Two well-established facts are that the history of Korean Protestantism constitutes a marvelous chapter in the modern history of world Christianity, and that evangelicalism dominates Korean Protestantism. Timothy Lee is curious about the underpinnings of Korean evangelicalism's rise and wants to explain how its growth and dominance were possible. He contends that evangelicalism achieved phenomenal success in Korea (and South Korea in particular) for three key reasons: (1) many Koreans embraced it as a new way for salvation during volatile days in modern Korean history; (2) it successfully established its raison d'être by sympathizing with Korean nationalism, and later with South Korean anticommunist sentiment; and (3) its adherents have launched impressive, and often mind-boggling, proselytizing campaigns throughout its history.
By using “evangelical” and “Protestant” interchangeably, Born Again covers the whole history of Korean Protestantism, from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century to its statistical peak in the 1980s and its slow decline since the mid 1990s. The first three chapters and the epilogue are historical and sweepingly survey the rise of evangelical Protestantism in Korea from the 1880s to the 1990s. Lee's narratives center on events and persons related to the abovementioned threefold thesis. Therefore, he pays close attention to the character and legacies of the Great Revival of 1907, Christian involvement in the nationalist March First Independence Movement of 1919, the development of anticommunist sentiment since the 1920s, the revivalist tradition, and massive evangelistic campaigns. The fourth chapter offers a social scientific analysis of Korean Protestantism–evangelicalism's character. By revealing the “intensely practical and devotional” character of its beliefs in biblical inerrancy, pre-millennialism, and personal conversion, as well as its many devotional practices, Lee attempts theoretically to support his thesis presentation in the narrative chapters.
Born Again is well-written, clearly argued, and, in the main, convincing, even though the place of chapter 4 is rather awkward, and lengthy block quotations frequently interrupt the narrative. The author did a good job of shaping the published articles into a coherent, readable, and solidly researched monograph. He uses missionary writings, Christian and general periodicals, governmental reports and publications (both U.S. and Korean), and abundant scholarly research. His reading of Korean sources is generally correct and reliable. The book starts with the modest goal of making its accounts of Korean evangelical Protestantism's rise “acceptable.” As a reader, I found them acceptable; and in that regard, at least, Born Again is successful.
To use a Korean simile, Born Again is like a steamy bowl of well-cooked rice with tiny pieces of stones in it. These stones are few, mostly minute, and hidden, so someone will not know of their existence until she carefully chews each spoonful of rice. Nevertheless, they might ruin the meal. This monograph contains a bewildering number of factual errors. Sometimes dates and spellings are wrong. For instance, Korea signed its first treaty with England in 1882, and modified it in 1883, rather than in 1884 (8); the famous conference of school principals in Pyeongnam occurred not on November 11, 1935 (55), but three days later; and the controversial Korean theologian is Chung Hyun (not Hyung) Kyung (121). Often the descriptions are incorrect. The Northern Presbyterian missionaries' opinion on closing the educational mission was not unanimous, as the book claims (56); Kang Yanguk was an uncle, rather than a “cousin,” of Kim Il Sung's mother (66); biblical inerrancy might be a “key” doctrine of fundamentalism, but not of evangelicalism in general (117); there are more than “three” non-evangelical denominations in Korea; and the Korean Lutheran Church, related to America's conservative Missouri Synod, could be as evangelical as any other denomination (141).
Serious problems arise when Lee bases his case on unprofessional and often hagiographical secondary sources, doubtful statistics, and journalists' reports. His accounts are accurate and detailed and make insightful observations when he uses proper primary sources. Unfortunately, however, he fails to use many essential sources. For instance, practically the only primary source Lee uses to cover the pre-liberation period is the monthly missionary journal Korea Mission Field. Any serious researcher of Korean Protestantism during this period must read other missionary writings including reports, private and professional correspondence, minutes, journal and newspaper articles, books, and diaries, as well as non-missionary materials. Little wonder, then, that he has to depend heavily on secondary sources, and often even on general surveys. Worse still, Lee uses and extensively quotes amateurish, albeit serious, writers to whom few competent Korean historians would refer in their scholarly writings. The problem of source is glaringly evident in his use of exaggerated Christian newspaper reports without proper qualification when he treats massive evangelistic campaigns. A simple comparison of them to, say, police reports would give him a sense of reality. His insufficient and uncritical use of sources results in many factual errors, overstatements, unsophisticated arguments, and premature conclusions in Born Again.
The book's greatest difficulty comes from its most fundamental supposition that “evangelical” is practically equivalent to “Protestant” in Korea. It is one thing to recognize that evangelicalism has been dominating Korean Protestantism, but quite another to allege that the two terms are interchangeable. Moreover, today's “evangelical” is not only a notoriously difficult term to define, but it also has different connotations from its meaning at the turn of the twentieth century. Therefore, Lee's unqualified use of “evangelical” as an equivalent for “Protestant” throughout the book is not only annoying, but also creates misleading, and often downright incorrect, assertions.
All in all, Timothy Lee's monograph on Korean evangelicalism is a welcome addition to Korean Protestantism's slowly growing English-language historiography. Nevertheless, it also proves why anybody interested in Korean Protestantism should turn first to Korean-language articles and books.
