Korean Culture Snapshot: Religions and Missionaries

Historically, Korea has been known for its Confucius beliefs. That is what created their traditions with ancestral worship, and is what has made them hostile in the past to missionaries from the outside. (The other reason is that they were tired of being conquered by other countries, like Japan, and did not want the missionaries to take away their culture and heritage.) Several of the religions that existed before foreign missionaries came into the picture were: Shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.

Shamanism was the main religion during the time when Korea was divided among its Three Kingdoms. This was between 57 BC and 668 AD. Shamanism is basically trying to communicate with the supernatural, especially lots of beings to pray upon for good blessings. Even though the mass practicing of this religion has decreased in more recent centuries, the philosophy of it lives on, mixed in with the other religions still in Korea. An example of this would be how some people still use jeomjaengi (fortune tellers) to help tell them who they should marry. Shamanism helped pave the way for future charismatic churches to thrive in Korea.

Like many Asian countries, Buddhism thrived in Korea (during part of the Three Kingdoms and after they were unified- up until the Joseon Dynasty period). Eventually the temples were driven to the mountains in the countryside and you can still visit many in their mountain locations to this day. When the Joseon Dynasty was ruling, so was Confucianism. Confucian thoughts and beliefs built a lot of the political and social system in Korea, which is how it still lives in Korea today. From Confucius beliefs,the ranks and caste system was made, and this is why there are two ways to speak to people, either casually or in honorifics. Ancestral worship also thrived under this religion.

According to some of the sources I read up on for this topic, Jesuit missionaries were some of the first Western people to try to change the Confucian lifestyle in the 1700s. Koreans were not pleased with religions that tried to remove elitist societies. There were a couple periods where Catholic and Jesuit missionaries were persecuted in Korea and kicked out. It was even banned in 1801. Around the 1880s, Korea opened its doors back up to missionaries again, and during this time Korea’s Protestant church was started.

Up near the Chinese border, there were two Scottish Presbyterian missionaries who would translate parts of the Bible with help from Korean missionaries, and the Koreans would take it back across the river, since the Scottsmen could not travel to Korea. The west coast of Korea was also known as the cradle at this time, since it held a lot more Protestant converts. Around this time, the Confucian system was crumbling.

Two well known, and officially the first, western missionaries to actually step foot in Korea were Horace Grant Underwood (Presbyterian) and Henry Gerhard Appenzeller (Methodist). Because of the impact that Appenzeller made in Korea, many Koreans that are Christians, are Methodists. (We saw many red crosses lit up at night in our neighborhood- the sign of Methodist churches.) And the church he founded still exists in Seoul. It was important that these western missionaries bring their wives over with them since the Confucian structure made it wrong for men to speak to women (unless they were in the same family). So, missionary wives helped to reach out to the Korean women who were oppressed under the Confucian religion.

From 1884 to 1945, there were over 1,500 missionaries that came to Joseon (over 1,000 were women). Mary Scranton and Rosetta Hall were well known, and Hall helped start some of the main hospitals and women’s colleges in Korea. Her hospital was built in Pyongyang, so we do not know if it is still used today or not. Something that saddened me to know about the Korean women that these missionaries reached out to were not given names. Confucian beliefs taught that women are not equal to men, unlike what Genesis taught about us all being made in the image of God. Hall helped some Korean women get their medical degrees back in the States, so they could come back to Korea as doctors.

Today, there are a couple megachurches in Korea, one of them is in Seoul, on the main road that we would drive on when we visited the capital. There are also many cults, some that were started in Korea, like the Moonies. There was a Moonie church and university in the town just south of us. Mormon missionaries are abundant in Korea, and so are the Jehovah Witnesses. And sadly, many Koreans do not consider themselves religious at all.

Many Christian churches are mixed with the prosperity gospel and even Buddhist and Confucist beliefs.It is very important that we pray for these brothers and sisters in Korea to know and be taught the true gospel, untainted by cults and false religions. We also need to pray for the multitudes that are unsaved, and living without hope. Daniel and I (and my parents) were able to meet up with a friend of a friend, who is a pastor in Seoul. It was very neat and eye-opening to hear about how difficult it can be to even try to get some Koreans to accept listening to the gospel. We know that there are a handful of good churches, including the one of this gentleman we were able to meet, that we are aware of, and even attended. My prayer is that more missionaries from the West continue to try to reach this people group.