University of SaskatchewanHARVEST
  • Login
  • Submit Your Work
  • About
    • About HARVEST
    • Guidelines
    • Browse
      • All of HARVEST
      • Communities & Collections
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
      • This Collection
      • By Issue Date
      • Authors
      • Titles
      • Subjects
    • My Account
      • Login
      JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
      View Item 
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item
      • HARVEST
      • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      • View Item

      NATIONALIST MISSIONS, MIGRATING CHRISTIANS: A POSTCOLONIAL HISTORY OF A CANADIAN-KOREAN CHURCH RELATIONSHIP AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA, 1898 - 1988

      Thumbnail
      View/Open
      KIM-CRAGG-DISSERTATION-2020.pdf (3.381Mb)
      Date
      2020-04-02
      Author
      Kim-Cragg, David Andrew
      ORCID
      0000-0002-8146-0855
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Doctoral
      Metadata
      Show full item record
      Abstract
      The reasons for the decline of Protestant Christianity in Canada since 1966 continue to be a matter of debate among church historians. To date the context of missionary histories, global Christianities, and postcolonial migrations has not been adequately considered in this discussion. International Christian relations initiated during the time of the Missionary Movement shed light on recent changes in the Canadian religious landscape. From the beginnings of Canada’s Missionary Enterprise at the turn of the 20th century, mission stations in Yongjeong, Manchuria and throughout northeastern Korea were the site of diverging religious commitments which were the result of different expressions of Protestant nationalism. This divergence created tensions on the mission field in the postcolonial era that migrated across the Pacific with Koreans to Canada in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Special attention is paid in this dissertation to the period framed by South Korea’s Democratization Movement and the relationship between the United Church of Canada (UCC) and the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK). Ethnographic interview material is used to enhance and contextualize the archival data and is combined with an approach that seeks to balance institutional and cultural historical perspectives. The dissertation argues that from the start, Korean Christianity was at odds with the western version of Protestant nationalism, a defining feature of the Canadian church. It further contends that as the relationship between churches developed in South Korea and crossed into Canada, a new dynamic emerged whereby parts of the UCC were transformed by Korean Christians. This previously overlooked historical process situates Canadian Protestantism within a postcolonial context to reveal the persistence of Canadian colonial missionary attitudes on one hand and the ways in which relationships inevitably resulted in new hybrid identities on the other. This study promotes an understanding of religious and social developments in Western nations in conversation with global postcolonial religious histories.
      Degree
      Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
      Department
      History
      Program
      History
      Supervisor
      Carlson, Keith T; David, Mirela V
      Committee
      Keyworth, George A; Klassen, Frank; Epstein, Heidi
      Copyright Date
      March 2020
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/12775
      Subject
      Canadian Protestantism, Missionary Enterprise, Korean Christianity, United Church of Canada (UCC), Korea Mission, Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK), Korean Democratization Movement, Manchuria, South Korea, North Korea, postcolonialism
      Collections
      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
      University of Saskatchewan

      University Library

      The University of Saskatchewan's main campus is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis.

      © University of Saskatchewan
      Contact Us | Disclaimer | Privacy