Table Of ContentASIAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE DIASPORA
Religious Experience
in Trauma
Koreans’ Collective Complex
of Inferiority and the
Korean Protestant Church
KwangYu Lee
Asian Christianity in the Diaspora
Series Editors
Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Earlham School of Religion
Richmond, IN, USA
Joseph Cheah
University of Saint Joseph
West Hartford, CT, USA
Asian American theology is still at its nascent stage. It began in the 1980’s
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More information about this series at
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KwangYu Lee
Religious Experience
in Trauma
Koreans’ Collective Complex of Inferiority
and the Korean Protestant Church
KwangYu Lee
Pastoral Care Program
Blanton Peale Institute
New York, NY, USA
Asian Christianity in the Diaspora
ISBN 978-3-030-53582-7 ISBN 978-3-030-53583-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53583-4
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A
cknowledgments
When I began writing this book, I hoped that I could make a BIG contri-
bution to studies of Korean Christianity and the future of Korean
Protestantism. While thinking of what to say in Acknowledgments, how-
ever, one Bible verse keeps chasing after me: “What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the
sun” (NIV, Ecclesiastes 1:9). Though different from what the author
really meant with it, the verse helped me realize that there are a number of
people I should appreciate sincerely. Throughout the process of writing,
what, I thought, was my own thought was unexceptionally someone’s and
what, I believed, was new to me was already old to others. To complete
this book, I relied on countless scholars and used their original thoughts
and insights whenever necessary—yes, truthfully there is nothing new in
this book. Nevertheless, among them, there are people I must explicitly
say thank you for their invaluable help throughout the process.
First, I would like to thank my wife Hyun-Min Lee, my guardian angel
and lifelong companion. She came to me out of nowhere twelve years ago
when I constantly wandered in one of the darkest mazes of life where I was
stuck, with the inability to find an exit. She was with me genuinely, letting
me realize, by trial and error, that wandering is part of life and that every-
thing has its own beginning and end. Without her sense of stability, trust,
love, humor, and vitality, I don’t think that I could be what I am now.
There is an old story in Korea that puts stress on the significance of having
a good wife—no connection at all to any sort of patriarchy! It says that a
wife can change the destiny of her husband. When I reflect on my life after
my marriage to Hyun-Min, the story always holds true.
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Second, I would like to thank my parents. Without them, I could not
have had such a wonderful life, living and experiencing the two worlds,
S. Korea and the U.S., simultaneously. Writing this book gave me a time
to objectively look back on my life unfolded under the wings of their lives.
Both of them were born in 1944 one year before Korea regained sover-
eignty from Japan. They are two of the survivors of the modern history of
S. Korea, full of tragedies. Obviously some scars of their traumatic experi-
ences still exist in me. Nevertheless, their resilience that survived the last
century also obviously exists in me. Part of it was socially or biologically
inherited to me via Korean Protestantism. For them, Korean Protestantism
is far more than a religion, providing them with a new sacred foundation
of living. Mom and Dad, my hat is off for you.
Third, I would like to thank my two sons, Jinu (12) and Minu (8). As
a first-generation Korean immigrant in the U.S., from the very moment
when they came to me, calling me “Abba,” occasionally I ponder over
what I can turn over to them when the time comes. Each time I came to
the same conclusion that I want to be a good example for them to observe
in deciding what makes life meaningful and worthwhile. Watching them in
peaceful sleep was—is and will be—the reliable recharger of my consis-
tency and endurance in the process of writing this book. Now I am a little
bit relieved with a self-made certificate in hand.
Fourth, I would like to thank my teachers I met at Drew Theological
School, New Jersey—Dr. Angella Son, Dr. Robert. S. Corrington, and Dr.
Christopher Anderson. While Dr. Son’s objective and sharp insights
helped me stay focused on the topic of this book, Dr. Corrington’s philo-
sophical reading of it encouraged me to bravely connect theories of trauma
to the growth of Korean Protestantism in the framework of Jung’s analytic
psychology. Dr. Anderson’s historical perspective and advice helped me to
find my own voice in my hesitations between historical facts and truths,
constructively asking me where my psychoanalytic analysis is anchored for
the sake of historical validation.
