The influence of South Korean Christians on politics. What is the religion in Korea? Orthodoxy in South Korea

In the Far East there are two peoples who live next door, but have very radically different attitudes towards Christianity. Korea and Japan. Japan is traditionally called the tomb of missionaries, while Korea is a beacon of world Christianity. In Japan there is hardly one Christian for every 500 Japanese. In Korea, more than a quarter of the population are Christians, and most of them are not nominal, ethno-cultural Christians, such as the Orthodox of Russia. The contrast between the two neighbors has long attracted the attention of church historians and missiologists. This phenomenon was most thoroughly described by Fuller Seminary doctor of Japanese origin Mamoru Ogata in his fundamental work “Comparison between the Church of Japan and Korea.” Excerpts from this work, prepared by missiologist Eiko Takamizawa of Torch Trinity University (Seoul, Korea), form the basis of this Bible lesson. POLITICAL ASPECT Over the years, the Koreans were invaded by the Mongols, Chinese, Russians and Japanese. Since the 16th century, the Japanese tried to colonize the Korean peninsula, and in 1910 they finally annexed it, making Korea part of the Japanese empire. Koreans suffered from the Japaneseification of culture, even to the point of changing their Korean names, the lack of political, religious, and economic freedoms, and were in the category of second-class citizens. Christians especially suffered. By this time, the Gospel had already been preached among the Koreans and, especially in the northern part, Christianity was actively developing. The royal capital of Korea, Pyongyang, had the fame of “Jerusalem in the East”; up to a third of its population attended churches. The Japanese government demanded that Koreans worship at Shinto shrines, thereby expressing political loyalty to the imperial government. This was similar to what the early Christians of Rome faced: a symbolic sacrifice in front of a statue of the emperor. Korean Christians, like their Roman predecessors, perceived worship as a denial of Christ and refused to worship the emperor. In response, pastors and ordinary believers were arrested, and some died under torture. Christians became the main supporters and decisive force of the independence movement. They initiated the creation of the Nonviolent Independence Movement, and on March 1, 1919, they proclaimed the Declaration of Korean Independence. The declaration was supported by thousands of rallies throughout Korea, in which about 2 million people took part. Human. The Japanese used military force to suppress the protest. Historian Park Eun-sik estimates that 7,509 people were killed, 15,961 were injured, and 46,948 were arrested. Japanese authorities increased pressure on Christians by establishing places of worship for the emperor in every locality, forcing everyone to undergo a ceremony as a sign of loyalty to the authorities. This practice continued until Japan's defeat in World War II. When China became communist after the war, it tried in turn to colonize Korea under the guise of fraternal aid to the working people of Korea. This led to a brutal civil war, dividing the country into a communist-controlled south and north. In the north, severe repressions against Christians began, including torture such as burying people alive in the ground. About a quarter of the population of the north managed to escape to South Korea. These ardent Christians, who remained faithful to God in the face of severe persecution, brought a wave of prayer awakening to the south. It is important to note that none of the countries that occupied Korea were Christian. Shintoists of Japan, Confucians and Communists of China, atheists Soviet Union. On the other hand, the liberation of Korea was brought about by a Christian nation - the United States and its allies, who liberated first from the Japanese occupation and then from the threat of communist China and the USSR. This naturally aroused the sympathy of the Koreans for the Christians who sacrificed their lives for their freedom. The situation is completely different in Japan. The country was not captured by enemies, but more often itself acted as an invader and colonizer. When the Japanese were introduced to Christianity through Catholic and then Protestant missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries, they perceived it as a Western threat. The Christian preaching of the equality of all people before God was especially threatening to the Japanese authorities. Therefore, after a short period of uncertainty, the government began a brutal persecution of Christians that lasted for 270 years. Most effective way the destruction of the church turned out to be the so-called "Five House System" (Gonin gumi Seido). If a Christian was found anywhere who did not want to renounce, then the members of the five families around him were subjected to torture and persecution. This system made the Japanese fear the appearance of Christians in their villages worse than the plague. MISSIOLOGICAL ASPECT Although early missionaries to Korea, such as Horace Allen in 1884, concentrated their efforts on working with the king and his staff, most missionaries served among ordinary Koreans. They practiced the so-called. John Nevius's principles in ministry, which especially emphasized the independence of young churches, namely: 1. The Bible is the basis and center of all activity. 2. Self-preaching. 3. Self-management. 4. Organizing Bible classes for all Christians. 5. Training leaders strictly according to Scripture. 6. Mutual assistance and support for other Christian churches and organizations. 7. Refusal to go to court for damages. The Christians of Korea preferred, like their early predecessors in the Roman Empire, not to seek redress in court. 8. Active assistance economic development communities and countries. Unlike Korea, missionaries in Japan concentrated on organizing schools and hospitals. Moreover, these schools were intended for children from the upper classes. In this way, Christianity spread among the educated urban stratum, leaving aside the poor and rural residents who made up the majority of the Japanese population. Dr. Tetsunao Yamamori, a member of the Lausanne Committee for Evangelization, recognized that this focus on the wealthiest and most powerful circles in Japan made mass evangelization of the country impossible. LINGUISTIC ASPECT The Korean language itself contributed to the spread of the Gospel. The simple Hangul alphabet, in contrast to the complex systems of Japanese characters, contributed to the universal literacy of Koreans, who eagerly read the Bible translated into Hangul in 1882. It should be added that according to the principles of Nevius, the Koreans did not even receive Bibles for free. They were willing to pay for the Book of Books and valued it. Protestant Bible translators found a very successful Korean equivalent for the word God - "Hananim" - "The Only One That Exists." The Japanese translation of the Bible used many Chinese characters, which only the most educated Japanese could read. Another failure accompanied the translation in the choice of the word “God” - “Kami”. For the Japanese, “Kami” is the entire pantheon of Shinto deities, so the missionaries struggled with how to convey the idea of ​​the Creator of the whole world, without tying Him to the host of Japanese gods and idols, without turning Him into some kind of pantheistic spirit of nature. THEOLOGICAL ASPECT Korean churches during their planting and growth period professed a conservative theology with a strong emphasis on the inerrancy of Scripture. The first missionaries to Korea were American Presbyterians and Methodists, whose churches were themselves then experiencing a revival, so the missionaries infused the Korean converts with evangelistic enthusiasm. Japanese Christians were influenced by liberal German theology, which questioned the inspiration of the Bible, the divinity of Christ, and the uniqueness of salvation through the cross of Christ. As a result, Japanese Christians lost their sense of preaching faith in Christ as the only Savior of the whole world. TESTIMONY OF BELIEVERS The missionaries and converts in Korea showed impressive examples of self-sacrifice in the face of trials. In the persecutions of 1866, out of 20 thousand Korean Catholics, 10 thousand became martyrs for the sake of Christ. Some time later, Protestants showed the same courage. William Scranton, a missionary doctor, served during a cholera epidemic without fear of infection, which made a lasting impression on the Koreans. When the political persecution of Christians began, and the Japanese authorities forced them to worship at imperial shrines, they preferred to go to prison or death. In 1939 alone, 2,000 pastors and laymen were arrested. 50 pastors died in custody. After the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese occupiers imprisoned thousands more believers and closed 200 churches. American missionaries were also among those persecuted. Their example inspired Korean Christians to remain faithful to God in the face of severe persecution. In Japan, on the contrary, churches adopted the godless practice of worshiping the emperor as a god. They explained this by saying that the ritual does not have a religious meaning, but a political one and is an expression of loyalty to the state. The government took control of the church and created the hand organization Nihon Kirisuto Kyuodan (Christian Denomination of Japan). The few churches that refused to join the denomination were declared traitors to the nation. When Japan attacked Manchuria and then other countries in Southeast Asia in 1931, Japanese Christians remained silent. Like the church in Germany, they accepted the fascist regime as the power of God. THE ECCLESIOLOGICAL ASPECT In Korea, the main center of Christian life remained local communities, where believers drew strength and energy for growth. It was in local communities that Bible teaching, prayer meetings, house-to-house meetings of believers, and evangelism took place. Koreans taught not only children, but also adults in Sunday schools. In Japan, the emphasis was on evangelistic activities and programs carried out by various denominations and with support from abroad. When the action ended, the local churches did not catch the fire, remaining as passive as before the evangelization. The main, and often the only, event of local churches was Sunday service. Christian life was reduced to the ritual of attending worship services once a week. CONCLUSION Eiko Takamizawa comes to the following conclusion. A comparative description of the churches of two neighboring nations once again proves the truth of the Gospel. God favors the oppressed and the humble, not the oppressors and the proud. He purifies the church in the crucible of suffering, blessing it afterwards with His active presence, growth, and grace. Petr Novochekhov for online school Bibleika.org

