04 - Kim Denis S.I. - Church and Compressed Modernization: South Korea and Japan Compared - pp. 573-592

Kim Denis S.I.

Church and Compressed Modernization: South Korea and Japan Compared 

Abstract

This paper explores the question of how to explain the sharp contrast between
the growth of the Catholic Church in Korea and the counterpart in Japan. Despite
not only the religio-cultural similarities between the two countries, but also the fact
that Japan received much more support from the international Church, the Catholic
Church has grown explosively in Korea, but not in Japan. This paper examines the two
conventional explanations, economic and cultural, and then suggests an explanation
in terms of the Church as an agent in the recent East Asian historical context of
compressed modernization. It argues that the Church in Korea has grown rapidly
owing to its acquiring moral authority by its public engagement in that modernization
process, whereas the counterpart in Japan has been inward oriented, resulting in its
encapsulation in the foreignness of an imported religion.