Han Sang-dong

Life

Han Sang-dong was born on July 13, 1901, in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province. In 1918 he became a teacher at the Dadaepo Practical School. In 1924 he converted to Christianity through the witness of the evangelist Pak Chang-geun, and according to accounts his family disowned him permanently as a result. In 1927 he moved to Jinju, where he taught at the Gwangnim School. In 1928 he resolved to enter the ministry, and in 1933 he enrolled at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Korea (Chosŏn Presbyterian Theological Seminary) in Pyongyang. He graduated in 1937 and became a Presbyterian minister.

The Japanese colonial authorities compelled the churches to participate in Shinto shrine worship, a rite of bowing at Shinto shrines, the religious sites of Japan. Han regarded the practice as idolatry and refused to take part. Records indicate that on October 24, 1938, at Choryang Church in Busan, he declared that Christians must not submit to the shrine worship being imposed by the Government-General of Korea. He was later arrested and imprisoned in Pyongyang Prison, from which he was released after liberation. According to accounts, he was offered several opportunities in prison to secure his release by professing loyalty to the Japanese emperor, but he refused to the end. He died on January 6, 1976.

Ministry and Achievements

Immediately after liberation, he joined Rev. Yi Ki-seon and other "released prisoner saints" in leading revival meetings at Sanjeonghyeon Church in Pyongyang that called for the rebuilding of the church. The term "released prisoner saints" refers to believers who had been imprisoned for refusing shrine worship and were freed at liberation. He is reported to have then been called to Sanjeonghyeon Church as senior pastor, succeeding Rev. Ju Gi-cheol, who had died a martyr in prison. However, as it became increasingly difficult to continue his ministry under the communist regime, he moved south and settled in Busan.

In Busan he set about founding a theological seminary, a plan he is said to have conceived and prayed over while still in prison. The school he established, Koryo Theological Seminary, was intended to carry on the tradition of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang and to teach a conservative, Bible-centered faith. In the 1950s its faculty included, in addition to Han, Park Yune-sun and Bruce F. Hunt (Han Bu-seon), among others.

Influence on the Korean Church

Those who gathered around Koryo Theological Seminary strongly called for repentance for shrine worship and for the restoration of the church's purity. This movement later developed into the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Kosin). Han is remembered as a leading figure of this denomination, and the tradition of the seminary he founded is understood to have been carried on by Kosin University. The refusal of shrine worship and the subsequent movement to rebuild the church also exerted a lasting influence on how Korean Presbyterians understand the orthodoxy of their faith.

Assessment

The Kosin denomination and other conservative Presbyterian circles regard him, together with Ju Gi-cheol, as one of the two central figures in the movement to resist shrine worship. They hold him in high esteem as a leader who preserved the purity of the faith and as a patriot. At the same time, the conflicts that arose after liberation over how to address the shrine worship issue and over demands for rebuilding the church led to the division of Korean Presbyterianism. Consequently, some view that process as an unavoidable choice made to preserve the purity of the church, while others criticize it for having caused division within the church.