Korean Religious Culture and its Affinity to Christianity: The Rise of Protestant Christianity in South Korea

Sociology of Religion, Summer, 2000 by Andrew E. Kim

Such emphasis on material rewards by Korean clergy was paralleled by the equally enthusiastic this-worldly inclination of Korean Protestants. According to the 1984 Korea Gallup Polls (1984: 40), for example, nearly 55 percent of the Protestant respondents (N = 334) agreed that heaven or paradise is not to be found in the other world but in this world. [5] Furthermore, they regarded this worldly values as being more significant than those of religious or doctrinal ones: 19.8 percent of the respondents identified health and 16.7 percent selected money and wealth as the most important matters in life, while only 13.1 percent, 6.6 percent, and 5.9 percent of the respondents recognized truth and honesty, love, and trust as the highest values, respectively (Korea Gallup Polls 1984: 40). A survey of the adherents of the Central Full Gospel Church in Seoul also demonstrated the primacy of a this-worldly orientation among Korean Protestants. When asked to identify motivations for believing in Protestant Christianity, 30.6 percent of 921 respondents identified healing while 37.6 percent recognized material blessings as primary reasons for turning to the imported faith (D. Kim 1981: 94). This was significantly higher than the respondents' religious motives, such as salvation (16.9 percent) and eternal life (7 percent). In the same survey, a majority of members expressed that their conversion to Protestantism actually resulted in a more enriching and prosperous life (41.2 percent of the respondents said that their attendance at church resulted in a better living standard).

The this-worldly tendency of Korean Protestants was also reflected in the way many Christians associated the purpose of offerings with secular blessings. A good example of this is the practice of sowonhongeum or the "offering of petition" in which Christians regularly dedicated, in an envelope, money and a list of wishes to be prayed for. Gamsahongeum or the "offering of gratitude" also exemplifies the this-worldly nature of Christian life, as Korean Christians contributed money to their churches whenever "good fortunes" occurred (e.g., birth of sons, sons and daughters passing the university entrance examination, prosperous business, or the return of health), all in an attempt to display their gratitude to God and to ensure the continuation of God's blessing. Survey results consistently substantiate Korean Christians' general tendency to associate the offering with wish-fulfilment. According to Korea Gallup Polls (1984: 49), 34.8 percent of the Christian respondents (N = 334) agreed with the statement that "one who offers money to the church will be blessed with more prosperity in return." In the follow-up survey in 1989, 34.2 percent of the respondents (N = 383) concurred with the same statement (Korea Gallup Polls 1989: 152). Similarly, Joonggi Kim et al. (1982: 101) found that 68.9 percent of Protestant Christian respondents (N = 1,234) identified "the gratitude for God's blessings" as their reason for giving the offering. All of this prompted Jingyong Chung (1977: 42), the noted Korean theologian, to claim that "Korean Christians' attendance at church, and their enthusiasm for dawn prayers and generosity in offering to the church are all intimately linked to their desire for this-worldly wish-fulfilment."