the Western churches to the Third World churches. In this chapter, I will describe the history of the Korean church with the focus falling on the mission perspective.
The present chapter consists of six subtitles.
- Firstly, the introduction provides an overview to this chapter;
- Secondly, a brief history of the arrival of Christianity in Korea is covered;
- Thirdly, the revival in the Korean churches and its implication for missions is described;
- Fourthly, research into the Hapdong Korean Presbyterian Assembly, and the Missionary Training Institute (MTI) is discussed.
- Fifthly, other Korean Churches and organizations are considered; and
- Sixthly, the chapter is concluded.
The Arrival of Christianity in Korea
The Christian community in Korea can be divided into two main groups, Catholic and Protestant. I will briefly summarise the history of these two groups.
Catholicism
Before the 18th century Choson (Korea) was unknown to the West as a country, and the Western churches possessed no understanding of conditions in Korea. At that time, Western missionaries targeted China as a mission field. Thus, the people in Korea experienced their first significant contact with Christianity through Western missionaries in China. The beginnings of the tide of Catholic missionary activity reached Korea in the 17th century, when copies of Catholic missionary Matteo Ricci’s works in Chinese were brought from Beijing to the Chinese Emperor (Korean Information Service 1999:161).
Roman Catholicism began in Korea in the year 1777. A group of Korean scholars decided to study a number of the Chinese treatises of Matteo Ricci, especially the one titled “True Principles Concerning God”. Sung-Hun Lee was sent to Beijing (1783) where he was baptized in the name of Peter. On his return Lee set himself to work to proclaim his new knowledge, and baptized a number of converts. Having no priest, the Koreans organized their own Church. In 1794, a Chinese priest, James Ti-Yu, was sent to Korea to care for Korean converts and found 4000 Catholics were ready to accept his ministrations (Steve Neil 1965:414-415).
During the 18th century, the number of converts continued to increase, although the propagation of foreign religions on Korean soil was still technically against the law, thus sporadic persecutions occurred. In 1836-37, three European priests came into Korea but were caught and executed after three years of service. By the year 1863, a dozen Korean priests were presiding over a community of some 23,000 believers.
With the coming to power in 1863 of Taewon-Gun, a xenophobic prince regent, persecution began in earnest and continued until 1878 when Korea was forced to sign treaties with Western powers (Korean Information Service 1999:161-162). In 1866, there were 25,000 Catholics in Korea and the worst of all persecutions were carried out when two bishops, seven priests, and at least 8000 Koreans perished (Steve Neil 1965:414-415). In spite of persecution, the Catholics exerted a great influence on various areas in Korean society.
The Japanese annexed Korea in 1910; however, during the Japanese period, the church continued to grow rapidly. In 1925, 79 Koreans who had been martyred during the Chosun Dynasty persecutions were beatified at St. Peter’s basilica in Rome, and in 1968 an additional 24 were honoured in the same manner (Government Information Agency 1999:157-158).
Catholicism in South Korea gained many converts during the 1950s and early 1960s. The South Korean Catholic Church grew quickly and its hierarchy was established in 1962. Since the mid-1960s the number of converts has decreased, and the Catholic population has stabilized. However, South Korean students and young workers exhibit an enthusiasm for Catholicism (Hanson 1980:100).
The Roman Catholic Church in Korea celebrated its bicentennial with a visit to Korea by Pope John II and the canonization of 93 Korean and 10 French missionary martyrs in 1984. It was the first time that a canonization ceremony had been held outside the Vatican. This gave Korea the fourth-largest number of Catholic saints in the world, although quantitative growth of Catholicism has been slow in the region (Ho-yun Kim 2006:52).
Protestantism
In 1984, a motorcade of hundreds of vehicles proceeded along the highway connecting Inchon, a port city, to Seoul. Spectators lining the road would break into applause every once in a while. This represented the centennial anniversary of the first Protestant evangelistic effort. It had been one hundred years since Horace N. Allen, an American physician and the first Protestant missionary, had arrived in the Chosun Dynasty, to “Christianize” the Koreans. The motorcade formed part of the festivities organized by the Seoul Korean Protestants,to celebrate the successful expansion of Protestantism in their country in terms of both numbers and influence (Ho-yun Kim 2006: 53).
