DOCSLIB.ORG

Korean Missions: Beyond the Obvious

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Korean Missions: Beyond the Obvious Vol. 36, No. 2 April 2012 Korean Missions: Beyond the Obvious ny computer’s performance is tied to software programs Christians in sub-Saharan Africa have been conspicuous Athat run in the background, usually in ways mysteri- exemplars of this dynamic process. The late Kwame Bediako ous to the user. If we compare Christian mission to a booted-up and others have observed that African religious leaders and computer, one of today’s most active background programs Continued next page consists of precolonial heritages passed down to postcolonized Christians. Whether obvious or difficult to discern, these heri- tages are powerful and in need of careful upkeep and attention. On Page Starting about 500 years ago, peoples of the Americas, Africa, 59 Korean Protestant Christianity: A Missiological Asia, and the Pacific experienced the awkward installation of the Reflection alien operating systems of European, American, and Russian polit- Joon-Sik Park ical, economic, and military power. Various Christian traditions 65 Grace Korean Church, Fullerton, California: were import- Mission from the Margins ed with those Wonsuk Ma alien systems. 68 Noteworthy The collapse of 72 Toward a Broader Role in Mission: How Korean modern colo- Americans’ Struggle for Identity Can Lead to a nial empires Renewed Vision for Mission p r o v i d e d S. Steve Kang and Megan A. Hackman opportunity for 78 Lessons from Korean Mission in the Former fresh and pen- Soviet Region etratingly help- John McNeill ful analyses of 82 Upcoming Conferences the modern missions move- 84 Missions from Korea 2012: Slowdown and Photo by Cassandra M. Zampini; courtesy of GBGM Mission News Maturation ment, allowing Fresie and Rukang Chikomb of DR Congo Steve Sang-Cheol Moon for the dissec- join other new missionaries as servers of tion of complex 86 The Second Text: Missionary Publishing and Holy Communion at commissioning Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress interconnec- service in Flushing, New York. David N. Dixon tions between religious propagation and political-economic power. At the same 90 A “New Breed of Missionaries”: Assessing Attitudes Toward Western Missions at the time, Christian movements throughout postcolonized territories Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School have had to grapple with the still lingering effects of their politi- of Theology cal, economic, and cultural subjugation and its direct mutant, F. Lionel Young III globalization, on their identity as “Christians.” 96 My Pilgrimage in Mission Never uninstalled, however, and continuously running in Joseph G. Donders the background have been peoples’ precolonial heritages. For the sake of their religious, ethnic, and national identities, postcolonial 100 Book Reviews Christians have had to reprogram their undeleted precolonial 101 Fifteen Outstanding Books of 2011 for Mission heritages in relation to imported and often imposed foreign Studies Christian traditions. These integration efforts have given fresh 110 Dissertation Notices shape and impetus to local and regional Christianities. 112 Book Notes key social institutions now receive open and public indigenous Roman and Byzantine Empires, sixteenth-century Hispaniolan Christian analysis in a way that was anathema during colonial believers enslaved by Spaniards, or early twentieth-century times—postcolonial reflection that has been accompanied by Hawaiian Christians dominated by powerful U.S. political and unprecedented numerical growth. Correspondingly, Korean corporate interests. In the nineteenth century, First Nations Alas- Christians, after draconian Japanese imperial efforts to squelch kans were baptized into Russian Orthodoxy or transmuted into fledgling expressions of Christian life, experienced extraordinary English-speaking Presbyterians. Chinese Christians, across the numerical growth. Somewhat ironically, however, in Korea this centuries, have received the Christian Gospel in its Syriac, Latin, growth has too often been detached from robust sociopolitical Russian, French, English, German, Korean, and other linguistic engagement. and cultural forms. The ongoing challenge across the continents has been to Today as never before, Jesus’ followers are found across understand what it means to turn previously unconverted a bewildering range of settings: multicultural, alien, postcolo- spheres of life to Christ. What does conversion look like—socially, nial, politically oppressive, affluent, and destitute. Whatever institutionally, and politically—and how does it take place? And the setting, whether rooted or on the move, the church is the what does this mean for the Christian diaspora, for the hundreds deeply flawed but extraordinarily purposeful body of Christ of thousands of Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans who are incarnate—the