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Choi, Young-Chan (2017) A History of Protestant theory of liberty in Korea, 1886-1917. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/24948 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this PhD Thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This PhD Thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this PhD Thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the PhD Thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full PhD Thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD PhD Thesis, pagination. A History of Protestant theory of liberty in Korea, 1886-1917 Young-Chan Choi Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2016 Department of the Languages and Cultures of Japan and Korea SOAS, University of London Acknowledgements I am very grateful for the support, encouragement, and intellectual guidance of Dr Anders Karlsson and Dr Owen Miller. They have taught me the worksmanship and discipline that are more important than just reading lots of books. Many twists and turns mark the start and finish of this project and the supports I have received are too many to list. Mr Colin Gordon and Professor John Dunn have been the two biggest sources of intellectual inspiration. Professor Daham Chŏng and Mr Woochang Lee have been constant sources of scholarly inspiration and questions. My mother-in-law Cathy Sutton deserves all the credit for the proof- reading and suggestions. My deepest gratitude goes to my mother and father, for their unfailing love and patience, and to my wife, Imogen, without whom this would have never happened. ii Abstract This thesis is a historical study of the political thought elaborated by the practitioners of Protestantism in Korea between 1886 and 1917. In the study, firstly I outline a coherent line of thought which reveals a series of distinctively Protestant issues. Secondly, I argue that this line of thought was significant in constituting a theory of liberty. In elaborating this I highlight the actual historical terms of debate such as anti-Catholicism, loyalty, trade, conscience and the soul and how they relate to a conceptual formation of liberty that is religious first and foremost. This development is investigated across four chapters, devoted to the cultural, political, economic and theological aspect of this intellectual endeavour respectively. In so doing I challenge the conventional interpretative framework that emphasises social Darwinism, church nationalism, missionary imperialism, civilisation discourse, and the separation of church and state. I explore how political thought properly contextualised is as much an exercise in religious imagination as secular rationality. The study contributes a new perspective on the question of how to relate political thought and religion, opening up a new vista from which to understand this reciprocal relationship. This account challenges the conventional wisdom of modernity as a secularising movement, and has potential implications for scholars of the period and beyond. I conclude with the theoretical implication this finding has for the secularisation thesis and consider whether the process of secularisation should be considered not so much a displacement as a permeation of theological thinking into the secular realm. iii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 2: Literature review and methodology ..................................................................................... 3 Nationalist historiography ................................................................................................................ 12 Church and nation ............................................................................................................................. 17 Secularisation .................................................................................................................................... 26 Methodological proposal .................................................................................................................. 28 Chapter 3: From Christian republicanism to disestablishment ............................................................ 36 Christian Republicanism in Mid-nineteenth Century America ......................................................... 40 Anti-Romanism in the mid-century America .................................................................................... 44 The separation and religious liberty ................................................................................................. 57 Chapter summary ............................................................................................................................. 66 Chapter 4: Politics sectionalised: Philip Jaisohn and Yun Ch’i-ho ......................................................... 69 God, property, and natural rights ..................................................................................................... 75 Slavery and despotism ...................................................................................................................... 81 A Christian Revolution ...................................................................................................................... 83 Jaisohn and political theology ........................................................................................................... 88 Yun Ch’i-ho and the American South ................................................................................................ 92 Anti-politics and the sociology of sin ................................................................................................ 98 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................................... 103 Chapter 5: trade and international law in Rhee’s political thought ................................................... 107 Anti-Catholicism and anti-Confucianism ......................................................................................... 112 Trade as political morality ............................................................................................................... 121 The Spirit of the Law ....................................................................................................................... 128 Chapter summary ........................................................................................................................... 135 Chapter 6: Soul, conscience, and liberty: politics theologised ........................................................... 138 Corruption or religion ..................................................................................................................... 144 The science of the soul.................................................................................................................... 151 The law, salvation and conscience .................................................................................................. 156 Liberty of conscience, conscience of liberty ................................................................................... 162 Political authority and liberty after 1905 ........................................................................................ 165 Chapter 7: Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 168 Chapter breakdown ........................................................................................................................ 169 1 Final thought ................................................................................................................................... 177 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 181 2 Chapter 1: Introduction Christianity alone can save the individual and the state. The Rev. Henry G. Appenzeller1 What the Koreans need more than anything else is the knowledge that all men are born equal before the eyes of Almighty God. The Independent, 1896, December 5 Few other words in modern Korean history could generate as much vexation and hostility as the words of Henry Gerhard Appenzeller. The timing could not have been more inopportune, for in 1905 the Taehan Empire [1897-1910] – less than a decade into its existence – had just been reduced to a Japanese protectorate. The audacity of the pronouncement that Christianity alone could secure the salvation of the state would have jarred even the most devout of Korean believers. Sympathetic as one may be to view his declaration as nothing more than an article of faith, a sort of religious resolve necessary to withstand the imminent Japanese colonisation, modern readers cannot but sense a hint of intrusive conceit coming from a privileged American Protestant missionary blissfully unaware of the troubles ahead. If the above comment by Appenzeller draws enthusiastic derision from some quarters,