한국 개신교의 특이 현상들과 민간신앙과의 상관성

Protestant churches in Korea originate from the Western Christianity. Supposedly, both religions share the same religious traits; but, in fact, they don`t. From a broader view, of course, they have the same bible, similar worship procedures, many identical melodies in their hymn book. On a closer look, however, it is not hard to see the idiosyncraric traits by which Korean protestant churches are distinguished from those in western countries. The author thought that the idiosyncrasies were hardly explainable within the context of christianity and that they needed to be construed in relation to the folk religion Koreans have held long before the transmission of christianity from the western world. On the basis of this premise, the author netted the following findings:<BR> (1) The prayer-meeting-at-dawn is closely related to the worship of `chowang,` one of the House Spirits.<BR> (2) The three-time calling of `Lord!` ar some prayer meetings is related to the invocation of god in shamanistic practices.<BR> (3) Going to a mountain to pray is associated with shamans` practice of mountain prayer.<BR> (4) The expression `to receive a prayer` is related to the oracle-seeking of Folk Religion.<BR> (5) The intentional tone vatiation of the minister ar special prayer resembles the voice change of the shaman when she tries to get the oracle.<BR> (6) `Wish-fulfilling thanks donation` or `wish-fulfilling offering` resembles the give-and-take offerings of Folk Religion.<BR> (7) The rigorous rule of donation preparation is associated with that of sacrifice preparation of Folk Religion.<BR> (8) The invocation of blessing heard at donation prayers is related to that of Folk Religion.<BR> (9) The blessing-giving holy meeting on New Year`s Eve is associated with Folk Religion`s various forms of rituals for New Year.<BR> (10) The impolite speech of some famous evangelists is associated with the speech style of shamans that they choose whey granting the oracle.<BR> As mentioned above, Korean protestant churches have many different traits that are comparable with those of western churches, and these idiosyncrasies are found to be associated with the various phases of Korean Folk Religion. The Christian ministers and believers apparently ruled out the Folk Religion as superstition or idol worship, but interestingly, they actually accept many of the aspects of traditional religion. In a sense, Korean Christianity owes quite a lot of its unparalleled rapid growth to Folk Religion. Had not been for the believers coming from the shamanistic motivation or for the ministers, especially the folk evangelists, fostering the shamanistic belief, such breathtaking quantitative growth of Korean Christianity wouldn`t have been possible.<BR> Considering that the Koreans have lived under the persistent influence of the base religion called `Folk Religion` for over four millennia, the process of receiving and finding faith in a foreign religion called Christianity may well