Word made flesh. It exists by mission, just as a finding new homes and fresh hope in North America, Europe, and fire exists by burning, as Emil Brunner so aptly observed. The Australia—missionary-sending continents whose Christianity is modern world order created by expanding empires is giving way either moribund or greatly diminished? Bugs and error messages to social, demographic, and ecclesiastical realities that are much associated with this latest background software acquire particular less tidy than those proposed by missiological cartographers of poignancy for second- and third-generation, fully enculturated a century ago. immigrants more comfortable with the languages and cultural Can operating systems and background software ever be forms of their host countries than with those of their parents separated? Not without debilitating the one and destroying the or grandparents. In what sense is the Christianity of a Korean other. There can be no church and mission without human beings, Russian or a Korean American unique? What particular roles, if and there can be no human beings who are not shaped, condi- any, do such bicultural and even multicultural Christians play tioned, self-defined, animated, and limited by their cultures. Nor in the worldwide mission of the Gospel? can there be any church and mission that will not instinctively Such challenges are as old as our faith itself. After all, Jesus influence and benefit their host culture. While the essays in this and his earliest followers lived out their days in a multicultural, issue of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research brutally colonized world. The same holds true for two successive are weighted toward the country of Korea, they illustrate well millennia of Christians, whether it be Judean Christians under what is taking place worldwide. persecution, tenth-century Slavs trapped between the Holy —J. Nelson Jennings Editor Jonathan J. Bonk InternatIonal BulletIn of MIssIonary research Senior Associate Editor Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin Dwight P. Baker of Missionary Research in 1977. Renamed International Bulletin of Missionary Research in 1981. Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by the Overseas Ministries Study Center, 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511 Associate Editor (203) 624-6672 • Fax (203) 865-2857 • [email protected] • www.internationalbulletin.org J. Nelson Jennings Contributing Editors Assistant Editors Catalino G. Arévalo, S.J. Darrell L. Guder Anne-Marie Kool Brian Stanley Craig A. Noll Daniel H. Bays Philip Jenkins Mary Motte, F.M.M. Tite Tiénou Rona Johnston Gordon Stephen B. Bevans, S.V.D. Daniel Jeyaraj C. René Padilla Ruth A. Tucker William R. Burrows Jan A. B. Jongeneel James M. Phillips Desmond Tutu Managing Editor Angelyn Dries, O.S.F. Sebastian Karotemprel, S.D.B. Dana L. Robert Andrew F. Walls Daniel J. Nicholas Samuel Escobar Kirsteen Kim Lamin Sanneh Anastasios Yannoulatos Senior Contributing Editors John F. Gorski, M.M. Graham Kings Wilbert R. Shenk Gerald H. Anderson Books for review and correspondence regarding editorial matters should be addressed to the editors. Manuscripts Robert T. Coote unaccompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope (or international postal coupons) will not be returned. Opinions expressed in the IBMR are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Overseas Ministries Study Center. Circulation The articles in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Bibliografia Missionaria, Book Review Index, Christian Aiyana Ehrman Periodical Index, Guide to People in Periodical Literature, Guide to Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature, [email protected] IBR (International Bibliography of Book Reviews), IBZ (International Bibliography of Periodical Literature), Missionalia, (203) 285-1559 Religious and Theological Abstracts, and Religion Index One: Periodicals. Advertising OnlinE E-JOURnAl: The IBMR is available in e-journal and print editions. To subscribe—at no charge—to the full Charles A. Roth, Jr. text IBMR e-journal (PDF and HTML), go to www.internationalbulletin.org/register. Index, abstracts, and full text of this Spire Advertising journal are also available on databases provided by ATLAS, EBSCO, H. W. Wilson Company, The Gale Group, and University P.O. Box 635 Microfilms. Back issues may be purchased or read online. Consult InfoTrac database at academic and public libraries. Yarmouth, Maine 04096-0635 PRinT SUbSCRiPTiOnS: Subscribe, renew, or change an address at www.internationalbulletin.org or write Telephone: (516) 729-3509 InternatIonal BulletIn of MIssIonary research, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-3000. Address correspondence [email protected] concerning print
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Just Unity: Toward a True Community of Women and Men in the Church
