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

Another key element in the Confucian-oriented values regarding the family is ancestor worship. By subtly permitting ancestral rites to be conducted by Christians, Korean Protestantism evaded successfully the potential alienation of the tradition-bound Koreans, ensuring, for the adherents, the sense of continuity with the past. While an overt, traditional ancestor worship was rejected, a Christian memorial service, similar in intention and meaning, was substituted in its place. In fact, the Church generally looked the other way in regards to the rites of ancestor worship. As a result, a majority of Korean Protestants are found to hold ancestral rites regularly. In his survey of Korean Protestants regarding memorial ceremonies, Soonha Ryu (1987: 200) found that more than two-thirds of those surveyed conducted syncretized rituals of ancestral worship. For example, 21 percent of the respondents, in a manner consistent with Confucian rituals, prepared food items and set them in front of the graves before holding a private service according to a Christian convention. Further, 16 percent of the respondents held services with the candles placed in front of the picture of the deceased. In addition, 11 percent of the respondents held services accompanied by the picture, food, and candles, while 8 percent held services with the picture in place. The preparation of food and the placement of the picture of the deceased (instead of tablets containing the names of the ancestors) are, of course, main elements of Confucian rituals of ancestor worship. While these acts did not represent the rites of ancestor worship in the manner of proper Confucianism, they were nevertheless Korean Christians' own ways of paying tribute to their ancestors. By subtly allowing these time-honored rites, albeit syncretized, to be performed by Christians, Korean Protestantism evaded the potential clash of values, thereby helping the imported faith achieve its dramatic growth in South Korea.

CONCLUSION

This study attempted to show that the dramatic growth of Protestantism in South Korea during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s was due in part to the way certain doctrines and practices of the imported faith agreed with those of the folk tradition. In the process, the study showed that the affinity between the two traditions was forged through selective emphases on certain doctrines and messages of Christianity. In an effort to make Protestantism more acceptable to potential converts, Korean pastors accentuated specific Christian messages and practices, particularly those pertaining to the shamanic worldview, to strengthen the appeal of the imported faith to large numbers of Koreans. Those messages included the promise of this-worldly wish fulfilment, the depiction of God as guarantor of wish-fulfilment, and the deed of supernatural healing, all of which generally suit Koreans' religious orientation. In this way, Koreans found the new doctrines and values to be compatible with the values that they were familiar with. For some Christians, at least in the way they believed and practised their faith, Christianity was not much more than their traditional religious system cloaked in the guise of modem, Western religion.