Most Russians who come to South Korea quickly become convinced that this is a predominantly Christian country. This is reminiscent of the incredible abundance of churches, street preachers encountered at every step, crowds of people at Sunday services and much more. Although statistics claim that Christians make up slightly less than half of the country's religiously active population, these figures do not reflect the main thing: the “zeal in faith” characteristic of Korean Christians, especially Protestants. Korean Buddhists, as a rule, limit themselves to declaring themselves as such, and never appear in “their” temples. Christians take religious rituals very seriously.

Meanwhile, Christianity is a new phenomenon for Korea. The spread of this religion began here relatively recently, at the end of the 18th century. At that time, Korea was in a state of severe moral crisis. Orthodox Confucianism, which for a long time played the role of the official ideology of the country, seemed to many to be too scholastic, divorced from real life and lost in the labyrinths of their own speculative constructions. The desire to find some new ideas led to the fact that some representatives of the Confucian intelligentsia began to pay attention to Christian Catholic works, which (translated into the ancient Chinese language, well known to all educated Koreans) from time to time came to Korea from China. At the end of the 1770s. In Seoul, a circle of young nobles arose who studied Christianity from the books at their disposal. In 1784, one of the members of this circle, Lee Seung-hun, managed to achieve the right to visit China as part of the Korean diplomatic mission. It was not so easy, because in those days travel abroad from Korea was limited. Lee Seung Hun met with foreign missionaries in Beijing, was baptized, and returned to his homeland with numerous Catholic writings. Thus, 1984 marked the 200th anniversary of Korean Christianity, an anniversary that local Catholics celebrated with considerable pomp.

Lee Seung-hun and his like-minded people began active missionary work, and the number of supporters of the new faith among the Korean nobles began to grow rapidly. Concerned about the penetration of alien and strange teachings, the Korean government, usually distinguished by religious tolerance, decided to take drastic measures and, on pain of death, banned the propaganda of Christianity. However, the ban did not stop supporters of the new faith, and in 1791 the first martyrs appeared in Korea. From that moment on, the Korean government waged a desperate struggle against Catholics for almost a century, organizing in 1785-1876. ten large-scale campaigns to eradicate the "Western heresy". Many Korean Christians died on the chopping block and in prison. Their fate was shared by foreigners, mainly French and Chinese Catholic priests, who illegally entered Korea from China (the entry of foreigners into the country was strictly prohibited at that time) and rarely returned alive. However, the Catholic community continued to exist and grow. By the time Christianity was legalized in the 1870s. The number of Catholics in the country exceeded 10,000 people. By the middle of the 19th century, the first Korean priests appeared, who were secretly sent by the community to study at a seminary in Macau and, having completed training there, returned illegally to their homeland.

If we compare Korea with other countries of East Asia, it is clear that the history of early Korean Christianity is quite atypical. First, Catholic Christianity entered Korea without the direct participation of Western missionaries, through books. Secondly, its spread was quite fast, successful and, again, was not the result of the activities of foreign representatives.

The spread of Protestantism in Korea followed a more standard pattern. The decisive role in its penetration into the country was played by Western missionaries, whose activities began in Korea in the 1880s, shortly after the “opening of the country” in 1876. The decisive role in the mass spread of Protestant Christianity was played by the Americans, the first of whom was the Presbyterian Horace Allen , who arrived in Korea in 1884. The active work of missionaries led to the fact that by the beginning of the century a noticeable Protestant community had formed in the country. At the very end of the last century, Orthodox missionaries appeared in Korea, but their successes were very modest. It is significant that now there are twenty times fewer Orthodox Koreans than... Muslim Koreans, although Islam, which came here in 1951, is also not the most popular religion in Korea.

Although at the beginning of the century Christians made up a relatively small part of the country's total population (1.5% in 1911), they played a special role in the many transformations that were then taking place in Korea. Missionaries opened the first Western hospitals and schools in Korea and contributed to the dissemination of modern scientific and technical knowledge. A very noticeable part of the first Korean “Westerners” were Christians (mostly Protestants); Protestants also took an active part in the national liberation movement.

It is curious that Protestantism and Catholicism are considered different religions in modern Korean statistics. This is partly due to linguistic reasons: Protestants call their creed "kidokk" ("Teaching of Christ"), while Catholics call themselves followers of "cheonjug" ("Teaching of the Heavenly Lord"). This also affects translations. When a Korean, speaking in English or Russian, calls himself a “Christian,” this almost always means that he is a Protestant, and not a Catholic or, say, Orthodox.

During the period of colonial rule, Korean Christianity faced considerable difficulties. The Japanese were understandably suspicious of both Christianity itself, fearing that it could become a source of penetration of Western ideas, and of missionaries, whom they saw as potential Western agents. In contrast to Christianity, the authorities tried to introduce Japanese versions of Buddhism in Korea, but without much success. The colonial authorities achieved even less success in their attempts to inculcate Japanese paganism - Shintoism, which remained for most Koreans a religion not just alien, but deeply hostile.

