History of Protestantism in Korea

Background

Contact with Protestantism occurred even before official missionary work began. In 1866 the British missionary Robert Jermain Thomas came to Pyongyang aboard the General Sherman and was killed there. He is remembered as the first Protestant martyr in Korea. Before missionaries arrived, Koreans who had encountered the gospel abroad, such as Seo Sang-ryun, were already evangelizing and had also asked foreign churches to send missionaries.

Development

• Arrival of missionaries (1884–1886): In September 1884 Horace N. Allen, a medical missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Northern Presbyterian), became the first missionary to arrive. Allen won the court's trust by treating Min Yeong-ik, who had been wounded during the Gapsin Coup, and in April 1885 he founded Gwanghyewon, a Western-style hospital. On Easter Sunday, April 5, 1885, Horace G. Underwood of the Northern Presbyterian Church and Henry G. Appenzeller of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Northern Methodist) landed at Chemulpo, followed in May by William B. Scranton. In 1886 Appenzeller founded Paichai Hakdang, and Underwood founded an orphanage (later the Kyungshin School). Early missionary work was thus carried out alongside medical and educational work.
• Revival and organization (1907–1912): In January 1907 Elder Gil Seon-ju publicly confessed his sins at Jangdaehyeon Church in Pyongyang. This sparked the Great Pyongyang Revival, which spread throughout the country. On September 17 of the same year, the Independent Presbytery (Dok Nohoe), the first presbytery of Korean Presbyterianism, was organized. At that time the first seven graduates of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang were ordained as the first Korean Presbyterian ministers, and one of them, Yi Gi-pung, was sent as a missionary to Jeju Island. In 1912 the Presbyterian General Assembly was organized.
• Japanese colonial period: During the March First Movement of 1919, sixteen of the thirty-three national representatives were Christians (the March First Movement and Christianity). On September 10, 1938, the 27th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Joseon Yesugyo Jangnohoe), under police pressure, passed a resolution approving Shinto shrine worship. The Methodist Church also began taking part in shrine worship that same year. Pastor Ju Gi-cheol, who refused to worship at the shrines, was deposed from the ministry in 1940, and Sanjeonghyeon Church was closed. In July 1945 the Protestant denominations were forcibly merged into the Korean Church of Japanese Christianity (Nihon Kirisutokyō Chōsen Kyōdan).
• Division and growth after liberation: Korean Presbyterianism split three times during the 1950s (Presbyterian schisms in Korea).
• 1952: The Koryo faction, which called for repentance for shrine worship and the purification of the church, established a separate General Assembly. It is today's Presbyterian Church in Korea (Kosin).
• 1953: Following a controversy over the doctrine of Scripture, the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (Kijang) separated.
• 1959: At the 44th General Assembly, disputes including the question of membership in the World Council of Churches (WCC) led to the split between the Presbyterian Church of Korea (Tonghap) and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (Hapdong).

During the subsequent period of industrialization, church membership grew dramatically and megachurches emerged (growth of the Korean church).

Outcomes and Influence

The schools and hospitals founded by missionaries became one of the pillars of modern education and medicine in Korea. With the organization of the Independent Presbytery and the General Assembly, Koreans came to participate directly in church governance. The issue of Shinto shrine worship persisted after liberation. Although the Presbyterian General Assembly issued a statement rescinding its approval of shrine worship at its 39th meeting in 1954, the question of how to deal with the issue became a point of contention in the denominational divisions.

Assessment

Protestant participation in the national movement, the revival movements, and contributions to education and medicine are viewed positively. On the other hand, cooperation with the war effort, such as the resolution approving shrine worship and the collection of national defense contributions, is acknowledged even within the church as a past that calls for repentance.

Views on the divisions also differ by denomination.

• The Kosin split: The Kosin side regarded it as an unavoidable separation to preserve the holiness of the church, while its opponents regarded it as separatism.
• The Kijang split: One side describes it as a matter of upholding the authority of Scripture, the other as a matter of theological freedom.
• The Tonghap–Hapdong split: It is understood as the result of disagreement over the ecumenical movement.