Book Description

The purpose of this study is to provide a historical framework of Korean Pentecostalism, especially its historical origins. Pentecostalism in Korea has been criticized as being heretical, superficial, and shamanistic, by liberal and conservative theologians. Boo-Woong Yoo surveys the historical theology of Korean Pentecostalism from an indigenous perspective, especially in its connection with shamanism and its social view through his book Korean Pentecostalism. He uses two standards to interpret Korean Pentecostalism: ‘Belief in the Holy Spirit’ and the ‘movement as a socio-historical structure.’ I disagree with Yoo’s definitions of Pentecostalism in analyzing Korean Pentecostalism. The theology of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues is an important tool for interpreting Pentecostalism, but it is not mentioned as a basic doctrine of Pentecostalism in his book. Classical Pentecostalism finds its roots in the American Pentecostal movement that originated in Topeka, Kansas, in 1901 through the efforts of Charles Parham and in Los Angeles through the work of William Seymour at the Azusa Mission in 1906. They formulated the fully-defined classical Pentecostal doctrine, glossolalia, as the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Using two doctrines of initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the second blessing of being baptized with the Holy Spirit after regeneration, I survey the history of classical Pentecostalism in Korea. I reject Yoo’s perspective that the first generation of the Korean Pentecostal movement was born during the 1907 Pyongyang Revival. The Korean classical Pentecostal Church started through the work of an American woman missionary, Mary C. Rumsey, in 1928: this was the first direct contact of the Korean Church with the Azusa Mission. Later, the Korean Pentecostal leaders who lived in Japan introduced Pentecostal theologies and practices into Korea during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1953, missionaries of the Assemblies of God played a decisive role in the growth of Korean Pentecostalism. The Pentecostal tradition in Korea not only shares the world-wide ideas and values of classical Pentecostalism but also has specific indigenous characteristics based on the cultural, religious, and political situations of Korea.