Comments on: Modernization = religion in South Korea?

By: Jools

Jools — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:35:15 +0000

This reminds me of this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6692881.stm
…Gypsies, generally not known for their industriousness, are absorbing a work ethic via their new-found Christianity. I’m not religious at all, but Dawkins et al get on my nerves when they say that religion has no value. A set of values which captures the imagination can do wonders for some people.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:51:38 +0000

It strikes me that this is another case of the kind of thing described by Geertz in “Islam Observed”. In stage one you have the unchallenged tradition; stage two is the tradition challenged by an outside force (the West, or Japan), and local modernizers responding to the outside example, partly in imitation and partly in order to resist; and stage three, a return to the tradition in a reformed, fundamentalist form, which resists the outside influence while remaking the “corrupt” original tradition.
Traditional Korean religion was presumably like traditional Chinese religion: an eclectic mix of practices and beliefs put together by each family or individual for their own purposes from sources which included Confucianism, Buddhism, diffuse traditional local cults, charismatic movements, and possibly even Christianity. (Korea was more Buddhist and less Taoist than China, I think). In this context most people were vaguely religious without a clear affiliation, and “religious affiliates” were the minority who showed that were very serious, for example by dedicating their children to Buddhist monasteries or by converting to Christianity or a charismatic cult.
In this picture Christianity would function as the modernizing outsider. It’s not too unusual for the progressive force to come in religious form — in China missionaries taught modern science and modern medicine and were a connection to the global economy.
And in response, those who did not become Christian became more Buddhist in defense.
I don’t know enough specifically about Korea to defend this sketch, but it fits with what I know generally about these processes elsewhere.

By: empiricus

empiricus — Wed, 30 May 2007 22:56:54 +0000

The referenced article makes some mention of Christianity as a carrier (marker?) of Korean nationalism during the colonial period. It also mentions that many of the first modern institutions were created with missionary help. The article fails to mention AFAICT (other than maybe by implication) the importance of the missionary schools during the colonial period – basically the only way for Koreans to get any advanced education (as compared to e.g. Taiwan during the same period where the Japanese put a fair amount of emphasis on educating the native population; naturally the education was also indoctrination, and there wasn’t the pre-1895 history with Taiwan that there was with Korea).
I also wonder if there was systematic bias in the reponses to the colonial period census the authors quote. How that response bias would play out I’m not sure, but presumably whatever a Korean at the time thought would cause him/her the least trouble. I also don’t know if how one responded to the colonial census had any legal significance; I assume not (e.g. no difference in personal law).

By: razib

razib — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:45:32 +0000

this is a real mini-trend at elite universities insofar as evangelical christianity is becoming an 'asian thing.' nevertheless, the macro-dynamic is that asian americans have become considerably less christian within the last 15 years. see here.

By: cuchulkhan

cuchulkhan — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:16:44 +0000

In America too? http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/21/ASIANGOD.TMP