Jae-Buhm Hwang

Korean Protestant church shamanism Confucianism revivalism church growth schism fundamentalism

This article explores some outstanding Shamanistic and Confucian origins of the Korean Protestant church’s apolitical character. Inherent in the judgment that the Korean Protestant church has been apolitical or asocio-political may be found a twofold problem: first that the church has not been able to foster horizontal, socio-political relationships; and, second, that it has been concerned mainly with vertical relationships. Shamanism is a polytheistic religion seeking mainly the vertical and mystical relationship between shamans and their gods; and it cannot make any significant contribution in fostering horizontal, socio-political relationships. Because it sought primarily the vertical, authoritarian relationships between a father and his children, and between a king and his subjects, Confucianism also failed to significantly cultivate Koreans’ horizontal, socio-political character. The revivalist and fundamentalist form of Christianity, which was imported and cultivated by the American Protestant missionaries to Korea and their Korean converts, had almost the same vertical and horizontal dimension that both Shamanism and Confucianism had: namely, vertically strong and horizontally weak— that is, very asocio-political. Because of this tendency, the Korean Protestant church has given rise to two distinctive phenomena resulting in political quietism: revivalism resulting from a Shamanistic, emotional, and charismatic ethos; and fundamentalism stemming from a Confucian, intellectualistic, and institutional ethos. Because it conformed so well to Shamanistic and Confucian religiosity through its revivalist and fundamentalist elements, the Korean Protestant church has accomplished truly remarkable growth, on the one hand, but, on the other hand, has failed to function as a decisive factor in challenging the Korean native asocio-political ethos.