Communism and Capitalism, and Conservatism and Consumerism:

The aim of his paper is to describe some characteristics of Korean Protestantism in relation to the external context of Korean Protestantism, providing a general survey of the religious landscapes in Korea. Communism, Capitalism, Conservatism, and Consumerism will be selected to depict the characteristics of Korean Protestantism. The two terms, Communism and Capitalism, represent the external factors which have paved the way to the rapid growth of Korean Protestantism. Other two words, Conservatism and Consumerism are other pairs of internal factors, which connote the features of Korean Protestantism. With external and internal factors in Korean Protestantism, a term, megachurches, is another factor for understanding Korean Protestantism. Two types of megachurches have emerged through two stages after Liberation period in Korea. Each type of megachurch has a closely related to each pair of external and internal factors, respectively . The first type of megachurch was established by the refugees from North Korea between 1945 and 1950. Anti-communism is closely related with conservatism. Both are a twin rooted in same historical soil. The second type of megachurch had emerged during the process of economic development from 1960s to 1990s. Those emerging megachurches in the second stage have their membership with new migrators from rural areas. Those megachurches, located with the newly planned resident areas, became a bearer and a subject of capitalism and consumerism. Embodying the business-oriented structure and operation, those megachurches have proclaimed the material success and consuming the blessing, so called, the gospel of prosperity .