Conquering Korea for Jesus: Protestant missionaries, local churches, and literacy in Colonial Korea

Highlights• Protestant missionaries in colonial Korea helped establish local Protestant churches.• The more local Protestant churches, the higher the literacy of the local population.• Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries geographically divided Korea via the Comity Agreement of 1909.• Presbyterians, who put more emphasis on empowering local churches, were more successful at attracting members, and fostering literacy, than the Methodists with their more hierarchical structure.