A History of Korean Christianity

With a third of South Koreans now identifying themselves as Christian, Christian churches play an increasingly prominent role in the social and political events of the Korean peninsula. Sebastian C. H. Kim and Kirsteen Kim's comprehensive and timely history of different Christian denominations in Korea includes surveys of the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions as well as new church movements. They examine the Korean Christian diaspora and missionary movements from South Korea and also give cutting-edge insights into North Korea. This book, the first recent one-volume history and analysis of Korean Christianity in English, highlights the challenges faced by the Christian churches in view of Korea's distinctive and multireligious cultural heritage, South Korea's rapid rise in global economic power and the precarious state of North Korea, which threatens global peace. This History will be an important resource for all students of world Christianity, Korean studies and mission studies.

1. Introduction; 2. Believers, martyrs and missionaries, 1392–1876; 3. Evangelism, patriotism and revivalism, 1876–1910; 4. Oppression, resistance and millennial hope, 1910–45; 5. Liberation, service and divisions, 1945–61; 6. Growth, thought and struggle, 1961–88; 7. Missions, reconciliation and public life, 1988 to the present.

Sebastian C. H. Kim holds the Chair in Theology and Public Life in the Faculty of Education and Theology at York St John University. He is the author of In Search of Identity: Debates on Religious Conversion in India (2003) and Theology in the Public Sphere (2011), and the editor of a number of books, including Christian Theology in Asia (Cambridge, 2008).
Kirsteen Kim is Professor of Theology and World Christianity at Leeds Trinity University. She is the author of The Holy Spirit in the World (2007) and Joining in with the Spirit (2012) and the coauthor, with Sebastian C. H. Kim, of Christianity as a World Religion (2008). She is also the coeditor of several books, including Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today (2010).