    Just Unity: Toward a True Community of Women and Men in the Church Rachel Cosca Global Ecumenical Theological Institute HSST 2600 Christianity, Ecumenism and Mission in the 21st Century December 11, 2013 2 Despite the World Council of Church’s commendable and sometimes bold efforts to establish a just and true community of women and men in the church, the goal remains elusive. This is in part due to the pervasiveness of sexism in our world and the intractable nature of institutions, but it is also a consequence of some of the beliefs and traditions of the member churches. Given that the stated aim of the WCC is to “call one another to visible unity in one faith and one Eucharistic fellowship,”1 it must be questioned whether unity as it is currently conceived is compatible with gender justice. Prof. Dr. Atola Longkumer, in her lecture on Asian women, advocated a “posture of interrogation” toward structures, sources, and traditions that are oppressive or exclusive.2 In this vein, it is important to question whether unity is sometimes used as an alibi to maintain the status quo and silence voices on the periphery that may complicate the journey. We call for unity, but on whose terms? As the Ecumenical Conversation on Community of Women and Men in the Church at the Busan Assembly noted: “There is a tendency to compromise gender justice for ‘unity.’ Often this is expressed in the work of silencing and marginalizing women and/or gender justice perspectives.”3 Thus, this paper is intended to survey the ecumenical legacy of work for women’s full participation in church and society, engage Orthodox women’s voices in particular, probe the theological significance of unity, and look for signs of hope at the Busan Assembly.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Communication and Its Impact on Korean Society : Past, Present and Future Soon Nim Lee University of Wollongong
    University of Wollongong Thesis Collections University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Year Christian communication and its impact on Korean society : past, present and future Soon Nim Lee University of Wollongong Lee, Soon Nim, Christian communication and its impact on Korean society : past, present and future, Doctor of Philosphy thesis, School of Journalism and Creative Writing - Faculty of Creative Arts, University of Wollongong, 2009. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/3051 This paper is posted at Research Online. Christian Communication and Its Impact on Korean Society: Past, Present and Future Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Wollongong Soon Nim Lee Faculty of Creative Arts School of Journalism & Creative writing October 2009 i CERTIFICATION I, Soon Nim, Lee, declare that this thesis, submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Department of Creative Arts and Writings (School of Journalism), University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise referenced or acknowledged. The document has not been submitted for qualifications at any other academic institution. Soon Nim, Lee 18 March 2009. i Table of Contents Certification i Table of Contents ii List of Tables vii Abstract viii Acknowledgements x Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Christianity awakens the sleeping Hangeul 12 Introduction 12 2.1 What is the Hangeul? 12 2.2 Praise of Hangeul by Christian missionaries
    [Show full text]
  • A Historical Overview of the Impact of the Reformation on East Asia Christina Han
    Consensus Volume 38 Issue 1 Reformation: Then, Now, and Onward. Varied Article 4 Voices, Insightful Interpretations 11-25-2017 A Historical Overview of the Impact of the Reformation on East Asia Christina Han Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus Part of the Chinese Studies Commons, History of Christianity Commons, Japanese Studies Commons, Korean Studies Commons, and the Missions and World Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Han, Christina (2017) "A Historical Overview of the Impact of the Reformation on East Asia," Consensus: Vol. 38 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol38/iss1/4 This Articles is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Han: Reformation in East Asia A Historical Overview of the Impact of the Reformation on East Asia Christina Han1 The Reformation 500 Jubilee and the Shadow of the Past he celebratory mood is high throughout the world as we approach the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. Themed festivals and tours, special services and T conferences have been organized to commemorate Martin Luther and his legacy. The jubilee Luther 2017, planned and sponsored the federal and municipal governments of Germany and participated by churches and communities in Germany and beyond, lays out the goals of the events as follows: While celebrations in earlier centuries were kept national and confessional, the upcoming anniversary of the Revolution ought to be shaped by openness, freedom and ecumenism.
