Christianity Comes to Korea

I was really interested in Professor Jung-Kim’s comments about the role of Christian missionaries--specifically Horace Underwood-- in sparking the development of both secular and religious schools in Korea. It was interesting how she explained that the work of foreign missionaries in the Christian school movement inspired non-Christian people in Korea to begin developing secular schools that would also allow Korean people to have access to Western-style education. Part of what surprised me is that I’m used to hearing stories about how white, Christian missionaries in Africa and North America often disrupted local cultures and traditions and spread diseases that harmed local people and ways of life. In contrast, the way she talked about Christians establishing gender-specific schools and eventually universities made it seem like Christian missionaries caused far less harm in Korea. I was interested if there are more negative impacts that Christian missionaries had in Korea had that we simply didn’t have time to discuss today. Also, because now a quarter of all Korean people identify as Chstiatian, I was wondering if there any elements of Korean culture that made it such a fertile breeding ground for Christianity.