Providence and Power

Nationalism, pronounced an historian several decades ago, is ‘first and foremost a state of mind.’ ¹ In much of the historiography on Korea, this state of mind is manifested in an almost undeviating use of a politically and ethnically defined nation as interpretative framework, evaluative standard, and ultimate meaning, in any exploration of human experience on the peninsula. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the comparative treatment of two Protestant leaders, Yun Ch’iho (1864–1945) and Kim Kyoshin (1901–45), in which the former is judged a collaborator and the latter a good nationalist. I shall argue that the nation-centred approach taken to these men has led to serious misstatements of both men’s positions and that an understanding of them is better reached through an examination of the Christian beliefs on which they explicitly based their decisions. It is my contention that the germane issue is not their view of imperialism but their understanding of the doctrine of divine providence.