wakibitos

The following is an excerpt from Nozomu Tsuneishi’s article, “Factors in the Acceptance of Early Christianity in Korea,” and is quoted below. This article was published in the Bulletin of the Language Education Laboratory, Aichi University, “Language and Culture,” No. 13/17/19, 2005-08. Some punctuation and paragraphs have been edited.

….. The important factors were a group of historical factors, i.e., quasi-primary factors. For example, the Church happened to become a “refuge for the people” because of the dual historical phenomena of the official deprivation and the Sino-Japanese(1894-95) and Russo-Japanese(1904-05) wars, and the historical coincidence of “no government, no religion” especially after the end of Korea, which put Koreans in a situation where they were more receptive to Christianity, but unfortunately, these historical circumstances are not the same as the Japanese situation. Unfortunately, this historical situation did not exist in Japan at all.

If there is only one factor that contributed to the “non-acceptance” of Christianity in Japan, it was Japan’s unique religion and national culture of Emperor Shintoism, and the Japanese government’s continuous promotion of it since the Meiji era, a point that has already been pointed out by many Christian scholars. In other words, the greatest obstacle to Japanese Christianity has been the Japanese religion of Emperor Shintoism, and the Japanese government that has continued to promote it.

If there had been no Japanese religion or government to prevent the acceptance of Christianity in Japan, and if Japan had been “without government and without religion” like Korea, the history of Christianity in Japan would have been fundamentally different.

Uemura has already mentioned this “anarchy and irreligion” in Korea, and we can even read envy toward Korea in contrast to the devastation in Japan. As a coincidental historical phenomenon that had nothing to do with Christianity per se, the “no government, no religion” situation that just happened to appear at that time played such a significant role.

In general, without such favorable historical conditions, it is extremely difficult for Christianity to be accepted, as can be clearly seen in the case of North Korea as described by Sawa, and in the first place, it is impossible for a religion from another country, a complete stranger, to simply and easily be accepted without some “favorable historical conditions. It is impossible for a religion to be accepted simply and easily without some “favorable historical conditions.

We have identified the following five historical factors.

• Christianity was understood as a conduit for Western civilization.
• the continuity of Christian thought with Korean shamanism and Confucianism (e.g., the concept of God and the devil)
• the church became “a refuge for the people” due to the dual reasons of the deprivation of government officials and the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars.
• introduction of Christianity in the vacuum of “no government, no religion”
• the beginning and execution of the invasion by the theocratic state of Japan.
• [*] Political patronage (especially during the [Oda] Nobunaga era in Japan, the postwar GHQ era, or in Korea, the early church under missionaries with extraterritorial jurisdiction and the political situation after liberation).
• It would be good to add [*] to the list. All of these are essential historical factors for the acceptance of Christ in Korea.

However, no matter how indispensable they are for the acceptance, the above “historical factors” themselves are merely coincidental factors that are essentially irrelevant to Christianity and the Church, and therefore, they alone cannot continue and complete the acceptance. Without the next step of genuinely accepting it as a religion “within” Christianity and “within” the Church, acceptance is likely to cease and disappear in an instant, even though it is triggered by historical factors.

Therefore, what ultimately determines acceptance is none other than the “religious factor (primary factor),” the contents of which are summarized in four main points.

• Formation of the “concept of a higher order of believers” through the Nevius method and the Rekiteikai.
• Experienced “internalization of faith” through the Great Revival Movement and the Million Relief Movement
• Christianity became the center of opposition and gained “national trust” when Japanese imperialism took over
• the “people” and “popular theology”

Whether it is a religion or an ideology, there are indeed a variety of complex historical relationships involved in the reception of a religion or an ideology in a country. Therefore, if we dare to simplify and categorize such diverse historical phenomena, we are bound to fall into the fallacy of disregard for history and detachment from historical phenomena.

For example, even with regard to the first large-scale reception of Christianity in the Roman Empire, according to recent Roman social historians, the historical facts of the “history of the reception of Christianity in the Roman Empire,” especially “persecution,” “martyrdom,” “deification of the emperor and emperor worship,” etc., from the conventional Christian historical perspective, are too much conveniently interpreted by Christians. Therefore, they distort objective history and data, and a fundamental review is needed.

In other words, the “history of Christianity” as presented by the conventional Christian circles (especially “the process of official recognition and nationalization of Christianity by the Roman Empire” or “the relationship between the Roman Empire and Christianity”) needs to be fundamentally revised.

The same point can be made about the reception of Christianity in Korea, and therefore, this paper is only a “summary” of the author’s research to date, and the results of the author’s research up to this point.

常石論文2005-08を読みながら、日本社会の無宗教性について考えています。同氏が云うとおり、｢天皇制神道という日本独自の宗教ないし国民的基層文化とそれを推進し続けて来た明治以来の日本政府｣が｢日本キリスト教を阻はばんで来た最大の障害物｣だったのかどうか。

一つの疑問は｢天皇制神道｣が、同氏も指摘するとおり、｢明治以来の日本政府｣が上から与えたものだったということだ。臣民がそれを受け容れたとすれば、受け容れ側にその土壌があったとしなければならない。それは何だったのか。アニミズム的な神道だったのか、無宗教性と云っていいものなのかどうか。

I learned the Korean language by listening to Pyongyang broadcasts around 1970, and later, while working for Korean airlines and Japan or US foundations, I came into contact with many Koreans and Koreans living in Japan and the US, and I always wondered why there are so many Christians in Korea. This paper analyzes the reasons for this in light of historical and cultural factors. 　One of the reasons for the persuasiveness of the argument is the contrast between Korean and Japanese Christianity. The comparison between Korean Christianity, which “spread widely and took root among rural areas, workers, girls, and the uneducated masses who could not read Chinese,” and Japanese Christianity, which “has been accepted mainly by intellectuals in the middle and upper classes since the Meiji era,” is very convincing.