In the twenties and thirties, Christianity in Korea underwent an important metamorphosis, which largely determined its subsequent fate: it began to be perceived as national religion, completely losing that connotation of “Westernness” and “foreignness” that was characteristic of it earlier. This is the fundamental difference between the fate of Christianity in Korea, on the one hand, and in most Asian countries, on the other. This was largely due to the fact that in Korea the colonialists were not Europeans, who in those days were very fond of emphasizing their commitment to Christianity, but pagan Japanese. Therefore, in Korea, unlike the colonies of Western powers, missionaries were persecuted and were perceived by the people not as ideological agents of power, but, on the contrary, as opponents of the colonialists. Almost the entire new Korean intelligentsia, including most of the leaders of the anti-colonial movement, consisted of people educated in Christian educational institutions and, as a rule, they carried out devotion to this creed from there. Finally, during the colonial period, churches were the place where Korean speech continued to be heard; their publications were published in colloquial language, typed in the national script.

1945 brought dramatic changes in the position of Korean Christianity. From that moment on, Christianity, which for almost two centuries was a religion either directly prohibited and persecuted, or at least not encouraged by the authorities, acquired a semi-official status. Of course, the Korean constitution provides for the separation of state and church, but under the conditions of the enormous influence of Protestant-Catholic America and the obvious Christian sympathies of the Korean elite, Christianity, especially Protestant Christianity, found itself in particularly favorable conditions. Preachers who came to Korea from the USA in large numbers also contributed to this. After the Korean War, the number of Christians in Korea began to increase rapidly. If in 1940 Christians made up only 2.2% of the country's population, then in 1962 - 12.8%, and in 1990 - 23% (we must remember that approximately half of Koreans do not profess any religion).

During the period of right-wing dictatorships (1948-1987), the relationship between Christianity and the authorities was quite contradictory. On the one hand, the bulk of the Korean clergy consistently held anti-communist views, which, in particular, was facilitated by the persecution of Christians in North Korea. The traditional ties of Christians with America also affected the political orientation of Protestant churches. Finally, the share of Christians among the Korean economic and political elite in the period after 1945 was very large and continued to grow, which also made Christian churches proponents of maintaining the existing system. At the same time, Korean Christianity did not become an appendage of secular power. In practice, Korean Christians, especially Catholics, played the most active role in opposition movements, and Catholic cathedrals, which enjoy an unofficial but generally respected right of asylum in Korea, were often the scene of anti-government protests. These actions significantly raised the authority of the church, especially among the intelligentsia and the eternally oppositional Korean students.

Be that as it may, Korea, along with the Philippines, is the only predominantly Christian country in East Asia, and this circumstance leaves a significant imprint on its entire life.

CHRISTIANITY IN KOREA. Unfortunately, the process of Christianization of Korea, which has been quite well studied in the West, has not yet attracted due attention from domestic orientalists. In this article we would like to briefly talk about the history of Korean Christianity, as well as the role it plays in social and political life countries today. The article is based on publications in the South Korean press, the works of Korean and Western scientists, as well as personal observations of the author, who worked for several years in South Korea. *** If we compare Korea with other countries of the Far East, we can see that the history of early Korean Christianity is quite atypical. Firstly, Christianity penetrated into Korea without the direct participation of missionaries, purely through literary means. Secondly, its spread was quite fast, successful and, again, was not the result of the activities of foreign representatives. The successes of Korean Christianity are in stark contrast to the situation that existed during the same period in China, where the enormous efforts of Western missions did not lead to any noticeable result , and where the very existence of the church was impossible without constant foreign support. It is curious that Protestantism and Catholicism are often treated as two separate religions in modern Korean statistics. This is partly due to linguistic reasons: Protestants call their faith “kidokk,” (“Teaching of Christ”), while Catholics follow an earlier tradition dating back to the times of their first missionary attempts in China and call themselves followers of “cheonjug.” ," ("Teaching of the Heavenly Lord"). This also affects translations. When a Korean, speaking in English or Russian, calls himself a “Christian,” this almost always means that he is a Protestant, and not a Catholic or, say, Orthodox. In the twenties and thirties, Christianity in Korea underwent an important metamorphosis, which largely determined its subsequent fate: it finally began to be perceived as a national religion, having lost the connotation of “Westernness” and “foreignness” that was characteristic of it at first. This is the fundamental difference between the fate of Christianity in Korea, on the one hand, and in most Asian countries, on the other. This was largely due to the fact that in Korea the colonialists were not Europeans, who so readily emphasized their commitment to Christianity in those days, but pagan Japanese. In Korea, unlike the colonies of European powers, Western missionaries and their local supporters were perceived not as ideological agents of power, but, on the contrary, as consistent opponents of the colonialists and representatives of a force friendly to Korea. We should not forget that almost the entire new Korean intelligentsia, including most of the leaders of the anti-colonial movement, consisted of people who were educated in Christian educational institutions and emerged from there as believers. Finally, during the colonial period, churches were places where Korean speech continued to be heard; their publications were published in colloquial language, typed in the Korean alphabet, and not in hieroglyphs that were inaccessible to the masses. 1945 meant dramatic changes in the fortunes of Korean Christianity. For the previous century and a half, Christianity had been a religion either directly persecuted or, at a minimum, not encouraged by the authorities, but after the Liberation it acquired an almost quasi-official status. Under the new conditions, the number of Christians in Korea began to increase rapidly. This success was largely a development of those trends that had emerged in colonial times, but it would also have been impossible without the considerable organizational and financial support that Korean missionaries received from the United States. Traditionally, the main center of Korean Protestantism was Pyongyang and, more broadly speaking, the northern provinces, but after the split of the country in the North, Christian preaching faced a number of serious restrictions from the new authorities, who pursued a policy of official atheism. Although some radically minded priests supported the communists, the overwhelming majority of the clergy opposed the new government, which could not help but aggravate the already difficult relations between church and state. Until the end of the Korean War, the North Korean authorities allowed the activities of several parishes, but at the end of the fifties, with the strengthening of the regime of the sole power of Kim Il Sung (who, we recall, himself came from a family of Protestant activists), Christianity in the North was completely prohibited. Only in the mid-eighties, the DPRK authorities reopened several churches, the activities of which, of course, are strictly controlled by the intelligence services and serve primarily foreign propaganda purposes. At the same time, one should not assume that Korean Christianity during the period of military dictatorships was almost an appendage of secular power. In practice, Korean Christians, especially (but not only!) Catholics, often played the most active role in opposition movements, and Catholic cathedrals, which in Korea enjoyed an unofficial, but in practice quite strictly observed right of asylum, often became the scene of anti-government protests. These actions significantly raised the authority of the church, especially among the intelligentsia and students. Followers of “minjung theology,” however, have never constituted a majority among Korean clergy, who, as already mentioned, generally adhered and continue to adhere to conservative, right-wing views. The general depoliticization of the atmosphere in Korea and the clear discrediting of Marxism (at least in its orthodox version) also led to the fact that the influence of “minjung theology” became last years shrink. In general, the seventies and eighties were the time when Christianity became the dominant religion not only among the urban intelligentsia, but also among the population of the country as a whole. The growth in the number of Christians in Korea over the last century is clearly visible from Table 1. TABLE 1. The growth of the number of Christians in Korea and their share in relation to the total population (thousand people, %). In Korea, it is enough just to look around to make sure that Christians are exceptionally active. The abundance of Christian churches invariably becomes one of the most unexpected impressions for most Russians who come to South Korea for the first time. Their number is truly amazing. Nowadays it is hardly possible to find a village of a hundred houses that does not have at least one church. Crosses installed on the roofs of churches or buildings in which a particular parish rents premises are striking at the most cursory glance at Seoul or any other Korean city (this sight is especially impressive at night, when the crosses glow with a red neon flame). The author of these lines lived for three years in the town of Osan near Seoul. From the balcony of his house at night one could simultaneously see the crosses of 8 churches located at a distance of several hundred meters from each other. And this is on the outskirts of a small Korean town! The activity of Christian preachers is amazing. A middle-aged man, in a suit and tie, with a Bible in his hand, who, in a voice that drowns out the roar of the train wheels, calls on all passengers of a subway car or train to repent of their sins and believe in Christ - a phenomenon so common that one is even somewhat surprised when in a whole a day full of subway rides, you will never encounter one of these preachers. Equally common are groups of young people who sing religious songs at the entrance to the subway, accompanying themselves on the guitar. A taxi driver can hand a Christian (most often Protestant, but sometimes Catholic) brochure to a passenger, and a grandmother who distributes Christian leaflets and newspapers to all her neighbors on the subway is even more common than street preachers. This activity contrasts with the behavior of representatives of supporters of Buddhism and other traditional beliefs, which, like their temples, are almost invisible in Korean cities and towns. Another manifestation of the preaching fervor characteristic of Korean Christianity was the activity of numerous Korean missionaries, who are now extremely active throughout the world, including in the CIS countries. Christians are especially active among young people. During four years of work at Korean universities, the author hardly encountered among his students those who would call themselves Buddhists, while Christians were always very numerous, making up about half of all students (the rest were usually non-believers). At the same time, young Korean Christians take their faith with complete seriousness, often refer to the Holy Scriptures and often motivate one or another of their actions with religious precepts. A significant portion of students regularly attend church on Sundays, many of them sing in the choir or actively work in various church organizations. In general, for Korean Christians, punctual fulfillment of religious instructions has become part of Everyday life. On Sundays among Protestant and Catholic churches Crowds of smartly dressed people gather. Attending Sunday services is an almost obligatory part of the daily routine of a Korean Christian family, as is the tradition of praying before meals, which has almost disappeared in modern Europe. A crowd of parishioners at the entrance to the church is a common sight on a Sunday morning in Seoul. Korean Catholicism, despite its heroic history, is now noticeably inferior in influence to Protestantism. Nevertheless, both the absolute number of Catholics in the country and their share continue to grow. In 1984, the Pope visited Korea and took part in magnificent celebrations dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Korean Catholicism. Catholic hierarchs enjoy noticeable influence in the country (perhaps more serious than the leaders of Protestant churches, whose reputation is largely spoiled by constant schisms and scandals, including financial ones). In addition, two and a half million actively religious citizens is no small force, especially considering the discipline and consistency for which the Catholic Church has always been famous. *** South Korea is unique in that it is one of the few Asian states in whose religious life Christianity now occupies a dominant position. Despite its comparative a short history, Christianity, especially Protestantism, has become an important component of modern Korean culture. The expansion of Christianity continues in Korea today, and there is reason to believe that its influence will continue to increase. The success of Korean Christianity was due to a number of factors. At first, it was facilitated by the situation of a general spiritual crisis, which undermined the position of traditional beliefs and ideologies. An important role was also played by the fact that Christianity in Korea was not perceived as the religion of the colonialists, and that its supporters from the very beginning played a significant role in the national liberation movement. In addition, Christianity for Korea in the first decades of our century was a modernizing and Westernizing religion; the adoption of Christianity often served as a symbol of familiarization with new ideas and values ​​penetrating from the capitalist, democratic, modern West. After the restoration of Korean independence in 1945, the growth of Christianity was facilitated by the ongoing crisis of traditional religions, as well as the fact that by that time a significant part of the new Westernized Korean elite professed Christianity. Finally, throughout the history of Christianity, active organizational and financial support from Western countries, primarily the United States, has been of considerable importance in its spread.

