Han Kyung-Chik

Life

Han was born in Pyeongwon County, South Pyeongan Province. He studied under Yi Seung-hun and Cho Man-sik at the Osan School in Jeongju and then attended Soongsil in Pyongyang. He continued his education in the United States at the College of Emporia and at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he studied from 1926 to 1929. He was then treated for pulmonary tuberculosis at a sanatorium in New Mexico and returned to Korea in 1932. He worked as an evangelist at Sinuiju Second Church and was ordained as a minister in 1933.

Immediately after Korea's liberation in 1945, he and the Rev. Yun Ha-young founded the Christian Social Democratic Party in Sinuiju to oppose the communist forces. He moved south in 1945, and on December 2 of that year he founded Bethany Evangelistic Church in Seoul, which was renamed Youngnak Church in 1946. During the Korean War he and his congregation took refuge in Jeju and elsewhere. After retiring, he served as pastor emeritus of Youngnak Church until his death on April 19, 2000.

Ministry and Achievements

• Pastoral ministry: He made evangelism, education, and service the three core works of the church. Youngnak Church grew rapidly, with a membership drawn largely from refugees who had come from the North.
• Education: He led the effort to reestablish in Seoul the Soongsil school, which had closed voluntarily during the Japanese colonial period rather than submit to Shinto shrine worship. From 1954 to 1958 he served as president of Soongsil College. He rebuilt Bosung Girls' Middle and High School and served as chairman of the boards of trustees of Daekwang Middle and High School, Youngnak Commercial High School, and Seoul Women's University.
• Social welfare: He undertook work on behalf of war refugees and orphans, including founding the Youngnak Home for Mothers and Children in 1954. He also served as board chairman of World Vision Korea and the Holt Adoption Agency.
• Denominational and ecumenical activity: He served as moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea and as president of the Korea Christian Press. He is also reported to have served as president of the National Council of Churches in Korea. In 1983 he became president of the council for the commemoration of the centennial of Protestant missions in Korea. He led the founding of the Christian Council of Korea and later served as its honorary president.
• Honors: In 1970 he received the Order of Civil Merit, Mugunghwa Medal, and in 1992 he became the first Korean to receive the Templeton Prize, one of the most prominent international awards in the field of religion.

Influence on the Korean Church

Han is credited with modeling a church that went beyond nurturing faith within its walls, founding schools and welfare institutions and thereby taking on education and social service outside the church as well. In 1946 he articulated the principle of the separation of church and state. He is said to have declined offers of high government office on several occasions. He was also widely known for his frugal lifestyle, owning almost no personal property, and he became a model for many ministers across denominational lines.

Assessment

For his simple, frugal life and his humility, Han is regarded as one of the most respected ministers in Korea. At a worship service held on June 18, 1992, to celebrate his receipt of the Templeton Prize, he publicly confessed that he had participated in Shinto shrine worship during the Japanese colonial period, a confession that resonated widely in both the church and society. He is reported to have donated the prize money to aid North Korea.

He has also drawn criticism. A staunch anticommunist, he has been criticized for defending military regimes and supplying them with anticommunist ideology. The 1982 volume Rev. Han Kyung-Chik, compiled and edited by Kim Byeong-hui, includes a statement by Han that young people from Youngnak Church played a central role in organizing the Northwest Youth League. For this reason, some critics fault him in connection with the Northwest Youth League, which took part in massacres of civilians during the Jeju April 3 Incident and other events. In response, Park Myung-soo, a professor at Seoul Theological University, argued at a 2019 memorial lecture on Han Kyung-Chik that the claim that Han and the Youngnak Church youth association led the Northwest Youth League has not been firmly established.