The history of the Protestants of Korea has covered more than 100 years while its growth has been significant. This history will be divided into four different periods according to the significant periods of Korean church history: the early period (1832-1910), the suffering period (1910-1950), the interim period (1951-1979), and the contemporary period (1980- ).
The early period
Protestant missionaries entered Choson (Korea) when Korea was experiencing the transition from a traditional to a modern society (Jong-Gu Back 2002:62). Protestantism reached Korea through the witness of missionaries who were sent to China and Japan. The famous German missionary, Karl Gutzlaff, in his capacity as interpreter for the East India Company, visited the coastal areas of Korea and left behind copies of the Scriptures in Chinese which had been given to him by Robert Morrison. He succeeded in sending two copies of the Bible to the king. (Kane 1985: 263) He attempted to bring the Chinese Bible into Korea and translated “the Lord’s Prayer” in 1832. The first American missionaries, destined to become the giants of their day, arrived in Korea via Japan. They were Horace G. Underwood (Presbyterian) and Henry G. Appenzeller (Methodist) in 1885: two of the most successful Western missionaries during the beginnings of the Korean Church. (Kraakevic and Welliver 1991: 126-127) Dr Underwood’s family had given more than a century of great service to the Korean churches.
Robert J Thomas, a member of the London Missionary Society in China, attempted to evangelize Korea by bringing the “Chinese Bible and tiny evangelistic books” into Pyungyang in 1866. However, he did not achieve success in his mission in Korea and became the first foreign missionary martyr in Korea.
Shortly after the arrival of Dr Underwood, three other Presbyterian missions began work in Korea: the Australian Presbyterians (1889), the American (Southern) Presbyterians (1892), and the Canadian Presbyterians (1898). From the outset, these four groups agreed to work in harmony and set up a central committee in order to ensure cooperation (Kane 1985: 264).
From the beginning, the unique feature of the Korean church was its emphasis on missions. Foreign missionaries desired to bring the Gospel to Korea; however, before they arrived in Korea, several Koreans had heard the Gospel and had been converted in China and Japan. They brought the message of eternal life to their own people.
In the early days of the history of the Korean church, God stirred up not only western missionaries but also Korean Christians. Four pioneers (Ung-Chan Lee, Jin-Gi Kim, Hong-jun Back and Sang-Yun Sea) opened their hearts to God and obeyed the Word of God: Ung-Chan Lee, Jin-Gi Kim, Hong-jun Back and Sang-Yun Sea who were baptized by John MacIntyre in China during 1876. They taught missionaries the Korean language and helped them to translate the Chinese Bible into Korean. John Ross published “Luke” and “John” in Korean in 1882. These first four Korean Christians crossed the Arprock River1 and brought the gospel into Korea in 1883; this was the beginning of the Mission Movement in Korea. Sang-Yun Sea proclaimed the Gospel at Sorea in Hwanghae Do (Province) during 1884 which led to the Sorea Church, the first Presbyterian Church in Korea being established.
Su-Jung Lee was baptized by Yasukawa Toru at Nogetsucho Presbyterian Church, in Japan, in 1883. He translated the Bible from the Chinese language into Korean (K B Min, 2002:165-167). In 1885, Horace G. Underwood published 6,000 Korean Bibles which he brought to Korea.
In 1890, Dr John L. Nevius visited Korea and taught “the three self”.principles which were self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. In the spirit of prayer, the missionaries adopted its three principles as their guiding rules in the development of the work.
The first converts were baptized in 1886 and by 1894, the number had grown to 236, after which a period of rapid progress followed. By 1910, there were nearly 30,000 communicants of the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches. In 1907, a great revival, which began and spread beyond Korea, renewed the vigour of the church and re-invigorated evangelistic zeal. Missionaries spent most of their time conducting Bible classes and preparing converts for baptism and church membership. Bible classes played a major role in the spread of the gospel and the growth of the church.