In South Korea, the spread of Christianity turned out to be inextricably linked with the formation of a modern, industrialized nation-state

Perhaps the main surprise for most Russians who find themselves in Korea for the first time is the amazing abundance of Christian churches here. The landscape of Seoul at night is especially impressive. It is customary to illuminate crosses on temples in Korea, and in the evening it becomes clear that the Korean capital can hardly be called a city of “forty forty churches” - there are clearly more than 1600 of them. At the same time, in Seoul there are almost no Buddhist and other exotic, in Russian opinion, temples, that is, just those of whom, it would seem, there should be a great many.

There is nothing surprising in this predominance of Christian churches - in the Korean capital, Christians constitute the most prominent group of believers. As of 2010, Seoul, with a population of 10 million, was home to 2.3 million Protestants, 1.4 million Catholics and only 1.6 million Buddhists.

During the last census in 2005, 53% of Koreans said they had no religion. Among believers, the most prominent are Protestants (18%), Catholics (11%) and Buddhists (23%). It is interesting that Protestantism and Catholicism are counted as different religions, separately. So, Christians make up about 30% of the country's population and slightly more than half of all Korean believers. However, the statistics are somewhat deceptive - they do not take into account a number of important circumstances and therefore underestimate the real influence of Christianity.

Influential minority

Firstly, in Korea, Christians are much more active in matters of faith than Buddhists and representatives of other traditional faiths. When a person in South Korea calls himself a Buddhist, in practice this often only means that he is a deist, that is, he believes in the existence of some kind of “higher power.” Most Korean Buddhists do not take the precepts of their religion or its sacred texts very seriously and rarely appear in temples. Korean Christians, on the contrary, take matters of faith and formal regulations with the utmost seriousness: most of them go to church at least once a week, on Sundays, and many more often. The habit of going to church for morning prayer before work is perceived without much surprise, although the service often begins at five in the morning. Christians actively read the Bible, pray and fast regularly. Finally, Korea is one of the few countries where most believers begin their meals with prayer.

Secondly, in South Korea, Christianity is the religion of the elite. Of course, any run-down fishing village these days will have a church. However, the more educated a Korean is and the higher his income, the more likely he is to be a Christian. It is no coincidence that in Seoul, the main economic, political and intellectual center of Korea, the share of Christians is 37%, which is approximately one and a half times higher than the national average. In the Korean bureaucracy and security forces, it is tacitly understood that “servant to the president, father to the soldiers” should preferably be a Christian. Bureaucrats and security officials, of course, do not directly discriminate against non-Christians, but everyone understands that it can be useful for a captain to pray on Sundays with a lieutenant colonel.

