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Protestantism and Nationalism in South Korea: State Nationalism and Great-National-Unity Nationalism

  • The Korean Journal of Chiristian Social Ethics
  • Abbr : 기사윤
  • 2020, (48), pp.159-190
  • DOI : 10.21050/CSE.2020.48.06
  • Publisher : The Society Of Korean Christian Social Ethics
  • Research Area : Humanities > Christian Theology
  • Received : November 14, 2020
  • Accepted : December 8, 2020
  • Published : December 31, 2020

Byongsung Lee 1

1연세대학교 한국기독교문화연구소

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This article compares and examines two Protestant views on nationalism in South Korea: State Nationalism and Great-National-Unity Nationalism. State nationalism is a position that the two Koreas should be unified through liberalism, a political ideology of the Republic of Korea. Korean Protestantism is the most enthusiastic supporter among civic sectors of state nationalism. This study analyzes views of the Rev. Kyung-Chick Han in his whole life and the National Council of Churches in Korea in the 1970s, both of whom held the position of state nationalism. Great-National-Unity nationalism is a position based on the principle of “Great-National-Unity,” a pillar of three principles of unification in The July 4 South-North Joint Communiqué declared in 1972, which states that “a great national unity as one people shall be sought first, transcending differences in ideas, ideol- ogies, and systems.” The view that national unification should sought through “transcending” ideological differences was well presented in The Korean Churches’ Declaration on National Unification and Peace published by the National Council of Churches in Korea in 1988. This study analyzes the nationalistic view presented in the document and discusses conservative Korean Protestants’ critique of Great-National-Unity nationalism.

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