The suffering period
This is the stage between 1910 and 1953. Korean tradition traces Korean history back to 2333 B.C. when the legendary first king, Tangun, is said to have established his kingdom at Pyongyang (Kane 1985:261).
While Korea has been invaded more than 3,000 times since the beginning of its history, more recently, Korea was able to preserve its isolation until 1876, when Japan forced a treaty on the Hermit Kingdom. By defeating China in 1895 and Russia in 1905, Japan established itself as the paramount power in Korea. Then in 1910, it formally annexed the country and held it until the close of World War II when Korea was liberated by the Allies. It was, however, divided at the 38th Parallel, and the Republic of Korea (South) came into existence in August, 1948. A month later the North Koreans formed their own government and called the new state the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea (Kane 1985:261).
After the great revival in 1907, the Korean church implemented a major evangelistic plan which was called the “Movement for the saving of 1 million souls” (K. B. Min 2002:298-299). It spread across the entire country, touching the hearts of young people with an intense desire to save their nation from Japan. This, one could argue, was God’s plan to strengthen the new Korean churches through the great revival early in church history of Korea. It came at precisely the right time to prepare people for the suffering and trials the church and its people would undergo, for the next 36 years.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
KEY TERMS
ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1. RELEVANCE
1.2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.3. HYPOTHESIS
1.4. METHODOLOGY
1.5. OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS
1.6. DEFINITIONS
CHAPTER TWO THE HOME BASE. THE KOREAN CHURCHES’ INTEREST IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
2.1. INTRODUCTION
2.2. THE ARRIVAL OF CHRISTIANITY IN KOREA
2.3. REVIVAL IN THE KOREAN CHURCH AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR MISSIONS
2.4. THE HISTORY OF THE KOREAN MISSIONARY MOVEMENT
2.5. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF KOREA HAPDONG AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MTI
2.6. MISSIONARY WORK OF THE OTHER KOREAN CHURCHES AND ORGANIZATIONS
2.7. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 3 AN OVERVIEW OF KOREAN MISSIONARY ACTIVITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
3.1. INTRODUCTION
3.2. KOREAN MISSIONARY ACTIVITY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA, 1980-2006
3.3. A COMPREHENSIVE MINISTRY OF THE KOREAN MISSIONARIES
3.4. RELATIONSHIP WITH LOCAL CHURCHES AND ORGANIZATIONS .
3.5. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 4 CHALLENGES IN THE MISSION FIELD
4.1. INTRODUCTION
4.2. UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT
4.3. LANGUAGE AND CULTURE ACQUISITION.
4.4. MEETING THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE LOCAL PEOPLE AND CHURCHES
4.5. MEETING THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE SENDING CHURCHES IN KOREA
4.6. RELATIONSHIPS WITH LOCAL CHURCHES AND ORGANIZATIONS
4.7. THE MISSIONARY AND HIS FAMILY
4.8. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 5 KOREAN SOLUTIONS TO SOUTHERN AFRICAN CHALLENGES?
5.1. INTRODUCTION*
5.2. DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE MISSION
5.3. SPECIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS AND SOLUTIONS BY KOREAN MISSIONARIES
5.4. SEVEN CHALLENGES OF THE KOREAN MISSIONARY’S ATTITUDE IN THE FIELD
5.5. FIVE QUALIFICATIONS OF KOREAN MISSIONARIES
5.6. CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION
6.1. A DISCUSSION AND EVALUATION OF KOREAN MISSIONARY ACTIVITY IN SOUTHERN
AFRICA
6.2. CONCLUSION EVALUATED ACCORDING TO METHODOLOGY
6.3. THE HYPOTHESIS
6.4. CONCLUSION TO THE FIELD STUDY
6.5. FURTHER AREAS FOR RESEARCH.
SUMMARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
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