Performative Scripture Reading Rituals in Early Korean Protestantism

Korean Religious Texts in Iconic and Performative Rituals - Yohan Yoo

Yohan Yoo [+-]
Seoul National University
Yohan Yoo is a Professor of Comparative Religion at Seoul National University. His previous publications include three books in Korean: Myths of Our Era (2012), Understanding Religious Studies (2020), and Understanding Religious Symbolism (2021). He has also co-authored Cosmologies of Pure Realms and the Rhetoric of Pollution (Routledge, 2021) and co-edited Books as Bodies and as Sacred Beings (Equinox, 2021) with James W. Watts.

Description

Chapter 3 ferrets out the social function and meaning of performative utterance as illustrated by the Bible study meeting in early twentieth-century Korean Protestantism. The main activity consisted of reading the Bible aloud. Many scholars of the history of Korean Protestantism assert that the Bible study meeting played a crucial role in the rapid growth of Korean Protestantism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most agree that the Bible study meeting promoted “the Great Revival,” which led to a fourfold increase in church membership in Korea between the years 1903 and 1907. These meetings have not been widely studied by academics until now. Analysis of Korean public scripture readings from a comparative perspective not only provides a vivid illustration of the social function of the performative dimension of scriptures, but it also suggests the need to further define the meaning of “performative.” As to the first point, the particular ways in which the Bible was read in the Korean context contributed to the growing number of converts to Christianity. Bible readings in the context of study groups in early Korean Protestantism facilitated the absorption of Christianity into Korean culture by building on traditional religious practices and by offering a way for native Koreans to take a leadership role in the growth of the new religion. Second, these scripture readings were performative in the way defined by J. L. Austin’s theory of performative speech and elaborated by Roy Rappaport’s description of the indexical function of ritual, because they led to Koreans’ conversions to Christianity and strengthened their Christian faith. The necessary conditions for performative utterances, as defined by Austin, were satisfied by ritualizing the activity of reading the Bible itself.

Notify A Colleague

Citation

Yoo, Yohan. Performative Scripture Reading Rituals in Early Korean Protestantism. Korean Religious Texts in Iconic and Performative Rituals. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. Nov 2024. ISBN 9781800504974. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=45235. Date accessed: 06 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.45235. Nov 2024

Dublin Core Metadata