Search for interdenominational co-operation and unity among Korean evangelicals, 1945-1997

Abstract

Employing archival and oral research, this thesis examines the Korean evangelical pursuit of interdenominational co-operation and unity between 1945 and 1997. Evangelicalism has had a complex relationship with the mainline ecumenical movement. On the one hand, the ecumenical movement originated in the historic evangelical Protestant missionary movement which promoted practical collaboration in mission. On the other hand, evangelicals in the northern hemisphere started to view the WCC and its ecumenical movement as deviating from Christian orthodoxy and developed their own alternatives and styles of ecumenical co-operation. This complex relationship between evangelicalism and the mainline ecumenical movement is also observable in Korea.

From its foundation in 1924, the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) was a pivotal ecumenical organisation of Korean Protestantism. It stemmed from the pursuit of co-operation and unity in mission among Western Protestant missionaries to Korea, most of whom shared pan-evangelical ideals. When the NCCK was re-founded in 1946 after being deconstructed in 1938 by the Japanese, it was predominantly evangelical in spirit. However, many evangelical Christians who were once enthusiastic participants in the NCCK ecumenical enterprise started to view the NCCK as failing to represent the socio-political and theological stances of the evangelical majority. As a result, they fashioned their own instruments for co-operation and unity and pursued those as an alternative to the NCCK-led ecumenical movement. Their evangelical version of the ecumenical movement experienced significant growth in the second half of the twentieth century, while the NCCK and its ecumenical movement were consistently challenged. Despite its significance, the Korean evangelical ecumenical movement has generally not been explored in either Korean or English scholarship, unlike the NCCK-led ecumenical movement. This thesis scrutinises how South Korean evangelicals sought their own avenues of co-operation and unity in response to socio-political and theological challenges. It also analyses the nature, aims, extent and limitations of their pursuit of Christian unity, and why and how the evangelical movement for Christian unity became so influential that it eclipsed the NCCK. Chapter one scrutinises four models of evangelical commitments to Christian unity in the Anglophone and majority worlds in the twentieth century. By doing so, this chapter provides a broad typology which helps us to interpret the particular forms of Korean evangelical ecumenism. Chapter two considers the socio-political and ecclesial context in Korea after the liberation from Japanese colonialism and its impact upon the Korean Protestant ecumenical pursuit. It looks at how Korean evangelical Christians became less enthusiastic about the NCCK-led ecumenical movement, while pursuing their own evangelical ecumenical agendas. Chapter three surveys a type of ecumenism (‘reactive ecumenism’) that evangelical Christians pursued against what they perceived as threats to their nation and church, which was prominent after the Korean War. Chapter four scrutinises another form of evangelical ecumenism for evangelisation (‘missional ecumenism’) which co-existed among Korean evangelicals with ‘reactive ecumenism’. This chapter explores how this type grew to challenge the early dominance of ‘reactive ecumenism.’ Chapter five considers a new style of evangelical ecumenism (‘negotiated ecumenism’) among more socially engaged evangelicals who emerged in the 1980s. This chapter looks at how they negotiated the boundaries of their co-operation and unity and how this style differed from the two traditional evangelical ecumenisms (reactive and missional). The thesis demonstrates that Korean evangelicals developed their own styles of ecumenism, and its diverse nature, aims, extent, and limitations deepen our understanding of ecumenism.