    [Show full text]
  • Korean Protestant Christianity: a Missiological Reflection Joon-Sik Park
    Korean Protestant Christianity: A Missiological Reflection Joon-Sik Park he first Protestant missionary set foot on the Korea Pen- Besides the significant role of Nevius and his method, sev- Tinsula in 1884.1 The growth of Korean Protestantism in eral other factors help explain the rapid growth of the Korean the past century and a quarter has been extraordinary by any Protestant Church. measure. Korean churches experienced rapid numerical growth, in particular from the 1960s through the 1980s. In 1960 the Prot- Historical and geopolitical factors. The historical and geopolitical estant population was 623,000, and by 1985 it had grown over situations in and around Korea encouraged Koreans to accept tenfold to 6,489,000. From the early 1990s, however, the growth Christianity more readily than in other Asian countries. Korea rate of the Korean church began to decline. In 1995, according became forcibly annexed by Japan in 1910, and this tragic loss to the Population and Housing Census Report, 8,760,000, or of independence “decisively shaped both the nature of Korean 19.7 percent of the population, were Protestant Christians. Dur- nationalism and the life of the Korean church.”6 By the end of ing the following decade the number of Protestants declined the nineteenth century, the majority of Asian nations had become slightly, to 8,616,000, a 1.6 percent decrease. During the same subjugated by Western powers and turned anti-Western; in Korea, period, by contrast, Korean Catholics increased by 74.4 percent however, the nationalism was anti-Japanese. Koreans welcomed (from 2,951,000 to 5,146,000), and Buddhists by 3.9 percent (from Christianity as “a viable channel for expressing its nationalistic 10,321,000 to 10,726,000).2 sentiment against the Japanese.”7 Furthermore, Christian edu- This downward trend has alarmed Korean Protestant church- cation became “the nurturing ground of nationalism, political es, forcing them to search for its causes and cures.
    [Show full text]
  • The Direct and Indirect Contributions of Western Missionaries to Korean Nationalism During the Late Choson and Early Japanese Annexation Periods 1884-1920
    East Tennessee State University Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University Electronic Theses and Dissertations Student Works 8-2011 The Direct and Indirect Contributions of Western Missionaries to Korean Nationalism during the Late Choson and Early Japanese Annexation Periods 1884-1920. Walter Joseph Stucke East Tennessee State University Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd Part of the Asian History Commons, History of Religion Commons, and the Political History Commons Recommended Citation Stucke, Walter Joseph, "The Direct and Indirect Contributions of Western Missionaries to Korean Nationalism during the Late Choson and Early Japanese Annexation Periods 1884-1920." (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1338. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1338 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Works at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Direct and Indirect Contributions of Western Missionaries to Korean Nationalism during the Late Choson and Early Japanese Annexation Periods, 1884-1920 _______________ A thesis presented to the faculty of the Department of History East Tennessee State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in History _______________ by Walter J. Stucke August 2011 _______________ Dr. Henry Antkiewicz, Chair Dr. William Burgess Dr. Dale Schmitt Keywords: Protestantism, Christianity, Missionaries, Nationalism, Korea, Late Choson Dynasty, Japanese Annexation, March First Movement ABSTRACT The Direct and Indirect Contributions of Western Missionaries to Korean Nationalism during the Late Choson and Early Japanese Annexation Periods, 1884-1920 by Walter J.
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Pioneer Protestant Missionaries in Korea Seoul/1887 William Elliot Griffis Collection, Rutgers University
    1. Pioneer Protestant Missionaries in Korea Seoul/1887 William Elliot Griffis Collection, Rutgers University This rare early photograph includes several of the most prominent pioneer American Presbyterian and Methodist missionary families just a year or two after their arrival in Korea. At the far left in the top row is John W. Heron, the first appointed Presbyterian medical doctor who died of dysentery in 1890, only five years after his arrival in Korea as a missionary. In the middle of the same row is Henry G. Appenzeller, the pioneer Methodist missionary educator who established the first Western-style school in Korea known as the Paejae Academy. At the far right is William B. Scranton, the pioneer Methodist medical missionary who perhaps is most remembered today for having brought his mother to Korea. In the middle row at the far left is Mrs. John “Hattie” Herron, who in 1892 became Mrs. James S. Gale following her husbandʼs untimely death. To the right are Mrs. Henry Ella Dodge Appenzeller, Mrs. William B. Scranton, and the indomitable Mrs. Mary F. Scranton, the mother of William B. Scranton, who founded the school for girls that developed into Ewha University. In the bottom row (l–r) are Annie Ellers—a Presbyterian missionary nurse who later transferred to the Methodist Mission following her marriage to Dalzell A. Bunker—Horace G. Underwood, the first ordained Presbyterian missionary in Korea who is most prominently remembered as the founder of the predecessor to Yonsei University, and (probably) Lousia S. Rothwilder, who worked with Mrs. Mary F. Scranton at Ewha and succeeded her as principal.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2006 Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea Junghyoun Kim University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Kim, Junghyoun, "Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2006. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1812 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Junghyoun Kim entitled "Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Political Science. Yang Zhong, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Robert B. Cunningham, David L. Feldman, David J. Houston, Rachelle M. Jacobs Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Junghyoun Kim entitled “Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Political Science.
