Institutions and Countercultures: Christianity’s Impact on South Korean Modernization

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I like the distinction between institutionalizing and countercultural impact of Christianity in South Korea.

 

However, I did find a couple of places where the wording should be tweaked a bit:

 

line 261-62. “It may have been a pure coincidence that the first missionary to Korea was a physician, namely Dr. Horace Newton Allen (1858-1932)”.  This is a mistake. Allen may have been the first Protestant missionary to Korea, but he was clearly not the first Christian missionary. Catholic missionaries preceded him by almost a century. There was a Chinese missionary priest in Korea in the 1790s. And there were French priests illegally in Korea off-and-on from the 1830s. 

 

The early Catholic missionaries would fit the countercultural side of religion as defined by this author. They were forced into that role by the harsh persecution they and their Korean converts endured in the late 18th and into the 19th century. 

 

The author should make clear that it is primarily Protestantism being discussed here. Line 31 says that approximately 27% of the South Korean population is Christian. That is true only if Catholic and Protestant numbers are combined.  For the rest of the article, the author focuses on Protestants, only rarely referring to Catholics.. Sometimes the explicit term Protestant term is used but at other times time the confusing term Christian is used. The author needs to be clear that it is Protestant Christianity which is being discussed here. 

 

The author’s argument could be strengthened by comparison with the Korean Catholic Church, which did not get involved in building secular institutions such as medical and educational facilities until the 1930s. It has remained far behind Protestants in the number of universities and hospitals it runs ever since.

 

line 677 “all the presidents of Korea from its democratization in 1993 to 2023 have been Christians.”  That may be technically true, but, though they had been baptized as Catholics, neither Roh Moohyun nor Park Geunhye were practicing Catholics at the time they served as president. Kim Youngsam and Lee Myungbak were Protestants and Moon Jaein is a Catholic. And, of course, Kim Daejung was a Catholic.The author’s wording is misleading. 

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

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Comments on the Quality of English Language

Author Response

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