Yi Yong-do

Life

Yi was born in 1901 in Sibyeon-ri, Geumcheon County, Hwanghae Province, the third son of Yi Deok-heung and Yang Maria. His mother was a Bible woman (a female church worker engaged in evangelism) at Sibyeon-ri Church, so he attended church from childhood. In 1915 he entered the Anglo-Korean School in Kaesong (later Songdo Higher Common School), founded by the mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. After taking part in the 1919 March First Movement demonstrations in Kaesong, he spent about four years in the student independence movement and was arrested and imprisoned several times.

In 1924 he entered Union Methodist Theological Seminary (now Methodist Theological University). He graduated in January 1928 and was appointed to Tongcheon in Gangwon Province. In 1930 he became a secretary of the Korean Sunday School Association, and in June 1931 he became an itinerant revivalist for the Seoul (Keijō) District of the Methodist Church. In 1933 the Central Annual Conference of the Methodist Church placed him on leave, and that same year he took part in founding a denomination called the Jesus Church. He died of pulmonary tuberculosis, a long-standing illness, on October 2 of that year at the age of 33.

Ministry and Achievements

According to accounts, Yi had a powerful spiritual experience during dawn prayer at Hongcheon Church in Gangwon Province in late 1928, and from about this time he became known as a revivalist. Beginning in November 1928 he led revival meetings, centered in Gangwon Province, and soon churches of every denomination, from Hwanghae and Pyongan Provinces to North Jiandao and South Gyeongsang Province, were inviting him. He emphasized repentance, prayer, and a deep union of love with Jesus, and he sharply criticized formalism in the church and indolent clergy. He is said to have given the honoraria he received for revival meetings to the poor of each locality.

He also wrote extensively. He translated the Confessions of Augustine and wrote literary works, including poetry. His letters and diaries have been compiled and are being published as The Complete Works of Rev. Yi Yong-do.

Influence on the Korean Church

In its official history, the Korean Methodist Church presents him as a figure who called for spiritual awakening and church renewal in the 1930s and regards his "Jesus-centered" faith as an important catalyst for the recovery of spirituality in the Korean church. At the same time, the controversy surrounding him is frequently cited as the case that marked the real beginning of heresy disputes in the Korean church.

Assessment and Controversy

Presbyterian bodies took a series of measures restricting his meetings. In August 1931 the Hwanghae Presbytery barred him from holding meetings within its jurisdiction. The charges reportedly raised at that time included disrupting Jaeryeong Church, corresponding with female church members, praying with the lights turned off, attacking clergy, and promoting Seongseo Joseon (Bible Korea), the magazine published by Kim Kyo-shin. In 1932 the Pyongyang Presbytery also took issue with his meetings. In September 1933 the 22nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea named Yi Yong-do, Paek Nam-ju, Han Jun-myeong, Yi Ho-bin, Hwang Guk-ju, and others as "groups that may be regarded as heretical" and resolved to send a notice to each presbytery warning against being led astray by them. Park Hyung-ryong criticized Yi's faith as an anti-theological mysticism that placed excessive emphasis on emotion and experience.

His defenders see matters differently. They point out that the General Assembly's resolution gave no reasons for regarding him as heretical and offered him no opportunity to explain himself. They also argue that the leave imposed by the Methodist Church was something he himself requested for health reasons, and that later scholarship exaggerated it into something resembling a dismissal or a condemnation for heresy.

The Methodist Church has since reassessed him. At its General Conference in October 1998, the Korean Methodist Church resolved to grant him an "honorable restoration" with respect to his leave. The Seoul Annual Conference subsequently voted unanimously to reinstate him, stating that although his Holy Spirit movement had placed excessive emphasis on mysticism, it should not be regarded as heretical. Some, however, argued that this action rested on a weak basis, citing among other things the absence of any provision in the Methodist Doctrine and Discipline (the denomination's book of church law) for reinstating a deceased person. In 1995 he was recognized for his contributions to Korean independence, and a monument inscribed with his poetry stands in his memory on the campus of Methodist Theological University.