The Puzzle of Christianity in East Asia Revisited: A Comparison between South Korea and Taiwan

• In Event: 594 - Section on Political Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 05. The Politics of Morality

Abstract

In this paper, we approach the so-called puzzle of Korean Christianity from a comparative historical angle: Why is South Korea the only country in East Asia, where Western-introduced Christianity has taken a deep root in the local society and enjoyed an exceptional ride of success? While trying to solve this puzzle, past studies have tended to perpetuate ahistorical-subjectivist assumptions about affinities or animosities between Christianity and religious or political ideologies of local people, and fail to take into account constantly altering growth rates of Christian populations. The existing studies cannot explain why the explosive growth of Korean Christianity happened only after 1965 and overlooked the fact that other religious organizations underwent a similar growth pattern. Paying close attention to changing Christian demography in South Korea and Taiwan in the Post-War era, the authors argue that their diverging paths in Christian success can be best explained as a historical outcome of complex interrelations among characters of political regimes, large-scale social change, and adaptive capacities of religious groups to broader socio-political transformations.

Authors

• Chengpang Lee, University of Chicago

• Myung-Sahm Suh, University of Chicago