Exploring The Reasons For The Popularity Of Christianity In Republic Of Korea

It's a special phenomenon that in the Republic of Korea (ROK) as many people as nearly 30% of the whole population, are Christian,which in other Asian countries has never happened. This Thesis, by exploring the evolution and development of Korean Christianity in the period from the early of 18th century to the beginning of 21st century, attempts to give some concrete explanations for that question.The reasons for the popularity of Christianity in ROK, as the author thinks, are from 4 perspectives. Firstly, the Korean peninsula boasts a long history of various traditional religious cultures. In the past the Shamanism, Buddhism and Confusion prevailed and exerted profound influence on the people. When those traditional religions declined in the late 19th century and early 20th century, there should be some other religion, similar with their beliefs or teachings, to take their place.Secondly, from the year 1910 to 1945, Korea was occupied by Japan and fell as its colony, and the Korean people are greatly suffered during this period. While the desperate situation of being enslaved seemed endless in reality, they had to hope that their spirits be saved by the god. Christianity, at that time, came to play an active role and served as the spiritual asylum of the unprivileged and impoverished Korean people. In addition, churches and their leaders take an important part in the anti-Japanese movement, which further brought them good reputations among the people.Thirdly, ROK allied with U.S. after World War two and received a large amount of economic and military aid from it. Christianity, as the core value of U.S and other western cultures, also attracted the Korean people.Fourthly, another most important reason is that the modern churches of ROK adopted a very aggressive and proactive way in promoting their religion both at home and abroad nowadays, and their complicated but effective missionizing system to assimilate non-believers also contributed to the proliferation and prosperity of Christianity in ROK.