Thirdly, Christianity in Korea is an actively growing religion. Over time, the proportion of Christians among the population has been steadily increasing. In many ways, this reflects the missionary fervor of the Koreans. In terms of the number of Christian missionaries sent abroad, little Korea ranks second in the world, second only to the United States. Missionaries also work tirelessly within the country. Anyone who has to use the Seoul subway knows that they will often encounter Christian preachers or distributors of religious literature who constantly patrol subway trains and city streets in search of souls who have not yet been nourished. Some of them make a very specific impression: with a replica of a cross, hung with posters and loudspeakers, they roam the streets, calling on everyone to immediately repent and avoid hellish torment. However, most preachers look much more adequate - they are polite, neatly dressed middle-aged people with the appearance of ordinary office workers. However, regardless of their manners, street missionaries are quite intrusive, and it can be difficult to get rid of their attention.

Thus, although formally Christians are a minority among Koreans, they are a very active and influential community. By the standards of the modern secular world, Korea has an unusually large number of seriously religious people, and almost all of them are Christians.

Modernization and nationalism

The success of Christianity in Korea is primarily due to historical reasons. It turned out that Christianity became important here integral part both the ideology of modernization and Korean nationalism.

Christianization of Korea began in last decades XVIII century and somewhat unusual - not as a result of the activities of foreign missionaries (a scenario familiar to the countries of the region), but through books. At the end of the 18th century, many young educated Koreans began to be burdened by the official Confucian doctrine, which they perceived as a set of scholastic phrases divorced from reality. They were tired of endless disputes about the relationship between the principles of “li” and “qi” - the Far Eastern analogue of disputes about how many spirits can fit on the tip of a needle. They were interested in other things - physics, engineering, astronomy and geography. The attention of young intellectuals began to be attracted by translations of European treatises, which were then imported into Korea from China. Since all educated Koreans in those days were fluent in classical Chinese, they had little difficulty reading the translations of Euclid and Newton made by European missionaries in Beijing, as well as reports on the latest geographical discoveries and astronomical theories.

Simultaneously with works on astronomy and geography, Koreans began to become acquainted with the missionary treatises themselves, which spoke about Christianity. The exotic religion of the distant and alluring West aroused considerable interest among many, and young Korean nobles began to master the basics of Christianity from translated books, without having seen a single living missionary (a certain, albeit very distant analogy here can be the fascination with all sorts of Indian cults in the Soviet Union 1970s).

In 1784, a semi-legal Christian circle managed to send a representative to Beijing. This was not easy, since at that time Korea, like Japan, had a policy of self-isolation and private travel outside the country was prohibited. A representative of self-taught Korean Christians was baptized by Western missionaries - and from that moment the history of Korean Catholicism began.

At first, the Korean government persecuted Christianity - it was perceived as a dangerous totalitarian sect, whose members rejected the norms of everyday morality. The authorities and the general public were especially outraged by the fact that Christians did not make sacrifices to the spirits of their ancestors. The persecution of Christians continued until the 1870s and ended with the appearance of a considerable number of Catholic martyrs in Korea. Nevertheless, the Catacomb Church continued to operate and attract a significant part of educated Koreans, primarily those who were interested in ideas and knowledge coming from the West (that is, precisely those for whom the future lay).

This is how an unusual feature of Korean Christianity began to take shape - its close connection with modernization, which largely determined the success of this religious doctrine in Korea. Christianity here became not only the religion of Jesus Christ, but also the religion of Newton, Copernicus and Adam Smith. It was associated not only with faith in the word of God, but also with faith in progress, technology, the rational structure of society, the equality of people before the law, human rights - in general, with faith in modernization and its values.

In the 1880s, Protestant missionaries (mostly American) appeared in Korea, whose activities further linked the destinies of Christianity and modernization. It was the missionaries who created modern Korean education, and missionary schools remained the main forges of scientific and technical personnel until the 1920s. In addition, it was the missionaries who created a system of girls' schools in Korea, which had not existed at all before, and also founded the first modern hospitals.

Of course, not all graduates of Christian schools were believers, but believers clearly predominated among them. A hundred years ago, a Korean doctor or Korean engineer was very likely to be a Christian, although only about 1.5% of the general population was Christian in 1911.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Orthodoxy appeared in Korea. However, it did not achieve much success and remained more of a curiosity. The number of Orthodox Koreans does not exceed several thousand people.

Resistance

After Korea became a colony of Japan in 1910, Christianity underwent another important and very useful metamorphosis for its subsequent success. It began to be perceived not only as a religion of progress, but also as a national Korean religion, as an important component of the ideology of anti-colonial protest. Of course, a significant role here was played by the fact that Korea was colonized by non-Christian (and even partly anti-Christian) Japan. The Japanese colonial administration treated Christianity, especially foreign missionaries, with suspicion, not without some reason believing them to be agents of Western influence, and even tried to the best of their ability to instill Shintoism in Korea. Christians pointedly refused to participate in Shinto rites, including rites of worship of the emperor, considering them idolatry. The result for the leaders of Christian communities was prison sentences, but also a reputation as fearless defenders of national dignity.

After all, Christians almost predominated among the leaders of the anti-colonial movement. In particular, Syngman Rhee, the future founder of the South Korean state, was a convinced Christian. Many prominent first-generation Korean communists also came from Christian families. Kim Il Sung himself was born into a family of prominent Christian activists and, in his own words, was quite bored when his grandmother took him to church. By the way, until 1945, the main center of Korean Christianity was Pyongyang, a third of whose population were Protestants.

In 1919, an anti-Japanese uprising broke out in Korea, and among all those arrested, 22% were Christians (mostly Protestants). In other words, even then there were approximately 15 times more Christians among independence movement activists than among the general population.

The restoration of independence in 1945-1948 meant the coming to power of a new elite, which consisted partly of technocrats and partly of leaders of the national liberation movement. There were much more Christians among both those and others than among the entire population of the country. More than half the members of the first Korean cabinet were Christians, and Syngman Rhee even tried to make prayer a mandatory ritual in the Korean parliament. In 1952-1962, Christians among the South Korean elite (high bureaucrats and army generals) were 41%, while in the early 1960s the share of Christians in the total population was only 5.3%.

A delicate balance

However, Christianity did not remain the religion of the elite. After the Korean War, it spread to the masses and within two or three decades became the main force shaping the Korean religious landscape. A significant role here was played by the active work of American preachers, as well as indirect support of the authorities, more broadly speaking, the elite, which by that time was mainly Christian. Many also remembered the unity that Christians demonstrated during the Korean War. In 1950-1955, in huge refugee camps, it was Christian churches that often became the main centers of self-organization and self-government. Finally, the perception of Christianity, which by that time had finally become firmly established as a religion of progress and development, also played a role - at that time few Koreans doubted that only economic growth and technological progress could solve the country’s problems.

Mass evangelization led to the fact that the share of Christians in the population of South Korea increased from 5.3% in 1962 to 12.8% in 1972. And in 1984 it reached 23%. From then on, the growth of the number of Christians slowed down, perhaps because everyone who was in principle inclined to religious activity was already involved in missionary efforts.

By the way, the recently deceased Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the notorious Unification Church, is little known in Korea itself and is perceived rather as an odious and at the same time curious figure. Korean Protestantism is dominated by much less exotic movements - Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists.

