Late Confucian Korea Essay

Words: 1174
Pages: 5

I. “Protestantism in Late Confucian Korea: Its Growth and Historical Meaning” by Chung Shin Park The sad story describing Catholic persecution in Korean history books only reminds times when Catholics and Korean population had hardships in understanding each other in some families causing a split between Confucianism and new learning as it was mentioned by Don Baker (Baker, 1998, p. 195) but gradually the situation been changed by Protestant missionaries.
Chung Shin Park compared Catholic emergence and Protestant forthcoming to Korean peninsula reminding to us that both Catholicism and Protestantism originally have the same roots from the West and Holy Bible. The author tries to find the answers for the questions: what are the reasons of
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Ivanov, Protestantism has different understanding on globalization processes and economics compared to Catholicism. Another reason of success is the time when Protestant missionaries began to appear in Korea in 1884 auspicious time for religion as Protestantism (second reason) that carried freshness and ideas of Western modernization that Korean desired. Long-lasting Yi dynasty was in crisis because of changing balance of power in East Asia switching to Japan and Confucianism was close to the end serving as an official ideology. According to Samuel H. Moffet, Protestantism came to Korea when there was a “breakdown in the nation’s social, political, and religious life” …show more content…
Horace N. Allen, who was one of the first missionaries, wrote that he actually feared a lot that Protestant mission to Korea will end the same way as Catholics but he was surprised how good he was accepted by the people and the government (“History of Missionaries in Korea” B. Ellsworth) . Penetration of Protestantism was top-down when Dr. Allen began to treat Min prince who later recovered, while Catholic penetration was bottom-up and did not acquired support from Choson government. Not only difference of idea and learning were the reasons of success or failure but the way where and how it began. Due to Choson government support and because American missionaries were personified as wealthy and modern nation, Protestantism had more abilities to build schools and spread religion (pp.144,