When Korea turned Christian

When Korea turned Christian

 

 

Republic of Korea one of the four asia’s tiger, one of the strongest economies in the world has a deep and rich culture that has developed through centuries of History.

 

yet concerning faith, most practising Korean people would tell you that they are Christian, a belief foreign to the land.

How DID THIS ALIEN FAITH come to grow as the main religion in korea. As you will see the development of Christianity in the heart of the Koreans in the story of wall pride and hope in relations, to the tumultuous events the 18th 19th and 20th centuries.

 

i’m your host vincent and welcome to caspian report feel to visit my channel

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Contrarily to its historical neighbor china, Christianity reached korea quite recently in History. the 1st Christian teachings to enter korea appeared in 1603.

 

and the time the nation was in control of the 조선 dynasty a vassal kingdom to the great Ming empire of china where european missionaries had been actively working for several decades distributing both scientific knowledge and their faith.

 

a great number of missionaries were proselytizing in the capital 베이징.

korean diplomats dispatched to china could therefore encounter them.

 

upon their return they brought back the Catholic texts they had found there.

this new religion found a steady ground in the chosun lands and many destitute Koreans converted to this new faith.

 

the region of hwanghe and ganwon, so paticular development of Catholicism. 

 

however, the chosun dynasty was culturally a confucian and buddhist nation.

그러나 조선 왕조는 문화적으로 유교와 불교 국가였다.

 

Christianity found opposition especially in the Elite and academics who only swore by these ideologies.

기독교는 특히 이러한 이데올로기로만 맹세했던 엘리트와 학계에서 반대를 발견했습니다.

1:50 by 1758, king yeongjo outlawed the cult branding it’s ‘an evil practice’.

1758 년 영조 왕은 '사악한 관행'이라는 컬트 브랜딩을 금지했다.

 

nonetheless despite the ban plenty of koreans continued to practice their new faith in clandestinity.

it was however more of a sect at the time as there were no priests nor institutions.

그럼에도 불구하고 많은 한국인들이 비밀에 대한 새로운 믿음을 계속 실천했습니다. 그러나 당시에는 사제 나 기관이 없었기 때문에 그것은 더 많은 종파였습니다.

 

in 1783 Lee sung-hoon young korean nobleman accompanied his diplomat father to Beijing.

fascinated by the knowledge of the jesuit priests he met there.

he began learning the teachings and was baptized as Peter the year after.

1783 년 이성훈 젊은 한국 귀족은 외교관 아버지와 함께 베이징으로 갔다.

그곳에서 만난 예수회 사제들의 지식에 매료되었습니다.

그는 가르침을 배우기 시작했고 그 다음 해에 베드로로 침례를 받았습니다.

 

in defiance of the ban he brought back to Korea several texts crucifixes and religious objects which in turn helped to baptized many more Koreans.

lay priests instead of clerrical preachers and the usage at the Practical hangul script rather than classical Chinese allowed catholicism to spread easily throughout the land and people.

in parallel the Korean authorities and elites grew even more intolerant of this foreign religion that discarded the veneration of ancestors an essential part of Confucianism.

금지령에 맞서 그는 한국에 몇 개의 텍스트 십자가와 종교적 물건을 가져 와서 더 많은 한국인에게 침례를 주었다.

서기 설교자 대신 평신도 사제를 사용하고 고전 중국어가 아닌 실용 한글 문자를 사용함으로써 천주교가 땅과 사람들에 쉽게 퍼질 수 있었습니다.

동시에 한국 당국과 엘리트들은 유교의 필수적인 부분이었던 조상 숭배를 버리는 이 외국 종교에 대해 더욱 편협 해졌습니다.

 

at the beginning of the 19th century, the chosun court ordered a massive persecution of Christians known as their senior persecution.

as result of these policies, thousands were executed.

nonetheless religions stood strong and continued to live throughout the 19th century.

19 세기 초, 조선 법원은 선배 박해로 알려진 기독교인에 대한 대규모 박해를 명령했다.

이러한 정책의 결과로 수천 건이 실행되었습니다.

그럼에도 불구하고 종교는 굳건했고 19 세기 내내 계속 살았습니다.

 

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protestantism reached Korea by the 1880s.

after the opium wars, every corner of the Chinese ching Empire was now illegally opened proselytizing.

protestantism had spread throughout the land.

개신교는 1880 년대에 한국에 도달했습니다.

아편 전쟁이 끝난 후 중국 칭 제국의 구석 구석이 불법적으로 개종했습니다.

개신교가 온 땅에 퍼졌다.

 

 

close to the border of the chosun dynasty xianyang

protestant missionary John Ross completed his translation of the New Testament in Korean encouraging a new wave of evangelization in Korean in 1887

조선 왕조 국경이 닫혔다.

개신교 선교사 인 존 로스 (John Ross)는 1887 년 한국어로 새로운 복음화의 물결을 장려하면서 한국어로 신약 성서를 번역했습니다.