However, the religious influence of Christianity does not mean that it is a significant political force. Firstly, with all the pro-Christian sympathies of the South Korean elite, Korea is secular state. Secondly, Korean Protestantism is fragmented, it consists of many trends, groups and churches that are not too inclined to joint political moves. Although most Korean Protestants are moderately right-wing and sympathetic to the United States, Christian leaders include many political activists of all stripes. However, in general, the Korean Christian community has little influence on politics as such.

Christianity in Korea.

I received a proposal from my colleagues to write an essay about Korean Protestants. The interest of Christian colleagues, and, I think, not only them, in the “Korean miracle” is understandable. After all, the phenomenon of South Korea does not leave anyone in Russia indifferent. However, there are still few people in Russia who see the reason for the “Korean miracle” in the adoption of Christianity by its residents. The common opinion in our country still considers Korea to be a Buddhist country. There are also few of us who recognize the decisive contribution to the rapid breakthrough of Korea into the ranks of the leading countries of the world by Calvinist Christians.

I once listened to a program on Echo of Moscow, hosted by Alexey Venediktov and Nargiz Asadova. They have a program, “48 minutes with Nargiz Asadova.” Good program. In it, for forty-eight minutes, they talk about interesting people in the world. In that program on June 3 last year, it was about the President of South Korea, Mr. Lee Myung-bak. Feeling how my beloved Venediktov and Asadova began to float due to a lack of information about Lee Myung Bak, I tried to reach them on the program to help them. After all, how could they know that the president of South Korea, a former major manager of the transnational company Hyundai, was also an elder of one of the Presbyterian churches in Seoul. His Christian service consisted of cleaning the toilets in the church after Sunday worship. But, alas, as always, getting through to Echo is a big problem. I have never been able to do this.

Quite a long time ago, during the Duma elections of December 1999, well after midnight, the trio Albats - Venediktov - Buntman discussed the results of our elections live and were outraged by the massive stuffing of ballots and rigging in the elections. At the same time, they aggressively mentioned Korea, comparing Russia with it, since it is in Korea that there are no elections. I think it was not South Korea that the journalists I respect wanted to hurt in that program. I then tried to call them on the program to correct them. We, in Russia, already in 1999, were so far from fair and free elections in South Korea that we still need to distinguish between North and South Korea in terms of political structure. I couldn’t get through, although I tried for probably at least half an hour. However, I sent them an indignant letter describing the elections in South Korea, saying that they were confusing something by comparing Russia with Korea. Which Korea? After all, the Korean Peninsula is divided into two opposite political systems. In the North there is totalitarianism, clear and understandable, and condemned even by today’s Russia. In the South there is a stable democratic system with a strong civil society. I have witnessed elections in South Korea on several occasions. After all, I studied at the South Korean Reformed seminary, spent a full four years in Seoul and Busan, so I can responsibly testify both to the phenomenon of South Korea in general, and, in particular, to the phenomenon of South Korean Protestantism.

Election irregularities in South Korea are unthinkable. There is a public network of Christian committees monitoring the moral purity of elections. If during the election campaign, and indeed the elections themselves, someone, somewhere, breaks the law in any way, then such a candidate for parliament or for the presidency will be finished. So toothy are the Protestants in South Korea, so free and strong are the means mass media that dishonor in elections is simply impossible! I wanted to tell Alexey Venediktov, Sergei Buntman and Evgenia Albats about this, and so that they would no longer make reservations when comparing Russia with Korea in terms of lack of freedom. They did not use Korea as an example that we should not imitate. We must separate the flies from the cutlets! But I didn’t get through. However, thank God, I no longer hear comparisons between Russia and simply Korea in Echo programs. I always hear them making a clear distinction between South Korea and North Korea...

I also wanted to say then that the president of South Korea in 1993-1998 was a presbyter of one of the largest churches in Seoul, Kim Yong Sam, and this after a protracted period of dictatorial rule. It was he, a Christian, who became president in 1995 who began the persecution former leaders countries! Under him, the crimes of the military juntas of previous presidents Park Chung Hee (1963-1979), Chun Doo Hwan (1980-1988), Roh Dae Woo (1988-1993) were brought to light. The latter even served prison sentences not for political crimes, but for banal bribery. Under them, a system of oligarchic business was formed Jaebol, when the government condoned the development of a few transnational companies with state resources, and in gratitude for this they offered it bribes in the form of cardboard boxes stuffed to the brim with banknotes. Power and money, power and shootings of peaceful demonstrations - all this received due moral and judicial assessment under Christian President Kim Yong Sam. The harshness in his approach to the establishment of morality was expressed in the condemnation in the name of his father and the arrest by the police and prosecution of even his own son, who was caught in speculation. This is how the Church in South Korea fulfills its difficult role as the moral guardian of society.

There was not even a hint of personal revenge in the persecution of ex-dictators, although Kim Yong Sam was repressed by these dictators. Having become president, he only politically protected independent prosecutors who began investigating corruption under Roh Dae Woo and Chun Doo Hwan. As a result, these ex-presidents went to prison. The investigation unearthed, and television showed scenes of the confiscation of many dozens of cardboard apple boxes, which were densely stuffed with ten thousand won bills. It so happened that during the long-term political and economic upheavals that occurred on the Korean Peninsula, their currency, the won, depreciated so much that banknotes with denominations of thousands of won were in use. The largest banknote in South Korea at that time was the ten thousand won note. In our recent history, we ourselves experienced something similar with our ruble, when zeros spread across our banknotes because of Gaidar and his team. For our older generation, ten thousand won is something like our Soviet chervonets. The American dollar in South Korea was then about eight hundred won. One apple box contained about one hundred thousand dollars in dollar terms. It is not surprising, therefore, that each ex-president had dozens of boxes of bribes. The surprising thing is that they believed in their impunity and did not try to hide these boxes somewhere...

There is no limit to God's providence! Apple is a homophone of the word in Korean apology. So the close-up boxes shown on television with apple labels on the sides of these boxes - boxes stuffed with bribes from big business - hinted at a request for an apology to the people, for forgiveness, for mercy. The scene of the arrest of the country's former political leaders was also spectacular. Television showed live the detention of ex-presidents. On a black car, no, no, it was not a “black raven”, it was a luxurious police limousine by our standards, it had a license plate with three digits 444. If anyone knows Chinese, they will immediately understand what’s going on. The number four in Chinese is similar in sound to the word death. Therefore, in countries that have been strongly influenced by Chinese culture, where the word four the sound just matches the word death, do not like the fourth floor of buildings. It is associated with death. You shouldn't even give gifts consisting of four units of something. In a word, everything in which the word sits four, which may somehow hint at death. Superstition, what can you do? So the car that came for the arrested ex-dictators carried a hint - death, death, death! Not for politics, but for banal corruption...

