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South Korea Christianity
Roman Catholic missionaries did not arrive in Korea until
1794, a decade after the return of the first baptized Korean from
a visit to Beijing. However, the writings of the Jesuit
missionary, Matteo Ricci, who was resident at the imperial court
in Beijing, had been brought to Korea from China in the
seventeenth century. It appears that scholars of the Sirhak, or
practical learning, school were interested in these writings.
Largely because converts refused to perform Confucian ancestor
rites, the government prohibited the proselytization of
Christianity. Some Catholics were executed during the early
nineteenth century, but the anti-Christian law was not strictly
enforced. By the 1860s, there were some 17,500 Roman Catholics in
the country. There followed a more rigorous persecution, in which
thousands of Christians died, that continued until 1884.
Protestant missionaries entered Korea during the 1880s and,
along with Catholic priests, converted a remarkable number of
Koreans. Methodist and Presbyterian missionaries were especially
successful. They established schools, universities, hospitals,
and orphanages and played a significant role in the modernization
of the country. During the Japanese colonial occupation,
Christians were in the front ranks of the struggle for
independence. Factors contributing to the growth of Protestantism
included the degenerate state of Korean Buddhism, the efforts
made by educated Christians to reconcile Christian and Confucian
values (the latter being viewed as purely a social ethic rather
than a religion), the encouragement of self-support and selfgovernment among members of the Korean church, and the
identification of Christianity with Korean nationalism.
A large number of Christians lived in the northern part of
the peninsula where Confucian influence was not as strong as in
the south. Before 1948 P'yongyang was an important Christian
center: one-sixth of its population of about 300,000 people were
converts. Following the establishment of a communist regime in
the north, however, most Christians had to flee to South Korea or
face persecution.
Data as of June 1990
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