Forgotten Missionaries: Stories from Korea’s Protestant History
Creatrip Team
a month ago
The article highlights a biographical series published by the Korea Church Council (한교총) that profiles Protestant missionaries who shaped Korea’s modern Christian history. It spotlights Charles Stocks, a Methodist who founded Mokwon University in Daejeon to train rural church leaders and promote agricultural and vocational education after the Korean War; Malcolm Fenwick’s famous idea that missionaries must overcome the “hills” of language, customs, and people; Clement Owen, a physician-missionary whose work in Mokpo and Gwangju led to the creation of medical and welfare institutions; and Korean pastor Kim Chang-sik, who was arrested and tortured in the 1894 Pyongyang persecution of Christians (평양 기독교인 박해 사건) — an incident that drew British and American diplomatic intervention and helped spur Protestant growth in Pyongyang. The piece also notes other missionaries such as early Australian Henry Davis and lists many volumes in the series covering figures like Moon Jun-kyung (a martyr), John Ross (first Korean Bible in Hangul), and Homer Hulbert. The biographies, available free as e-books on the Korea Church Council website, remind readers that beyond well-known names like Underwood and Appenzeller, numerous missionaries contributed sacrifices and institutions to Korea’s 140-year Protestant history.