    [Show full text]
  • The University of Hull Korean Christianity and The
    THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL KOREAN CHRISTIANITY AND THE SHINTO' SHRINE ISSUE IN THE WAR PERIOD, 1931-1945: A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF RELIGION AND POLITICS being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by Sung-Gun Kim, B.A., M.A. May 1989 SOCIOLOGY & SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY ABSTRACT Summary of Thesis submitted for Ph.D. Degree by Sung-Gun Kim on KOREAN CHRISTIANITY AND THE SHINT5 SHRINE ISSUE IN THE WAR PERIOD, 1931-1945: A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF RELIGION AND POLITICS The main theme is the differences in response among the churches to the Shinn' Shrine Issue in Korea under Japanese colonialism. The central focus is an inquiry into the possible reasons why some religious groups, including the Catholic and Methodist Churches, should choose the way of compromise, while others, such as the Presbyterian Church, represented by individual missionaries and the Non-Shrine Worship Movement and the Mount Zion Sect, chose the way of radical challenge and withdrawal. It is proposed in this study to concentrate on three major churches - the Roman Catholic, the Methodist and the Presbyterian. This study offers, firstly, a detailed analysis of the content of the debate, the attitudes and actions of the three churches towards the shrine problem in their historical evolution since 1931; secondly, an attempt is made to explain the different positions of the three churches in terms of the sociology of religion and the sociology of missions. The sociological consequences of religious experience provide a general framework. The main assumption is that the difference in ideological elements is more important in religious institutions than has been usually thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Christianity and Korean Higher Education in the Late Choson Period
    Christian Higher Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 85-99, 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd. (The U.S. & The U.K.) ISSN 1536-3759/(2002) 1(1) Christianity and Korean Higher Education in the Late Choson Period Jeong-Kyu Lee, Ph.D. Korean Educational Development Institute/Hongik University Seoul, South Korea Abstract This article examines particular aspects of higher education during the late Korean Choson period. The context of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism between the early 18th and the late 19th centuries is presented. Also examined is Christian higher education during these two centuries. The impact of Christianity on Korean higher education concludes the discussion. Historically, the first contact that Koreans experienced with Christianity was in the Korean Peninsula during the late sixteenth century (Clark, 1981; Grayson, 1985; Janelli et al., 1989; Kim, 1995). The introduction of Roman Catholicism to Korea was traced back to the time (1592) of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s Korea invasion. One of the Japanese generals of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s armies, Konishi Yukinaga, was a Roman Catholic. According to Konishi’s request in early 1594, a Jesuit priest, Father Gregorio de Cespedes, arrived within two months, accompanied by a Japanese brother. Although they performed their missionary duties amongst the Japanese soldiers, there is no evidence to indicate that their stay had any influence on Korean religion (Clark, 1981; Grayson, 1985; Kim, 1995). 1 Historic Synopsis of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in Korea Roman Catholicism Catholic mission activities were practiced among Koreans as early as the 17th century, and the religion drew its first Korean convert, Seung-hun Lee, who with his friends established the first Korean Catholic church in 1784 (Choi, 1996; Kang, 1995; Suh, 1996).
