[KS] most Christian City in Asia

[Gari Keith Ledyard]

	It doesn't look like anybody knows of a reference for P'yongyang
as "the most Christian city in Asia."  I think that the root source of the
idea, and probably the misunderstanding, came from the background so well
described by Don Clark in his posting and in his soon-to-appear book.
	But other interesting issues have arisen and I'd like to address
two of them.  T.N. Park and others have commented on the great gap between
the Western understanding of "Christianity" and the Korean understanding
of "Kidokkyo," and I'm sure that their impressions resonate with the
experience of many on this list.  But the historical and scholarly use of
the term "kidokkyo" in Korea is a little more nuanced than the sharper
distinctions driven by zealots on both sides.
	The first great historian of Korean religions, Yi Nunghwa
(1869-1943), who wrote histories of all of them-- Buddhism (which was his
own religion), Confucianism, Daoism, Shamanism, Korean "superstitions" in
general, and finally "Kidokkyo,"-- treated the latter as including both
the Catholic and Protestant wings.  In fact his pioneering work, "History
of Korean Kidokkyo and [the related] Foreign Relations" <Chos^on Kidokkyo
k^up oegyosa>, 1928, had much more on Catholicism than on Protestantism,
if only because the Catholic history was much longer and a great deal more
complicated and problematical.  Along with many others and in spite of his
book's title, he often used the earlier coinage, Kaesin kyo ("reformed
religion") to distinguish Protestantism from Ch'^onju kyo or Catholicism.
The Korean translation of the first comprehensive history of Korean
Protestant Christianity, by George Paik (Paek Nakchun)-- his Yale PhD
dissertation "The History of the Protestant Missions in Korea, 1832-1910,"
published in Seoul in 1929)-- bears the title <Han'guk kaesin kyo sa>
(1973).
	The term _kidok_ (Chinese _jidu_) originated in China as an
abbreviation of a transliteration of "Christ"--perhaps _Jilisidu_ (or in
the older Wade spelling that reflects its probable treaty port origin,
_Kilissutu_; those who are familiar with Protestant Chinese translations
of the Bible may know of a more accurate form).  The Chinese dictionary
<Cihai> defines Jidujiao (Kidokkyo) as Protestant Christianity.
	Although the popular idea of Kidokkyo as excluding Catholicism
seems to prejudice the latter, the Catholic establishment itself seem to
accept that usage, if unhappily. If one looks up "Kidokkyo" in the Korean
Catholic Encyclopedia, <Han'guk Kat'ollik Taesajon> (1985), one is
directed to the entry "Kurisuto kyo."  In this entry the term "Kidokkyo"
appears but three times, and only within quotes.  The entry defines
"Kurisuto kyo" as the proper term for an as-yet undivided Christianity up
until the time of the Schism, when it splits into the "Roma Kat'ollik
kyohoe" and the "Tongbang Ch^ong (Eastern or Greek Orthodox) kyohoe."
With the Reformation the Protestants split off from the Catholic
communion.  After discussing the various complications arising from the
Reformation, the article continues:
	"In Korea during the Kaehwa Period, from the opening of ports in
1876 to the Japanese annexation of 1910, both the Kat'ollik and Kaesin
religions were called Yaso (Chinese Yesu, =Jesus) kyo without distinction,
but then came to be distinguished as Ch'^onju kyo and Yaso kyo,
[respectively], and then later as Kat'ollik and Yaso kyo, with the latter
especially being called "'Kidokkyo'" or "Kaesin kyo," which situation has
continued until today.  Thus, before anyone knew it ["^on^u t^ot"], the
term 'Kidokkyo' in the sense of 'Kuristo kyo' had come to be commonly
understood as the equivalent of 'Kaesin kyo.'"  Confirming the permanence
of this change, the article concludes, "...And so in general we can divide
[Christianity] into three principal forms.  Comparing them by the number
of believers, we can calculate as follows: the Roman Catholic Church, 800
million, the Eastern Orthodox Church about 200 million, and the
Protestants [the word spelled out phonetically], about 100 million."
	Putting aside some quibbling about some of this (especially those
numbers), the main conclusion for our discussion would seem to be that
Korean Catholics tend to want to avoid the term "Kidokkyo" and have
tacitly come to accept that in Korea it refers to Protestants only.
 	The statement about the Catholics and the Protestants both being
known as "Yaso kyo" in the Kaehwa period was news to me, and I suspect it
will be to many others also.  Catholicism had been known in Korea as
Ch'^onju kyo since at least the 17th century, and that name certainly did
not drop out of usage between 1876 and 1910.  Even so, the particular
circumstances of that period are relevant to to the sharp terminological
distinction between Catholics and Protestants in Korea.  Catholicism had a
bloody history from 1785 up until the first half of the 1870s.  After 1801
it was officially prohibited as a subversive and implacable enemy of the
Korean state, and while it had amazing success in maintaining its
existence and actually growing under those circumstances, still the
government and by far the great bulk of the Korean population considered
it as a legally treasonable entity with which it was dangerous in the
extreme to be associated.  This changed with the Western treaties in the
early 1880s, but significantly France, as the homeland of the underground
foreign missionaries, had the greatest difficulty in entering into
official relations with Korea.  It wasn't until 1886 that a treaty was
signed between them.  Ironically, it was that treaty which made it
possible, by virtue of its freedom of religion clause, for Protestant
missionaries to legally enter Korea.  Yet the government and the average
Korean still remained wary of Catholicism for some years afterwards.
In that situation it behooved the Protestants to sharply distinguish
themselves from the Catholics.  And that was not hard to do, since in
those days most mainline American Protestants (from which the great
majority of the new missionaries came) were strongly and overtly
anti-Catholic, and the Catholics (especially the French who had dominated
in Korea) likewise in reverse.  From the Catholic point of view as well,
it would have created difficulties if both they and the Protestants went
under the same name.  It would seem to me that what happened "before
anyone knew it," in the words of the Korean Catholic Encyclopedia, must
have happened even sooner.  In fact, given Korean circumstances in 1886,
it was inevitable that the two groups would not call atention to their
common heritage.  And for that reason, I don't see that there is much cause
for head wringing over Catholicism's seeming expulsion from Christianity
in Korea, as perplexing as that is for even unreligious Westerners.  It
doesn't seem to perplex Korean Catholics as much as it does the
foreigners.
	When I started this posting I intended also to talk about Lawrence
Driscoll's contribution, which raised the issue of "Hananim."  But I now
see that new postings also touching on that have arrived in the In Box, so
I will absorb those first.

Gari Ledyard