[KS] most Christian city in Asia

[lawrence driscoll]

Dear Ruediger and list members:
I read with much interest the replies of Mssrs Paterson and Holstein to the 
inquiry regarding the quote: "before 1945, Pyeongyang was the most Christian 
city in Asia" .

The current confusion about who should be counted among Christians is indeed 
a sad one for Catholics. In East Asia it seems the fact that Catholics are 
not counted among Christians is rooted in the missionary language that was 
popularized in the 19th century. The Catholic Christian missionaries in 
Korea, as those in China earlier, had chosen the word "Chonju" (C:Tianzhu 
“VŽå) to translate the word God. Respectively the Catholic religion was 
called "Chonjugyo" (Heaven Lord learning) and Catholic believers were called 
"Chonjugyoin".

But the newly arriving Protestant missionaries to Korea, chose the word 
"Hananim" (based on the pure Korean word "hana" or "one") to translate the 
word God, and like their Chinese missionary colleagues, chose the word 
"Kidok"(C:Jidu Šî“Â) for Christ and "Kidokgyo" (Christ learning) as the name 
of their religion. Subsequently in Korean society the word "Kidokgyoin" 
became the accepted word for Christian and the Catholics were contented to 
leave it that way.

At that time sectarian exclusivity was so strong that if a Catholic 
missionary in a rural area knew that  it was impossible for a parishioner 
who moved away to reach the church of his baptism, he would not advise him 
to attend a Protestant church as an alternative. The reverse of this was 
probably also true. We can then imagine that the believer returned to his 
Buddhist, Shamanist or Chundokyo roots.

Perhaps one can say the root of the problem for Catholics, and the 
misunderstanding among the general public, is that the Catholics, unlike the 
Protestants, did not employ a native word for Christ to identify themselves 
among the Korean (or Chinese) people.

This problem for Catholics is not unique to Asia however. When Christians of 
the Roman persuasion, assumed the word "catholic",i.e. universal, as the 
appelation for their church, their Christian identity in the world faded, 
even among their own believers. The confusion is so widespread that today 
one can even hear a Catholic refer to himself as a "Christian Catholic" 
instead of a "Catholic Christian".

Finally, I am not surprised at the quote heard by Mr. Frank and suspect that 
from a Protestant perspective it is correct. In Patricia Cornwell's 
biography of Billy Graham's wife, we learn that in the 1930's Ruth Bell 
Graham's missionary parents chose not to send her to school in nearby 
Shanghai, but rather to a well established Christian high school in "Pyeng 
Yang", "where academics were rigorous and the Bible was acknowledged as the 
authoritative word of God".

Best regards,
Lawrence Driscoll

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