 

this time korean interest in Christianity sprouted whithin the elites as the missionaries brought With them modern medical practices that fascinated them.

이번에는 선교사들이 그들을 매료시킨 현대 의료 관행을 가져 오면서 엘리트들에게 기독교에 대한 한국인의 관심이 싹트게되었습니다.

 

 

the king of korea, gojong was in support of modernization to resist the growing Imperial Japanese Menace.

favorably impressed with the dedication to education and modern medical practices of the protestant missionaries

한국의 왕 고종은 일본 제국의 위협에 저항하기 위해 근대화를 지원했습니다.

개신교 선교사들의 교육과 현대 의료에 대한 헌신에 호의적으로 감명을 받았습니다.

 

for progressive korean elites encouraged their work.

missions and christian school gradually opend up everywhere.

in this critical period of Korean history young Christian was a symbol of being modern

Christianity grew steadly representing 1% of the population by the year 1990. namely over 170, 00 people

unlike in many other nations subject to western missions however.

the korean people rapidly assumed the spread of Christianity themselves undertaking policies of propagation.

 

in 1907, The Great pyongyang Revival saw some 1,500 people gathered for a Bible Conference which further encourage a spread of the religion especially in the region.

the impact was so great that the city of Pyongyang got the nickname of Jerusalem of the East and one of six inhabitants was Christian.

 

in 1910. following a trend of growing Japanese influence

korea was effectively annexed by the Empire of Japan.

involuntarlly the Japanese authorities would indirectly leads to an even stronger support for Christianity

 

as they tried to enforce the spread of the shindo religion indigenous to Japan

a significant number of koreans clinged harder or even converted to Christianity in the nationalist opposition to the japanese occupation

 

in 1919, there were 329 protestant mission, 52 catholic and 1 orthodox,

over 300000 korean were Christian a little less than 2% of the total population.

 

that same year, a massive protest kown as march the 1st movement tried to take down japanese rule declaring indepandance.

 

of the tena of thouands that protested about 20% were Christian.

thouands were killed and injured by the japanese police an army in the repression.

and Christian missionaries cared for the victims and their families .this reinforced the good image of Christianity in the country.

now becoming a religion of pride assistance and resistance.

 

in1940, they were reportedly 86,000 Catholics and 79000 Protestants in Korea.

by the mid 1930s this number grew to 147000 and 68000

both of which were primarily concentrated in the north of the country.

 

ending world war two the surrender of Japan and subsequent liberation of Korea took place on the 15th of August 1945.

A Day celebrated as the Assumption of Mary in the calendar by the Catholic Church.

 

this further led some koreans to convert to catholicism believing the Virgin Mary had protected their nation.

political trouble was however not over for the Korean people

as tentiom between the soviet influence north and nationalist south increased separations appeared.

Republic of korea also known as South Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea ware founded in 1948.

 

in the sprit of communism, north Korea’s atheism policy was the declraed most Korean Christians however ware still concentrated in the North.

 

kim il-sung himself came from a Christian background his mother being a presbyterian and grandfather a Protestant minister.

nonthe less north Korea’s communist ideology led to the persecution of the Christians.

by 1949, all churches were closed.

Korean Catholic priests were executed and Protestants who refused to renounce their faith were purged

 

in consequence the vast majority of Christians fled South Korea leading to the cocentration of Korean Christians in south Korea.

 

the Korean war saw the growth of influence of the pro Christians United States in the South.

 

embracing capitalism south Korea somewhat gradually adopted a way of life similar to the American one.

 

during the 1960s and 70s as an impessively fast economic growth to South Korea.

 

many people found themselves working in harsh conditions.

Christian organizations offerd help in the social domain.

strengthening the influence of the church within the population,

furthermore as many men underwent a mandatory military service. they got the occation to discover the religions there.

the work of military chaplains led to the conversion of a significant portion of soldiers who were left service as Christians.

 

all these factors paved the way for the steady development of the religion.

 

in the 80s observers reported an explosive growth.

since the 2000s christianity has still been growing strong.

 

all gradually tending to a stagnation.

today practically a 3rd of South Koreans are Christians with 20% of protestants and 10% of Catholics.

 

the strong influence of christianity can still be seen in politics at/as South Korea has counted one prime minister and six presidents including incumbent moon je-in belonging to the faith. by comparison a little less than 25% of Koreans identify as buddist and other religions make up less than 1% of the people.

although Christianity in Korea mainly seen as a peaceful religion.

they have been some incidents where radical Christians quarreled with Buddhists and painted crosses over statues and monuments.

 

these were however an exeption.

for all these historical reasons most korean people today who are religious are Christians.

 

Christianity in korea probably has many more days before itself as it is still encouraged by many factors.

they include its own government that despite guaranteeing separation of church and state by constitution is sympathetic to Christianity.

as the faith may contribute to ideologically Shield the nation against its communist twin.

i’ve been your host vincent from Caspian report.

if you wish to see more of my content, feel free check out my channel history of John links provided below.

thank you for watching and salutations.