How did Christianity and Korean Buddhism each adapt to modern urban society?

This project explores how Korean Buddhism and Christianity integrated themselves into modern urban daily life, documented through photographs taken across Seoul, Seoraksan, and temple stays. The central question is: how did Christianity and Korean Buddhism each adapt to modern urban society, and what similarities and differences can be observed in their approaches? Baker (2016) makes the striking claim that Korean Buddhism looks the way it does today largely because of Christianity, and that this competition paradoxically made Korean Buddhism more distinctively Korean, not less. Park (2010, pp. 3–4) similarly shows that Buddhist reformers were consciously responding to what Christianity was doing effectively, from translation projects to urban gathering spaces to community outreach. Unlike the West, Korea became more religious from the 1970s through 1990s, meaning Buddhism's urban transformation happened during a period of intense religious growth and competition. Religious change in Korea happened through interaction, not in separate tracks.

One of the most immediate ways both Christianity and Buddhism adapted to modern Korean society was through education. As Park (2010, p. 2) explains, Korean Buddhism at the turn of the twentieth century faced the urgent need to prove that a religion with a 1,500-year history was still relevant in the modern world, and education became one of the primary tools for doing so. Christian missionaries moved first, establishing universities like Yonsei and Ewha directly within growing cities to spread Christian values and produce educated leaders for Korean society. Our visit to Sungkyunkwan University, however, showed a different model — a Confucian institution whose graduating students studied modern fields, yet still wore graduation gowns carrying traditional Confucian elements without anyone needing to explain why.

Later on, Buddhist reformers recognised the same dynamic and responded accordingly. Park (2010, p. 3) shows that education was one of the most emphasised issues at the early stages of Buddhist reform movements: Kwŏn Sangno focused his entire reform agenda on creating educational institutions for both Buddhists and the general public, while Han Yongun proposed the education of clerics as a central pillar of reforming the monastic community. In response, Buddhist-affiliated universities began to emerge, including Dongguk University in Seoul, founded in 1906 and directly connected to the Buddhist community, which continues to house active Buddhist studies programmes and research institutes today. Both traditions ultimately arrived at the same conclusion: that institutional presence in education meant long-term cultural survival, and that a religion unable to engage the educated classes of a modernising society would gradually lose its relevance.

Beyond institutional structures, the localisation of sacred texts provided the intellectual bridge to the masses. Christian missionaries used Hangul — a script historically marginalised as women's script — to translate the Bible, effectively bypassing class hierarchies and aligning the faith with a burgeoning sense of Korean national identity (Oak, 2013, pp. 45–51). This strategy transformed literacy into a form of religious participation, engaging ordinary people who had been historically excluded from classical Chinese religious ceremonies.

As Park (2010, pp. 3–4) notes, this linguistic head start deeply alarmed Buddhist reformers like Paek Yongsŏng. Witnessing the rapid circulation of the Korean-language Bible, Paek recognised that Buddhism's reliance on classical Chinese scriptures created a dangerous gap between the sangha and a modernising public. He argued that if Buddhism remained Mountain Buddhism, it would inevitably disappear. This pushed Buddhist translation projects aimed at secularising sacred knowledge, making the sutras accessible to the common person for the first time. Both traditions consequently converge on the same insight: that in a modernising, increasingly literate society, a religion that speaks only to an educated elite is a religion in decline.

The shift from secluded monasticism to an urban lived faith marks a major turning point in Korean religious identity, where the marketplace has essentially replaced the mountain as the primary space for spiritual life. Historically, scholars like Park (2010, p. 4) and the reformer Han Yongun pushed for this move, arguing that a religion stuck in remote temples could never "raise a flag of resistance" or help a society dealing with real-world drama. This philosophical move was solidified by the Minjung people's movement, which John Jorgensen (2010, p. 5) identifies as the bridge that connected Buddhist practice to political and social liberation, creating a "socially engaged Buddhism" that could compete with the organisational success of early Protestantism.