Fifth and last, but not the least, I would like to thank Palgrave Macmillan
Publisher. Although this book was impregnated in my mind, it is through
Palgrave Macmillan that my efforts became materialized, coming into
being in the shape of a book.
c
ontents
1 Introduction: The Korean Protestant Church at Present
and the Necessity of a Psychohistorical Approach to Its
History 1
1.1 The Declining Korean Protestant Church 1
1.1.1 The Korean Protestant Church’s Individualism 2
1.1.2 The Korean Protestant Church’s Materialism 3
1.1.3 The Korean Protestant Church’s Exclusivism 6
1.2 The Necessity of a Psychohistorical Approach to the History of
the Korean Protestant Church 8
1.3 Methodology: Jungian Psychohistory 11
1.4 The Scope and Discussion of the Research 14
References 20
2 A Historical Sketch of the Growth of the Korean
Protestant Church in the Twentieth Century 23
2.1 The Miraculous Growth of Korean Christianity 24
2.1.1 The Fall of Joseon, Korea’s Last Dynasty, and
Christianity (1882–1910) 24
2.1.2 The Japanese Colonial Era (1910–1945) 28
2.1.3 Since the Liberation of 1945 31
vii
viii CONTENTS
2.2 T he Three Main Reasons for the Rapid Growth 34
2.2.1 Protestantism: New Perspectives on Life 34
2.2.2 Rapid Social Changes: A Seedbed for Evangelism 37
2.2.3 Korean Protestantism: A Synthesis of Korean
Shamanism and Western Protestantism 40
2.3 The Miraculous Growth of the Korean Protestant Church:
Gradual or Sudden? 43
2.4 Conclusion 44
References 55
3 A Jungian Psychohistorical Theory: An Interpretive Tool
for History 59
3.1 Psychohistory: Its Origin and Evolution 60
3.1.1 The Emergence of Psychohistory 60
3.1.2 Erik H. Erikson and Young Man Luther 60
3.1.3 Psychohistory: From Individuals to Groups 62
3.2 Psychohistory’s Strengths, Weaknesses, and Contributions to
Historical Studies 63
3.2.1 Freudian Psychology at the Heart of Psychohistory 63
3.2.2 Psychohistory’s Strengths: The Unconscious and a
Psychotherapeutical Approach to History 64
3.2.3 Psychohistory’s Weaknesses: Psychologization,
Reductionism, Arbitrariness, and Determinism 66
3.2.4 Psychohistory’s Contributions to Historical Studies 68
3.3 Jung’s Analytical Psychology: The Basics 69
3.3.1 The Collective Unconscious 69
3.3.2 Psychopathology 71
3.3.3 Dreams and Archetypes 72
3.3.4 Complex Theory 74
3.4 A Jungian Psychohistory: Cultural (Collective) Complex 76
3.4.1 The Cultural Unconscious 77
3.4.2 Cultural (Collective) Complex 78
3.4.3 Projection: The Central Element of Complex 80
3.4.4 Two Examples of the Jungian Psychohistorical
Analysis: Frantz Fanon and Jacqueline Gerson 82
3.5 Conclusion 88
References 95
CONTENTS ix
4 The Traumatic Twentieth Century of Korea: Japanese
Imperialism, the Korean War, and the Korean Military
Governments 99
4.1 Japanese Imperialism and the Loss of Old Korea 100
4.2 S. Korea’s Anticommunism and the Korean War: A Series
of Massacres 102
4.2.1 The Rhee Government’s Anticommunism 103
4.2.2 The National Bodo League: An Example of the Rhee
Government’s Massacres for the Birth of
Anticommunism 105
4.2.3 The U.S. Armed Forces and Their Military
“Operational” Massacres 108
4.3 The Korean Governments with the Politics of Terror and
Anxiety 111
4.3.1 Syngman Rhee and the National Security Law for
Anticommunism 112
4.3.2 Park Chung-Hee and the Korean Central
Intelligence Agency (KCIA) 114
4.3.3 Chun Doo-Hwan and His Brutal Discipline of
S. Koreans 117
4.4 Conclusion 121
References 128
5 The Growth of the Korean Protestant Church from a
Jungian Psychohistorical Perspective: Trauma, Cultural
Complex, the Theology of Prosperity/Bliss, and the
Governmental Support 133
5.1 The “Traumatized” Psychological States of S. Koreans 134
5.2 S. Koreans’ Cultural Complex: Collective Inferiority 136
5.2.1 Cultural (Collective) Complex of Inferiority: Its
Meaning and Characteristics 136
5.2.2 The Psychological Origins of S. Koreans’ Cultural
Complex of Inferiority 137
5.2.3 The U.S. Military Government and S. Koreans’
Desire to Be Like Americans 140
5.2.4 The Korean War and Its Aftermath: The
Exacerbation of S. Koreans’ Cultural Complex of
Inferiority 142