On that December night in 1999, I was dreaming whether the time would come in Russia, too, when a Christian, who by faith is obliged to stand on the Ten Commandments, with the eighth commandment “Thou shalt not steal,” whether the time would come here too, when such a Christian will become the president of our country? When will such a president launch an anti-corruption campaign, starting from the top? Not because of political persecution. But with the political protection of an independent prosecutor's office and an independent court. And honest prosecutors and judges, and Christians at that! - They will certainly conduct an honest independent investigation. After all, God will be above them and with them, before Whom it is impossible to lie or distort the truth. However, I got carried away then. I wanted to say all this in phone call to Ekho Moskvy journalists, and even live. God didn't give...

I was thinking about all this when I received a request from colleagues to write an essay about Korea and its Christianity. Just these thoughts flashed through my head when I was traveling on a high-speed train from Busan to Seoul - I was in Korea in January of this year. The speed panel in the carriage displayed a speed of three hundred kilometers per hour. Winter landscapes of Korea flashed past the windows. Sitting in a cozy, silent carriage of a rapidly rushing train - you can calmly talk to your neighbor without raising your voice, with a laptop on the table through which I could communicate with the whole world on the World Wide Web - I could not help but ask myself the same question. How did it happen that a country that was completely backward compared to Tsarist and Bolshevik Russia, in the twentieth century, quickly emerged from this state and became one of the developed countries?

I have heard and read different explanations for this phenomenon. The majority are Marxist. Can one expect anything different from secular researchers? However, I join the explanations of the South Koreans themselves, who are Protestants. There are fewer of them in their country in percentage terms than in the USA, but much more than in Europe, and even more so in Russia. The number of Puritan Protestants in South Korea significantly exceeds the critical mass that can already influence the moral character of the country. That is why they managed to turn their backward feudal patriarchal country over the last two generations into a post-industrial country, one of the developed countries of the world.

The day in South Korea begins with the opening of the doors of many tens of thousands of Protestant churches. The working day of South Korean believers begins with prayer at dawn, just like the first Christians. After the early morning worship, people leave the churches for work, having received a spiritual charge from chants, prayers and sermons calling for glorification and thanksgiving to the Lord in everyday life, including through hard and meaningful work. It is clear that the Lord God does not leave such spiritual zeal of millions of South Koreans without His blessing. Almost a quarter of South Korea's population is Protestant.

South Korean Protestantism is represented mainly by Presbyterians and Methodists. Pentecostal churches do not dominate Korea, but their charismatic worship has had a profound influence on the face of Protestantism in that country. Baptists rank sixth in number. The main feature of Protestantism in South Korea is that the Calvinist current of theology dominates in it, including in the Baptist environment. The sovereignty of God and the personal responsibility of man, this foundation of Calvinist theocracy, became the spiritual pillar of Korea's modernization from a backward feudal country to a post-industrial country. The success of dynamically developing South Korea is a great victory for the Calvinist Reformation in the 20th century. We in Russia, which twice entered into a systemic crisis over the course of less than one last century, should comprehend this South Korean Christian experience of modernizing the country more deeply. After all, the starting conditions for reforms in Korea were much worse than the conditions for reforms in Russia!

My ancestors left Korea at the end of the 19th century. The reasons for emigration were simple. The impoverishment of the country, political repression of the conservative ruling regime, colonial oppression of Japan. The monarchy of the Joseon Kingdom turned out to be absolutely unable to reform the corrupt feudal society, torn apart by internal class contradictions, and facing the threat of colonial enslavement from the rapidly growing strength of Japan. The spiritual field of Korea at that historical moment was devastated. Confucianism as an ideology of the feudal system showed its inconsistency in the face of the challenges of the time. Along with the rejection of the rotten monarchy, the dominant Confucian ideology was also rejected. However, along with the Confucians, there were also Buddhists in Korea. But this predecessor of Confucianism, Buddhism, due to the corruption of monasticism, has long been expelled from society. The previous era of the Goryeo Kingdom was the time of the highest flowering of Korean Buddhism. However, hundreds of thousands of idle monks became an unbearable burden for society. The palace coup and change of dynasty in Korea took place under the slogans of a different ideology - Confucian duty and virtue. Korea became the Confucian kingdom of Joseon. Buddhists lost the privileges of the state religion. Their monasteries on the plains were destroyed. The remnants of monasticism moved to mountain ghettos. At the moment of systemic crisis, when Confucianism ceased to be a consolidating idea in Korea, weakened Buddhism had neither the time nor the real opportunity to be revived and return back as a state ideology. Thus, by the end of the 19th century, the influence of Buddhism and Confucianism, these traditional religions among the Korean people, was greatly weakened. This ideological and religious vacuum proved favorable for the spread of Protestantism in Korea.

The ruling layers of the Korean aristocracy split in search of a way out of the country's systemic crisis. Some saw a way out sugu, conservative policy of isolating the country. Others, including some members royal family, offered to follow gaehwa, open door policy. The party won gaehwa. The latter were objectively interested in importing Christianity as the religion of the leading states of the world. However, in Korea at the end of the nineteenth century, circumstances were favorable only for the Protestant branch of Christianity. The fact is that Catholics entered Korea a hundred years before the Open Door Policy began, when the conservatives were still very strong! After some success of the Catholic mission in Korea, a period of repression began against everything Western. As a consequence, the Catholics found themselves physically exterminated and weakened by the time conditions finally arrived for the Christian mission.

By 1885, Korea, represented by the Kingdom of Joseon, had international treaties with many Christian countries, including Russia and the United States. The Tsarist government of Russia encouraged the missionary activities of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, some success of the Orthodox mission was later stopped by the defeat of Russia in Russian-Japanese war 1905 Only the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches of the USA, which opened their first missionary churches in Korea in 1884-1885, managed to take deep roots among the Korean people. By the time of the annexation of Korea by Japanese colonialists in 1910, the number of Protestant believers exceeded 400 thousand people.

The Presbyterian Church, the largest in Korea, was able to take deep roots in Korea partly because it did not have an ideological opponent in the form of the state. Opposition to the monarchy in the second half of the nineteenth century, based on Confucian teachings, could greatly hinder the final stage of development of the Korean Presbyterian Church - the stage of formation of territorial governing bodies of the Church. But it was at this stage that the monarchy and statehood of Korea itself were greatly weakened by Japanese intervention. Therefore, Korea and Japan, who opposed each other in the political struggle for the Korean Peninsula, were unable to prevent the structuring and growth of the Presbyterian Church. They hardly cared about Christians. So the Presbyterian Church managed to squeeze into a favorable time frame of anarchy on the Korean Peninsula. The struggle of the Japanese with the Presbyterian Church unfolded decades later, after the formation of a network of regional presbyteries of the Church. Japan, having become the ruler of the Korean Peninsula, was dealing with a large church organization that had already been structured. A similar favorable situation arose for the Methodist Church of Korea.

