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Summary of the Article on the 19th Century Korean Reform Movements
In his article Young Ick Lew writes about the arrival of Christianity in Korea. According to the author, Korea has the largest number of Christianity followers in East Asia and it is started date back in 19th century. The Korean Reformers learned about the Christianity through visiting Japan and America. There are several chapter in the same article, which provide details on different topics related to the research article. The title of the article highlights that the author is focusing the 19th century. In 1880s, the activist mind officials of Korea disperse into three groups; Protestant Reformers, Confucianism Reformers and those who followed Buddhism. In the meantime, there were six leading Reformers who talked about Protestantism either in favor or against. This essay mainly aims to analyze the opinions and engagements of those six scholars. The researcher has used different external sources which would help in understanding the approaches of those reformers towards Christianity. Furthermore, in the first chapter Lew is giving an overview of the Korean exposure to the Protestantism in foreign countries during the period of late 1800s. Under this chapter, he informs that how Korean merchants embraced Christianity in the hands of missionaries of London Society. Further, it provides the details about how American and Japanese Missionaries played role to convert Koreans into Christianity in the 19th Century. Focusing the Six Reformers in mind, the writer narrates the events and incidences that how these scholars got interested in Protestantism and shared their opinions about it. On the other side, second chapter observes the responses of these young Confucians towards the beliefs and concepts of Christianity. At the same time, it also informs about different events concerning the Christian missionaries and the reaction of Korean Officials towards the Christianity beliefs and rituals. There different pieces of evidences provided by the writer to support his arguments. The essay also talks about the Confucianism beliefs of Koreans that some of them were so firm with their religious beliefs that they would not afraid of those religious missions of Western World. Likewise, the third chapter explores the conversion and rejection of Christianity by Buddhism activists. Its main focus is to the Buddhist beliefs about the new religion of the time i.e. Protestantism. In the Final Chapter, it is about those who actually converted into Protestantism. There were two prominent names of reformers in this section, who were motivated by Christianity teachings.
Critical Review of the Article
Before the arrival of Christianity, Buddhism and Confucianism were the dominant religions in Korean. However, later on Christian faith made its way to Korea and became the strongest religion in the region with maximum numbers of followers. It is interesting to read about the religion that how it got its roots into the ground of East Asia where people were having totally different religious views and concepts. The essay written by Young Ick Lew provides the details by using information from different sources and evidences. Using the evidences from source from various religions of the country makes the paper stronger. It is well-informed and well-written, dividing the essay into further sections make it easier for the reader to understand the idea.
Moreover, the writer has conveyed the idea by staying neutral. Dividing the Reformers of the 19th century is quite contriving and also enlightening. While reflecting on the paper I t got my attention that writer is making a point by calling the 19th century Korean Students of Protestants as less fortunate in comparison to those of the 18th Century students of Catholicism. It is because the 19th Century students had to struggle more because of the unavailability of written resources in Korea. However, it can be also a reason that on exposure to the new religion in foreign land, the students and official reformers captivated by its teachings. Although, Korean students and officials were converting into Protestantism through missionaries from Western world, there are indications in the essay that many of intellectuals in Korea opposed the Christianity missions. However, the rulers and governmental officials were more concerned about alliances with Western world and Japan, therefore they ignored those missions carried by Christian Missionaries.
Subsequently, the essay has so much to tell, it does not informs about the Protestantism in Korea only. Somewhat, it has also touched the other religions like Confucianism and Buddhism by linking them with arrival of Protestantism. Moreover, I am shock that few of the Reformers like Yu Kil-chun studied about Protestantism, adopted it and wrote many books on it. However, after comparing it with the other religions he ended up returning to Confucianism. It is because Confucianism ethical standards seemed stronger than Christian teachings. In short, this essay is very helpful to learn about the history of Christianity in Korea. It is very brief and it has factual based discussions which provide strong academic sources for any research related to Religions in Korea.
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