韩国新教增长停滞的原因——以“教会个人主义”的视角为中心

The Reasons of Non-Increase of Protestants in South Korea: From the Perspective of “Church Individualism”

20世纪90年代中后期以后,韩国新教增长处于停滞状态,主要原因就是韩国新教教会的运作逻辑——'教会个人主义'(ChurchIndividualism)。'教会个人主义'的形成机制有三个方面:'倪维思的传教方法'、韩国教会所处的历史和政治环境、韩国新教徒的宗教信仰倾向等。这些都影响了'教会个人主义'的形成而由此引起了韩国新教教会的'目标替代'的行为,即韩国新教近乎疯狂地追求自己教会'量'的增长,对社会问题不大关心,因而韩国新教没能够承担教会的'预言者'重任。同时,这就导致了韩国新教公信力的丧失,成为韩国新教发展的障碍。

From the mid-1990 s onwards,the spread of Protestantism inSouth Korea came to a halt,due to "Church Individualism"-the operational logic of Protestant churches in South Korea. There are three factors in the formation of this"Church Individualism",namely the John Livingstone Nevius Way of missionary work,the historico-political environment of Korean churches,and the religious beliefs on the part of Korean Protestants. All these have contributed to the rise of"Church Individualism",leading to the act of"goal substitution" on the part of Korean Protestantism, in that it places an overwhelming emphasis on the quantitative increase of followers without paying sufficient attention to social issues,for which reason Korean Protestantism has been unable to present itself as the"prophet". At the same time,this has led to the loss of public confidence, which has become a major obstacle to its further development.