Despite the subsequent annexation of Korea by Imperial Japan in 1910, the political and military power UK and USA. Historical and cultural features of late Korea XIX The 19th century turned out to be very favorable for missionaries. The Protestant Church of Korea became a church in its own right within a generation. Already during the civil disobedience against Japanese colonial authorities that began on March 1, 1919, Korean Protestant churches were at the forefront of this campaign. The Church objectively took a patriotic position. By instilling puritanical morality in its members, the church actually worked against the Japanese colonialists. The refusal of believers to use tobacco and alcohol, for example, ruined Japanese entrepreneurs who ran this business in Korea...

One cannot ignore another feature of the Protestant mission in Korea. If in the eighteenth century the Christian mission in India and China followed the predatory wave of imperial colonial expansion of Western states, which caused a negative attitude of the local population towards Christians, then in Korea there was a dualism of the political-economic situation. America was not a colonial power for the Koreans and was not involved in the plunder of Korea: the Japanese did that. The Americans, even if they wanted to, could not plunder Korea then - the Japanese got in the way. Therefore, willingly or unwillingly, the new religion from America was perceived by Koreans in a positive light, since the missionaries were by no means indifferent to the actions of the Japanese, often suffering from them themselves. The missionaries' compassion for the Koreans came through the missionaries' complicity in their suffering. The Christian preaching of love and the call to bear the cross were heard not only in words, but were also supported by deeds. Missionaries took part in the social movement, in reforming the thinking of Koreans. Through the missionaries, the construction of schools, hospitals, universities took place; they brought modern knowledge into Korean society.

But such external influences of missionaries on Koreans alone would be completely insufficient for the adoption of Protestantism. The Korean religious mentality, imbued with shamanism, was ready to accept Christianity. Christianity could equally have entered Korea in the form of Catholicism or Orthodoxy. We are talking about the main thing in Christianity - the dogma of the trinity and the readiness of Koreans to accept it. Monotheism was quite consistent with the tradition of Korean shamanism. The dominance of a stronger spirit over other spirits was clear to the Korean. The Son of God Jesus had an analogue in the myth of Tangun, the ancestor of Korea. The Holy Spirit was in complete agreement with the ideas of primitive religion about the source of human strength. The worship of the spirits of ancestors continued in the concept of the heavenly Church. The high moral system of Christian ethics had in common with the Confucian values ​​of family and duty. The synthesis of these subconscious moments could be accessible to any movement of Christianity. However, a window of opportunity opened precisely for Protestants.

If we compare the religious system of the Japanese with the Korean system, there is a significant difference in national character polytheism. The Japanese must carefully serve all his gods. One of the spirits, deprived of attention, could quite literally finish off a person with its vengefulness. The Korean admitted the inequality of spirits, the possibility of one spirit to rule over another. Therefore, it was quite possible that one strong spirit could protect a Korean from the malice of other spirits. For the Japanese, the path to monotheism, and, consequently, to Christ, was blocked by equality in the pantheon of gods. Korean shamanism did not contradict the idea of ​​the Redeemer, the Defender of Christ. This seemingly insignificant difference in Japanese and Korean polytheism, even having common shamanistic roots, led to great consequences. Christianity has difficulty taking root in the Japanese islands. Korea burst into flames with the Gospel of Jesus.

We can say that the success of the Protestant mission in Korea was predetermined by the above-mentioned historical accidents. The almost empty religious niche in Korea was filled by Protestants. Traditional Korean religions lost influence on rulers with the loss political influence the rulers themselves. Although Buddhism and Confucianism as ideological teachings are not directly to blame for the Korean crisis, their religious interpretation, being imposed on society as the last resort, was defeated. As a result, society retreated from Buddhism and Confucianism, but the best that was ideological in them was melted into Christianity.

It is also impossible not to mention the role of the Holy Scriptures in the planting of Protestantism in Korea. If in India, China and Japan there was no Bible in local languages, and missionaries had to start from the basics - translating the Bible into local languages, then in Korea this problem had already been solved! The proximity of Korea to China and Japan affected this. These two countries, strong neighbors of Korea, had Korean diasporas. The Bible in Chinese was quite understandable to educated Koreans, since the main sign of a Korean’s culture was the knowledge Chinese characters. Therefore, enthusiastic Koreans who came into contact with Western missionaries in China and Japan, having in their hands the Chinese text of the Bible, began to translate it into their native language. As a result of their efforts, before the Protestant mission entered Korea, it already had a Bible in Korean! In addition, missionaries in China and Japan contributed greatly to this work. But this is a separate story of the procession of God’s Word...

The phenomenon of South Korean Protestantism is still poorly illuminated in our country. There are objective reasons for this - the language barrier, the noisy mission of the Korean Protestants themselves in the CIS, which is at times unsuccessful and incomprehensible to us, who for the most part have a Soviet mentality. The major three-volume work “The History of Christianity in Korea,” written by a large team of authors in South Korea, has yet to be translated into Russian. I was offered to do this translation, but it was somehow strange, starting from the third volume. I almost started translating it into Russian, but the matter stalled due to funding. After all, according to the logic of things, it is then necessary to translate both the first volume and the second volume so that the reader, both simply curious and a historian by profession, has a complete picture of Protestantism in South Korea. Therefore, the matter was postponed due to finances for an indefinite period of time. However, we must join the conviction of the Koreans themselves, and I, again, join them: South Korea became what it is thanks to Christianity. Moreover, what is significant, the Calvinist part of Christianity. The fact is that the Reformation in Geneva created a type of autonomous church community that is independent of the state and viable in any formation. These communities merge into a monolithic Church on confederal principles. This is precisely why the Calvinist church is a system-forming church, capable of reformatting the society in which it is embedded, and the state too, unless this church is subjected to physical extermination, like the Huguenots in France.

During the sixty years of the Protestant mission, from 1885 until Korea gained independence in 1945, Protestantism became a leader in the spiritual life of the country. After the split of the peninsula into North and South, due to civil war 1950-1953, South Korea received a huge spiritual boost from the Protestants of the North who emigrated to the south. They fled the oppression of the totalitarian regime of Kim Il Sung. This exodus of Christians from the North benefited the development of the southern part of the peninsula. It was the Protestant part of South Korea that turned out to be the driving force in the modernization of the country. This is where the Calvinist character of the churches came into play. A sense of chosenness, confidence in salvation, the Puritan ethic of family and work, striving for success, enterprise, active participation of parishioners in political activity- all these elements of personally responsible life before a sovereign God have determined the face of present-day Korea.

A curious temporal fact in the spiritual development of Korea. This is for us living in Russia. In 1874, the evangelical awakening in Russia began with Redstock's preaching in the aristocratic salons of St. Petersburg. In 1884, at the suggestion of the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, K.P. Pobedonostsev, Emperor Alexander III expelled the leaders of Evangelical Christians V.A. Pashkov and M.M. Korf from Russia, without the right to return to their homeland. The country of Orthodox Christianity lost the chance of the Christian Reformation. However, a holy place is never empty. We all know what happened next, but some hush it up, evading responsibility, others do not have the opportunity to loudly declare it, pointing out the culprits who provoked the advent of the bloody Bolshevik period in our history. The Holy Spirit departed from Russia. In 1884 He began to awaken Korea...