A Crucial Factor in Evangelicalism’s Success in (South) Korea: Coalescence with Nationalism and Anticommunism

South Korea is the home of the most vibrant evangelical community in East Asia. There one of every five citizens is an evangelical. This fact calls for an explanation, given that evangelicalism has hardly made similar inroads into China or Japan, the other major nations in the region, not to mention North Korea. This study examines what may be the most compelling factor in the rise of evangelicalism in Korea, one grounded in the modern history of Korea. The study makes the case that perhaps the most crucial factor in evangelicalism’s success in (South) Korea is that unlike in China or Japan or North Korea, in South Korea evangelicalism coalesced with collective interests of the larger society: first with Korean nationalism and then with South Korean anticommunism.