Liberating Faith
When Korea threw off Japanese rule in 1945, it was as much a victory for the church as for the nation.
by Madison Trammel | posted 8/12/2005 12:00AM
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With the expectation that every Christian be involved in ministry, Korean congregations also encouraged women to teach and to lead outreach. Early on, mission historian Charles Allan Clark credited the opportunities Christianity gave women as a leading reason for its success in Korea.
Reflecting on the wide-ranging results of self-support, L. George Paik, a Korean statesman and longtime president of Yonsei University, has written, "The persistence of the principle gave the Koreans the feeling that the whole enterprise was theirs. The teachers who taught them were their own servants and the churches in which they worshiped were theirs. … It is the self-support principle that created the self-respect, self-reliance, and independent spirit which are necessary for any successful movement."
The independence nurtured by Korea's indigenous church stood directly opposed to Japan's imperial policies. Indeed, many congregations took risks to promote Korean freedom. Unlike other countries, where missionary congregations sometimes found themselves entangled with colonial powers, Korea's church was always allied with Korean nationalism—an alliance that proved beneficial for both church and state.
Although Korea's missionaries cannot take credit for the church's courageous stand for independence, a distinction that belongs to Korean believers alone, their decisions did reflect a cultural sensitivity remarkable for the time. In light of the many instances where foreign missionaries subjugated a culture rather than honoring it—from Portuguese Catholics in Sri Lanka to American Protestants in Hawaii—it's nice to notice where missionaries got it right.
For Christians with an interest in missions, that alone makes August 15 worth celebrating.
For further reading:
L. George Paik, The History of Protestant Missions in Korea (Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 4th edition, 1987)
Charles Allan Clark, The Korean Church and the Nevius Methods (Chicago: Fleming H. Revell, 1930)
More Christian history, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net. Subscriptions to the quarterly print magazine are also available.
Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
Yale historian and missiologist Lamin Sanneh praises missionary Bible translation and language work, saying, "The overwhelming majority of the world's languages have a dictionary and a grammar at all because of the modern missionary movement. With such systematic documentation the affected cultures could promote themselves in unprecedented and unsuspecting ways."
CT also reviewed Sanneh's book, Whose Religion Is Christianity?
CT has focused on persecution and human rights in articles on North Korea.
Christian History Corner, a weekly column from the editors and writers of Christian History & Biography, appears every Friday on Christianity Today's website. Previous editions include:
Where Wesley's Followers Went Awry | Three new books by scholars of American Methodism explain why Methodists flourished in the 19th century and faltered in the 20th. (Aug. 05, 2005)
The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up | No matter how great the obstacles, William Carey expected great things and attempted great things. (July 29, 2005)
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