Explore The True Nature Of The Korean Christian

After the World War â…¡, Christianity has rapidly developed in South Korea where takes Confucianism as the culture matrix. The number of Christians is nudging one third of national population of South Korea, and Christianity in South Korea is playing an important role in the international Christian community. More significant, nowadays Christian Church in South Korean increasingly possesses the local feature. So in many cases, the vast majority of people who ever been to South Korea have realized a fact that Christianity in South Korea has become the "Korean Christianity". The development and success of localization of Christianity in South Korea has been recognized by the whole world. Therefore, it is important to explore its value from academic perspective within worldwide religions.It is acknowledged that when a religion spreads from its cradle to outward places it may face various factors including different regions, different languages, different modes of thinking and different lifestyle groups. In order to pursue self survival and self development, a kind of interactive cooperation intention between the religion and the audience is spontaneously produced, during which a variety of methods are adapted to achieve this goal. Thus it gives birth to a region with local characteristics. After the Christianity entered South Korea, local methods were carried out by the missionaries according to the features of the social culture environment in South Korea. Facing different periods of historical opportunities and advancement, the Christianity in South Korea has also continued to vary in the process of indigenization, and has ultimately made great achievements.By analyzing the mutual influence between the Christianity and the historical, social, cultural and political factors in South Korea, this paper, combining with the internal development practice of the Korean Christian church, aims to analyze the reasons for the great success of Korean Christianity and explores the process of Christian indigenization in the South Korea. In this consideration it consists of six chapters. Each chapter's main content is as follows:The first chapter, an introduction puts forward the theme of this paper which means the rationale and the research significance of the indigenization of Christianity in South Korea, and why the importance of the study is meaningful to researches of Chinese Christian. Then based on the literature review of the relevant documents and data about the South Korean Christian in China, the author may put forward problems and discuss shortcomings.In the Second chapter, considering the subject of the thesis, the author overviews the history of Korean Catholic and Protestant Christianity respectively and reveals the deep historical roots of the Korean church indigenization through the statements of the development of South Korean church.In the third chapter, taking the patriotism as the breakthrough point, the author analyzes the role of political factors in the indigenization process of the Korean Christianity. Political changes and sufferings in Korea created fertile soil for Christianity in its beginning part. In different periods, how did the political factor play its role in the indigenization process of Korean Christian Church and how did the Korean Christian Church localization react to the political affairs? Answers to these questions will be presented in this chapter.In the fourth chapter, the author discusses that when the old local religious culture encounters the Christian in Korea, such a religiously diverse country, how the Christianity carries out the indigenization and forms their own unique localization theology. This chapter will focus on the Shamanism which is considered as the root of Korean culture, and as well as describe the largest religion Buddhism and Confucianism in South Korea. Besides the author also elaborates how the Korean God's name--(?) and the Christian God could be combined and united by giving extra focus in a separate part.The fifth chapter could be regarded as a response to the three previous chapters. That is how Korean Christian organizations function when face the collision of cultures, historical changes and political sufferings in the localization process. It is learned that, though the localization of the Christian church is influenced by historical background and environment, Korean churches make direct efforts to the church localization. In this chapter, these factors can be taken as subjective factors to promote Korean church localization.The sixth chapter is the summary of the whole thesis. The author discusses that Christianity plays an important role in the Korean transition process from traditional society to a modern one, and modern South Korean Christianity has to face new problems and challenges after its successful indigenization.