Today, this is visible in the contrast between the massive, media-heavy influence of the Yoido Full Gospel Church, with its 700,000 members, and the smaller scale of Buddhist mindful tea ceremonies in temples. However, as Baker (2016) points out, both are now growing in the same competitive urban landscape without losing their soul. This modern vernacularisation of faith, as Oak (2013, p. 6) calls it, ultimately comes down to the people — whether it is the painter Hyedam working to exhaustion to preserve sacred art, or the Won Buddhist community putting their unity symbolism into practice through care for the elderly and disabled. By bridging the gap between ancient religious customs and active social service, these traditions have successfully transformed the city into a lived-out commitment to the neighbourhood.

Urbanisation played an important role in shaping the development of both Christianity and Buddhism in modern Korea, but the two traditions entered urban society in very different ways. During the Chosŏn dynasty, Buddhist monks were not allowed to enter the capital city for several centuries, which pushed Buddhist practice away from urban centres and reinforced the tradition of monasteries located in remote mountain areas (Park, 2010, p. 2). Because of this, Buddhism became physically and socially distant from everyday urban life. As Korea began modernising in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Buddhist reformers started questioning this separation. Han Yongun, one of the most influential reformers, criticised the isolation of mountain temples and argued that Buddhism needed to reconnect with society and respond to the changes happening in the modern world (Park, 2010, pp. 3–4). As a result, reformers began promoting the creation of Buddhist spaces closer to cities and encouraging greater engagement with the general public. In this way, Buddhism had to actively reform its traditional structure in order to re-enter urban society.

Christianity, in contrast, was already strongly present in urban environments. Missionaries established churches, schools, and social institutions directly in growing cities, which helped Christianity become closely connected with Korea's modernisation and urban development (Kim, 2000, p. 113). Christian communities also introduced a new model of religious organisation based on congregational gatherings, where believers met regularly for communal worship and shared religious practices — something that had not previously been common in Korean religious life (Baker, 2016, p. 51). This congregational model contributed to making religious practice more visible and public in modern Korean cities, as increasing numbers of believers began gathering in large worship spaces rather than practising religion primarily in private or family settings (Baker, 2010, p. 62). Many churches functioned not only as places of worship but also as centres for education, charity, and community activities, making them deeply integrated into everyday urban life. The rapid expansion of Christianity was particularly pronounced during the period of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation from the 1960s to the 1980s, when Protestant Christianity appealed strongly to urban populations seeking social mobility, community, and stability in a rapidly changing society (Kim, 2002, pp. 294–295).

Large urban congregations became an especially visible feature of Korean Christianity, with some of the largest churches in the world emerging in Seoul and attracting hundreds of thousands of members (Kim, 2002, p. 295). Beyond their size, these congregations functioned as major urban institutions, serving not only as places of worship but also as centres for education, social services, and community organisation within the city (Kim, 2000, pp. 113–114). Together, these examples show that urbanisation did not affect the two traditions in the same way. While Christianity expanded naturally within growing cities and became closely tied to modern urban institutions, Buddhism had to actively reform and reposition itself in order to reconnect with everyday urban society.

Both Christianity and Buddhism in modern Korea adapted in ways that helped them connect more closely with Korean society and everyday cultural life. Importantly, the very concept of "religion" itself was relatively new to Korea and only entered Korean vocabulary in the late nineteenth century through the Sino-Korean term chonggyo, which was introduced under the influence of Western contact and missionary activity (Baker, 2010, p. 58).

Christianity, which arrived shortly before Japanese colonisation, initially remained a minority religion and faced opposition. However, during the colonial period it increasingly came to be associated with Korean civil society and nationalism, as well as with Western-style modernisation and prosperity (Clark, 2006, p. 35). Scholars note that Christianity became deeply integrated into Korean society and played an important role in shaping modern cultural and social life (Baker, 2016, p. 45). Part of this appeal was that Christianity became linked to access to modern education, Western knowledge, and opportunities for social mobility, which made conversion particularly attractive during Korea's modernisation process (Kim, 2002, p. 301). Christian educational institutions therefore aimed to produce educated leaders who would serve not only in churches but also in business, government, and other sectors of society (Clark, 2006, p. 36).

