A STUDY OF THE FUNDAMENTALIST TENDENCY IN KOREAN PROTESTANTISM: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Abstract

In this article we examine Korean Protestantism’s intrinsic fundamentalist bent, which has caused both numerous schisms within the Korean Protestant churches and exclusivist approaches toward other religions. First, we study how Korean fundament-alism has occurred in three characteristic theological controversies, and three tragic schisms in the Korean Presbyterian Church. It appears that Korean fundamentalism, as it has appeared in the history of Korean Presbyterian churches, is unique in that it has an intense Biblicism. Then, we scrutinize how Korean fundamentalism has taken on an intense Biblicism. The theology of the American Presbyterian missionaries in Korea, which determined the theological orientation of Korean Protestantism, was “notably conservative.” But unfortunately this conservatism was further strengthened by Korea’s lack of political freedom. Being unable to participate in socio-political matters, the missionaries and their Korean followers could not help but focus on Bible studies, prayer, and evangelism. Furthermore, Korean Presbyterians’ Biblicism was also heightened by revivalism and millennialism, which were especially rampant before and after the annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910. So it was Korea’s revolutionary socio-political situation, which greatly facilitated revivalism, millennialism, and eventually fundamentalism in Korea. Thus, we find three different factors that have contributed to the development of Korean Protestantism’s Biblicist and fundamentalist leanings: 1) the Western missionaries’ strong conservatism, which emphasized the Bible, significantly due to Korea’s political instability, 2) revivalism, and millennialism, which were again stimulated by Korea’s revolutionary situation, and 3) Korea’s original religious teaching on millennialism. And it was Dr. Pak Hyŏng-yong, who was the most important Korean theologian in establishing Korean Protestant Christianity as a Biblical Christianity. Having gained an insight into the Biblicist nature of Korean Protestant Christianity, Dr. Pak seems to have succeeded in combining it with the pietistic and Protestant orthodox (old Princeton) theology of the American Presbyterian missionaries to Korea, eventually making a unique Korean theology that emphasized the authority of the Bible. His theology, however, has a fundamentalist bent in that it rejects other ways of interpreting the Bible.

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