Lőrinczi Petra

This study examines the emergence and spread of Protestantism in Korea from the late 19th to early 20th century. Christianity, particularly Protestantism, exerted significant influence on Korea’s social and political development, especially in education, healthcare and modernisation. Schools and hospitals established by American and European missionaries contributed substantially to the widespread acceptance of Christianity. During the Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), Protestant communities actively participated in independence movements, whilst Christianity became integral to Korean national identity. This study explores how Protestantism evolved from a religious movement into a defining force in Korean society and politics.

This paper provides a concise introduction to Korean Buddhism, Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism, examining their relationship with Protestant Christianity, which emerged on the Korean Peninsula in the 19th century. Initially, the main aspects of Buddhism are discussed. The paper briefly highlights the contributions of Hungarian, Korean and other international researchers on the topic. It aims to identify the key points through which the relationship between Buddhism and Protestant Christianity can be explored.

This paper discusses prosperity theology from the perspective of religious studies, arguably one of the most important aspects regarding the history and role of the Yoido Full Evangelical Church (hereinafter: YFGC) in the South Korean Protestant Christian religious tapestry. The current study aims to explore the history and characteristics of prosperity theology using the book titled “Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel” by Kate Bowler, a Canadian re-searcher with a Protestant theological background. The paper presents the North American context of the formation of prosperity theology from the perspective of spiritual history, history of theology and social history approaches. Furthermore, it maps the ways in which this the-ological tendency reached the Protestant Christian communities of South Korea. Indeed, the encounter of prosperity theology with the traditional Korean religious and cultural context raises many complex theological and religious issues, like the problem of syncretism and heresy. Finally, the study analyses the book of David Yonggi Cho, the leader of the largest charismatic church in South Korea, entitled “The Spiritual World of the Fourth Dimension”.

This paper aims to discover the various problems of the term syncretism, and its definition in anthropology, religious studies and theology in relation to the Korean Protestant inter-denominational discourse. Before being able to evaluate any case or accusation of syncretism within the Korean context, we need to realise, that even the term itself is a widely disputed concept. The first half of this paper examines the various standpoints related to the relevance or irrelevance of the scientific use of syncretism. The second half of the paper aims to shed light on the specific areas of the traditional Korean religiosity found to be in a direct or indirect relation to the Protestant Korean Christianity. The study chose to work through the traditional shamanism of Korea, since it is the tradition, that is most frequently correlated with Korean Christianity. In the last part of the study, the author brings several pro and contra examples regarding the question of the syncretic relation between Korean Protestant Christianity and the local shamanistic traditions. A Korean source-based research is still to be conducted for a more conclusive standpoint on the matter and further research on the question of the terms syncretism, inculturation and indigenization could also yield interesting results.