At the same time, Korean religious life remained highly pluralistic, with Buddhism, Christianity, Shamanism, and other traditions coexisting and influencing one another's practices, creating a religious environment characterised by syncretism and adaptation (Kim, 2002, pp. 292–293). As the modern concept of "religion" became established in Korea, religious traditions — including Buddhism — began adapting their institutional structures and public practices in ways that resembled the more publicly organised and outreach-oriented models already visible in Christian missionary activity (Baker, 2010, p. 63). Korean Buddhism also underwent significant adaptation in order to reconnect with society after centuries of relative isolation. Reformers within the Buddhist community began emphasising religious propagation (p'ogyo) as a way to communicate Buddhist teachings more actively to the public, encouraging activities such as public lectures, publications, and charitable initiatives (Nathan, 2010, pp. 13–14). These developments suggest that both traditions adapted their practices and institutional structures in order to remain relevant and accessible within modern Korean society.

Both Buddhism and Christianity in modern Korea increasingly emphasised engagement with society and the everyday lives of ordinary people. However, they developed different institutional approaches to this engagement.

In the case of Buddhism, reform movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries argued that the religion needed to reconnect with society after centuries of isolation in mountain monasteries. Reformers such as Paek Yongsŏng emphasised that Buddhist practice should balance personal spiritual cultivation with compassionate action directed toward helping others, reflecting the bodhisattva ideal of serving sentient beings (Park, 2010, p. 6). Modern Korean Buddhism developed new forms of lay participation, institutional reform, and socially engaged Buddhism, all of which aimed to make the religion more relevant to the public and responsive to contemporary social conditions (Park, 2010, p. 3). Despite these reforms, sociological surveys indicate that Korean Buddhists have tended to be more concentrated in rural areas and among older and lower-income populations, which may partly explain differences in how Buddhism and Christianity engaged with society (Kim, 2002, pp. 298–299).

Christianity, meanwhile, expanded its social influence through extensive community programmes and institutional support networks. Early Protestant missionary activity in Korea was organised around what Clark describes as "a 'triad' of efforts: evangelism, education, and medicine" (Clark, 2006, p. 36). This model aimed not only to spread religious belief but also to promote literacy, provide schooling, and establish medical services within local communities. Missionaries introduced forms of organised philanthropy, establishing institutions such as orphanages and schools for the blind, and Korean churches later continued this tradition by maintaining social services for the poor, the elderly, and people with disabilities (Kim, 2000, p. 114). Christian worship also encouraged active participation by ordinary believers through practices such as congregational prayer and hymn singing, creating a more collective religious experience and strengthening the sense of community among believers (Baker, 2016, p. 54). Churches also played an important role in education and social modernisation, operating numerous schools and universities and promoting values such as freedom, equality, and human rights (Kim, 2000, p. 113).

As religious participation became increasingly organised around congregational communities, religious identity also became more visible and publicly expressed in modern Korean society (Baker, 2010, p. 61). Religious organisations in Korea eventually became some of the most influential non-governmental actors in society, with Buddhist, Protestant, and Catholic institutions operating universities, hospitals, media networks, and welfare services that extended their influence far beyond strictly religious activities (Kim, 2002, pp. 294–296).

Overall, both Christianity and Korean Buddhism adapted to modern urban society, but they did so in different ways. Christianity expanded naturally through urban churches, educational institutions, and organised congregations, while Buddhism had to reform its traditionally monastic and mountain-based structure in order to reconnect with the public. Despite these different starting points, both traditions eventually developed similar strategies for remaining visible and relevant in modern Korean cities — including stronger urban presence, greater lay participation, and deeper engagement with society.