No Other Way

This article explains why and how nationalist movement in “Chosun”(Korea),which is a East Asian country with Non-Christian tradition,came to have such an affinity for Protestantism.I studied the history of the period 1866 to 1919,by conducting a biographical analysis with the exsisting biographies,memories,diaries,editorials and newspapers which could provide a detailed image of main nationalists in Chosun,I argue that the dual identity of elites of both nationalists and Protestants was the key elments to explain how nationalist movement combined with Protestantism.Firstly,I show the dilemmas faced by Chosun nationalist movement and the efforts made by elites from different class.Then I explain why these attempts failed and how nationalist elites acquired Protestantism faith in such condition.The biographical analysis of nationalist elites suggests three main mechanism to explain how this happended: Elites gave meaning of salvation for both country and individuals to the Protestantism,nationalist acquaired modern education through abroad abroad or in the domestic eduction system conducted by missionaries,and church was the only exsiting organization under the harsh rule.Then,I suggest that Protestanism provided new chance and strategy for nationalist movements.All of these helped to overcome the dilemmas faced by the nationalist movement at that time.This research makes two contributions: on the one hand,it offers an explanatory path that goes beyond colonial nationalism studies that understand elites within the model given by Anderson,I suggest that the nature of elites is a key variable that cannot be ignored in explaining the variability of nationalist movements;on the other hand,it offers a solution for understanding the relationship between religion and nationalism beyond religious nationalism.