Christianity in Modern Korea

Any visitor to South Korea today is struck by the sheer number of churches everywhere, from great cathedrals in big cities to humble village churches visible from any train or bus in the countryside. Christianity has a long history in Asia, beginning in India and reaching China and Japan in the 1500s. In China and Japan, however, Christians never numbered more than a small percentage of the population. Though individual Christians have been important in shaping the modern histories of both countries, Christianity has never enjoyed truly mass appeal, and the percentage of Christians in China and Japan historically has ranged in the low single digits. Only in the most recent reports from China, where Christianity is enjoying a surge in membership of “house churches” has the estimated figure risen to three percent. Korea, on the other hand, as is plain from the number of red neon crosses glowing all across the urban landscape on church steeples at night, presents a different picture.