Paik Nak-chun

Life

Paik was born in 1895 into a farming family in Jeongju, North Pyongan Province; some sources give his birth year as 1896. With the help of missionaries, he attended a primary school founded by the church. In 1910 he entered Sinseong School in Seoncheon, founded by the Rev. Yang Jeon-baek, and during this time he embraced the Christian faith. After graduating from Sinseong School in 1913, he studied at a theological academy in Tianjin, China. In 1916 he went to the United States, where he worked to pay for his education, and he graduated from Park College in 1922. He then completed his studies at Princeton Theological Seminary and in 1925 entered the graduate school of Yale University. In 1927 he received his doctorate for a dissertation on the history of Protestant missions in Korea; he is known as the first Korean to earn a doctorate from Yale. He was also ordained as a minister.

In 1927 he became a professor at Chosun Christian College. Shortly after Korea's liberation, he served from September to December 1945 as dean of the College of Law and Literature at Gyeongseong University, and in December of that year he became principal of Chosun Christian College. When the school was raised to university status as Yonhi University in August 1946, he became its president. From May 1950 to October 1952 he served as the second Minister of Education. In 1960 he was elected to the House of Councillors as an independent, and he served as Speaker of the House of Councillors from August of that year until the May 16 military coup of 1961. He later remained active in roles such as president emeritus of Yonsei University. He died on January 13, 1985, and was given a civic funeral.

Ministry and Achievements

• Church history scholarship: He is regarded as the first Korean theologian to specialize in church history. His doctoral dissertation, "The History of Protestant Missions in Korea, 1832–1910," was published in English in 1929. A Korean translation was published by Yonsei University Press in 1973 under the title Hanguk Gaesingyosa (History of Korean Protestantism).
• Christian education: In his early years at Chosun Christian College, he taught Bible courses. He also took part in interdenominational cooperative church work.
• Korean studies: In 1949 he founded the Institute of Korean Studies (Dongbanghak Yeonguso) at Yonhi University and launched its academic journal, Dongbang Hakji.
• Educational administration: As Minister of Education during the Korean War, he is credited with promoting the enactment of the Compulsory Education Act, the introduction of local educational autonomy, the establishment of regional national universities, and the founding of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Arts.
• Writings: His works include Hanguk-ui Hyeonsil-gwa Isang (The Reality and Ideals of Korea), Na-ui Insaenggwan (My View of Life), and Na-ui Jonggangnok (My Final Lectures). In 1995 Yonsei University Press published The Complete Works of Paik Nak-chun in ten volumes.

Influence on the Korean Church

Hanguk Gaesingyosa is a scholarly account of the history of early Protestant missions in Korea and is regarded as having laid the foundation for later research on the history of Korean Protestantism. Paik recalled that as a child he had watched church members become new people, and that this led him to believe Christianity could renew the nation. He is seen as having sought to realize this conviction through university education. During the period of the U.S. Army Military Government immediately after liberation, he is counted, along with Helen Kim and others, among the Christian educators who shaped educational policy.

Assessment

Yonsei University honors him as its first president. A statue of him stands on campus, and the university has Yongjae Hall, named after his pen name, as well as the Yongjae Award, established in 1995. He is widely credited with contributing to the promotion of Korean studies and to national education.

His conduct during the final years of Japanese colonial rule, however, has drawn criticism. He was a founding member of the Chosen Wartime Patriotic Service Corps and served as vice president of the Korean Presbyterian Laity Patriotic Aircraft Donation Committee, which helped donate warplanes. He published articles supporting the Pacific War in the Gidokgyo Sinmun (Christian Newspaper), launched in 1942, and in other publications, and he used the Japanese name Shirahara Rakujun (白原樂濬). He was included in the list of individuals slated for inclusion in the Dictionary of Pro-Japanese Collaborators, announced by the Center for Historical Truth and Justice in 2005. That same year, an organization at Yonsei University also placed him on its list of pro-Japanese figures associated with the university. Some have also objected to his burial at Seoul National Cemetery. He thus remains a figure whose educational and scholarly achievements are discussed alongside his collaboration in the late colonial period.