    [Show full text]
  • Perception of Christianity As a Cultural Villain in South Korea
    International Journal of Communication 10(2016), 4532–4549 1932–8036/20160005 Uncomfortable Proximity: Perception of Christianity as a Cultural Villain in South Korea SEUNG MIN HONG University of Iowa, USA In global media audience reception studies, one of the most popular yet highly contested theories has been Joseph Straubhaar’s theory of cultural proximity. Despite Straubhaar’s inclusion of religious dimensions in his definition of the concept, however, few critics have sought to advance the cultural proximity thesis by incorporating religion into the discussion. In this article, I examine the perception of Christianity in South Korea in relation to particular media texts about spirit possession. In the uniquely pluralistic and competitive religious atmosphere of Korea, the strong presence of Christianity and its generally negative perception among the non-Christian public sometimes render both familiarity/relatability and a sense of discomfort, foreignness, and antagonism. Such an observation fits neither the notion of cultural proximity nor the opposite notion of cultural discount. I call this uncomfortable proximity. Keywords: cultural proximity, Korea, Christianity, audience, media and religion For some time, cultural proximity, a phrase coined by Joseph Straubhaar, has been one of the staple theories in global media audience research. It has also received much critique from scholars who increasingly recognized the limited scope of its applicability. Despite these scholarly efforts to critically reexamine and advance the notion of cultural proximity, two ideas that deserve to be discussed continue to be absent in the academic discussions. First, despite the small yet growing field of media and religion, little research has investigated how religion can modify the cultural proximity thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • The Growth of Christianity in East Asia John Mark Terry
    The Growth of Christianity in East Asia John Mark Terry IntroductIon The Gospel “to” China issiologists and missions adminis- Christianity first came to China through the Mtrators focus much of their attention on East efforts of Nestorian missionaries. The Nestori- Asia. This is natural because East Asia contains ans entered China in the seventh century, travel- about 25 percent of the world’s population. China’s ing along the ancient Silk Road from the Middle population alone represents 20 per- East. They were welcomed by the emperors of the John Mark Terry is Adjunct Professor of Evangelism and cent of the people on earth. What Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907) and were allowed Missions at The Southern Baptist is the status of Christianity in East to build monasteries and establish churches. The Theological Seminary. Asia? This article will survey the Nestorian monks continued their work in China In addition, he also serves as a progress of Christianity in these for two hundred years until Emperor Wu Tsung professor at a seminary in the Pacific nations of East Asia: China, Japan, ordered the monks and their monasteries expelled Rim. Previously, Dr. Terry has Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan. in A.D. 845. The fate of the Nestorian converts in served as a professor of missions As will be shown, much has been China is unknown, but a Nestorian monk, sent to at Philippines Baptist Theological Seminary, Asia Baptist Graduate accomplished, but much remains ascertain the state of the church in China in A.D. Theological Seminary, and as to be done.
    [Show full text]
  • Pentecostalism in Korea: Shamanism and the Reshaping of Korean Christianity
    Pentecostalism in Korea Shamanism and the Reshaping of Korean Christianity Andrew Eungi Kim South Korea (henceforth Korea) is one of the most vibrant Protes- tant communities in the world today. Protestantism, which was introduced to Korea in 1884, is the second largest religion in Korea, with almost nine million followers or about twenty percent of the country’s 49 million people (see Table 1). Its growth was particularly pronounced from the early 1960s to the end of the 1980s, the period of the country’s remarkable modernization. Since the early 1960s, when South Korea’s Protestants scarcely topped the one million mark, the number of Protestant Christians has increased faster than in any other country, almost doubling every decade. What is remarkable about this Christian success is that it was achieved in just over a century or so and that it transpired in a land which used to * A version of this article will appear in a 2013 issue of Korea Journal. Andrew Eungi Kim is a professor in the Division of International Studies at Korea University. His pri- mary research interests are religion, culture, ethnic studies, social change, and comparative sociology. His articles have appeared in Social Indicators Research, Asian Survey, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Social Compass, Korea Observer, Sociology of Religion, Social History, Review of Religious Research, and Korea Journal, among others. He is presently complet- ing work on two book projects: one examines religio-cultural, social, and political fac- tors that facilitated the “Christianization” of Korea, while the other analyzes the impact of rapid industrialization, modernization, and globalization on the shaping of contemporary Korean society.
    [Show full text]