Kim Yang-seon

Life

Kim Yang-seon was born in 1907 in Bihyeon-myeon, Uiju County, North Pyeongan Province, to the Rev. Kim Kwan-geun and Kwonsa (Deaconess) Baek Kwan-seong. He was the third of four sons in a family of five children. While attending Union Christian College (Soongsil) in Pyongyang, he developed an interest in Korean church history and archaeology. He later graduated from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

After Korea's liberation in 1945, he moved south to Seoul, where he founded Seongdo Church and also ministered at Okin Church. He later became a professor at Soongsil University. He died on October 11, 1970.

Ministry and Achievements

Founding of the Korean Christian Museum

In April 1948 he opened a Christian museum on the former site of the Chōsen Jingū (the Japanese Shinto shrine of the colonial period) on Namsan in Seoul, and he also established the Maesan Museum of Archaeology and Art. The campaign to build the museum was promoted jointly by Catholics and Protestants, and it therefore also took on the character of an ecumenical movement that brought various denominations together. Kim led the campaign as chairman of its building committee. During the war the museum was repeatedly closed and reopened. His wife, Han Pil-ryeo, and his daughter are reported to have lost their lives while safeguarding materials brought from the northern part of the peninsula. Soongsil University still observes the anniversary of Han Pil-ryeo's death as the museum's memorial day.

On July 21, 1967, Kim donated about 3,600 items from his collection to Soongsil University. On October 10 of that year, in conjunction with the university's 70th anniversary, the museum reopened on campus. Its holdings span the entire history of Christianity in Korea, including materials related to Nestorian Christianity (the Church of the East, which entered China during the Tang dynasty), Silhak (Practical Learning), Catholicism, Protestantism, and the Gaehwa (Enlightenment) period.

Writings

• A Ten-Year History of Korean Christianity since Liberation
• A History of the Transmission of Christianity to Korea
• A Concise History of the Korean Church
• A History of World Missions
• An Introduction to Archaeology

He also wrote articles such as "A History of the Development of Korean Silhak."

Influence on the Korean Church

Kim Yang-seon is regarded as one of the pioneers in the study of the history of Korean Christianity. His scholarship extended beyond Christian history to Silhak, Korean Catholic history, archaeology, and the history of the modern independence movement. The artifacts and documents he collected became the foundation of the Korean Christian Museum at Soongsil University, and they continue to serve as foundational sources for the study of the history of Korean Protestantism. Soongsil University's regulations stipulate that the museum's name shall never be changed and that Kim Yang-seon shall remain its perpetual founder.

Assessment

Scholars generally summarize his approach to the history of Korean Christianity under four headings:

• Historiography of indigenous reception: He viewed the history of Korean Christianity as the history of Koreans' own active reception of the faith.
• National church theory: He regarded the Korean church as inseparable from the Korean nation.
• Universal-historical perspective: He sought to narrate Korean Christian history within the broader currents of world cultural history.
• Oral-historical narration: He wrote history on the basis of his own experiences and the testimonies of others.

In recent years, studies reexamining his scholarly achievements and historical outlook have continued to appear.