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Syncretism: The Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea, by David Chung. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002, 263 pages. (ISBN 0-7914-4941-6, cloth; ISBN 0-7914-4942-4, paper).
Reviewed by Young-Chan Ro
George Mason University[This review first appeared in Acta Koreana, 5.2 (2002): 135-37. Acta Koreana is published by Academia Koreana of Keimyung University.]
This book is a belated publication of Professor David Chung's dissertation submitted to Yale graduate school in 1959. Professor Chung was arguably the first Korean scholar who undertook the challenging task of investigating Christian beginnings in Korea from the perspective of the history of religions in Korea. Unfortunately, the manuscript of Dr. Chung's dissertation has been buried for many decades and, thus, has not been available to the public except for a few serious researchers who have read it in the University Microfilm International series. This book would have made an immeasurable contribution to the study of Korean religions in general and Korean Christianity in particular, if it had been published in the 1950s or 1960s. Thanks are due to Dr. Kang-nam Oh, the editor of this book, who not only encouraged Dr. Chung to publish his old manuscript but also made the publication possible.
Dr. Chung's research in this book is based on primary and secondary sources in various languages including French, German, and Japanese that were available at the time. Most references used in this book are now quite old; some may be traced back to the1910s and the1920s. Therefore, one may feel, at first glance, that this is an outdated book. After a careful reading, however, one will learn a great deal from it. In a way, the book itself is a historical document showing the kind of scholarship that Dr. Chung undertook in the 1950s to deal with complex issues involved in the areas of the history of Korean missions, Korean church history, and the history of Korean traditional religions. Despite a historical gap of half a century, one cannot fail to notice that Dr. Chung was a thorough and skillful scholar who conducted first-rate research on the subject at the time.
This book consists of eleven chapters. The first two chapters are a concise summary of the history of the beginnings of both Catholic and Protestant Christianity in Korea during the 18th century and 19th centuries respectively. The author pays careful attention to the historical background of Korean missions, both Catholic and Protestant, from the perspective of the role of the Western missionaries in China and their contributions to the Korean mission. He has made a convincing case to demonstrate the uniquely Korean phenomenon that both Korean Catholics and Protestants established churches even before the arrival of foreign missionaries in Korea. He examines how and why Korean Christianity became so successful from the beginning. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate the social environment and cultural contexts of Korea before the arrival of Christianity in Korea to ascertain the causes of the phenomenal success of the Christian missions in Korea. Chapter 5 explains the mission strategies: Matteo Ricci's "accommodation" and John Nevius's "Nevius Method" that had a direct impact on the "success" of the Korean mission for both Catholicism and Protestantism. Dr. Chung delineates his methodology in chapter 6 in order to understand the Korean religious context that is characterized as "syncretism." According to the author, who follows Pinard de la Boullaye's understanding of "syncretism," there are three basic patterns of syncretism, namely, "equivalent," "consensus," and "accidental or historical" (p. 83). The author applies this methodology to the East Asian context in chapter 7 to explain the various aspects of syncretism in relation to Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism and to confirm the "three religions are one" principle. From this perspective, Dr. Chung shows us how Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanism have not only co-existed but more importantly how they have interacted with each other in East Asia, especially in traditional Korea:To single out a typical case among the host of bizarre practices, in [the] Korean family, for instance, it is Confucianism [that] dresses the mourners in sackcloth, while the Buddhist bonzes chant their sutras for the departed to [reach] the Western Paradise, a Buddhist heavenly kingdom. It is [the] shaman who exorcises the evil spirits that may annoy or harm the departed on his or her journey, while Taoist geomancers engage themselves in supervising the digging of the grave on the site that they believe to be [the] most 'profitable' location (p. 92).
Chapters 8, 9, and 10 constitute an examination of the relationship between Confucianism and Christianity, Buddhism and Christianity, and Taoism and Christianity respectively. In chapter 8, the author surveys the Christian missionaries' view of Confucianism and their attempt at syncretism with Christianity. In this chapter, Dr. Chung made a very useful investigation into how the early Christian missionaries, including Matteo Ricci, understood the three religions of China and their influence on the direction of the Christian mission in Korea. This chapter is a careful historical description of the Catholic and Protestant missions in East Asia rather than a direct comparison between Confucianism and Christianity. In the same vein, chapter 9 examines Buddhism from the perspective of Christian missions trying to find a theistic aspect in Korean Buddhism. Here, the author introduces an interesting example of the historical syncretism of the theistic aspect of Korean Buddhism: "The artificial equation of the monotheistic Korean deity Hanûnim with the Hindu-Mahayana deity Indra in the monk Iryôn's version of the Tan'gun legend is a prime example "(p. 135). According to the author, the theistic tendency in Korean Buddhism, especially among the lay Buddhists reflects the native Korean belief in a supreme deity. As seen in the early Christian missionaries' attempt to relate the Christian God to the Chinese Confucian concept of Shang-ti as the supreme deity, Korean Buddhists made a similar effort to ascertain the supreme theistic quality of Buddha in relation to the Tan'gun legend. The author's intention in these two chapters is clear: there is a trace of monotheism in both Confucianism, interpreted by the early Christian missionaries, and Buddhism as understood by Korean lay Buddhists. This theistic trace or "latent" theism paved the way to the successful Christian mission in Korea. This assumption is also apparent in the author's dealing with "Taoism and Christianity" in chapter 10. Instead of taking philosophical Taoism (tao-chia/toga), the author uses religious Taoism (tao-chiao/togyo) to establish an avenue to investigate how the monotheistic hierarchy of religious Taoism helped the Christian mission in Korea. The author analyzes the Tan'gun legend in relationship to the popular belief in Hanûnim in Korea.
The author's assumption is that the traditional Korean religions and popular belief systems are congenial to Christianity and it is this congeniality that makes Christianity so successful in Korea. It seems that the author's assumption may have pre-occupied his research to the extent that the underlying theme of this book is to find "evidences" for his assumption through his readings of the history of Korean religions. In this respect, those who are familiar with the indigenization theology debate in Korea in the 1960s will feel that this book would have made an enormous contribution to that debate. In fact, this book is still a good source for the development of Korean indigenization theology. This book, however, is no simplistic equation of traditional Korean religions with Christianity. On the contrary, this is a fine scholarly work with a sound and careful examination underpinned with a history of religion approach. For this reason, this book is not only a good summary of the history of Christian missions in Korea, but also a concise scholarly survey of the history of traditional Korean religions. Although some may not agree with the author's assumption that traditional Korean popular belief was monotheistic in relationship with the idea of Hanûnim, it is still important to consider his observation as discussed in the last chapter. On a minor note, it would have served the book better if it had used more recent translations of the Korean documents including the Tan'gun foundation myth quoted in the volume.
Citation:
Ro, Young-Chan 2002
Review of Syncretism: The Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea, by David Chung. (2002)
Korean Studies Review 2002, no. 11
Electronic file: http://koreanstudies.com/ks/ksr/ksr02-11.htm
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