| The growth of Christianity has been remarkably faster in Korea than it has been in Japan, despite a much earlier introduction to Christianity in Japan. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate and explain in part why Christianity has grown faster in Korea than it has in Japan and to identify and analyze how key cultural factors, including traditional religious and political factors, influenced the Korean and Japanese mindsets and initial receptivities toward Christianity.; This study suggests that key cultural factors, including traditional religious influences and political contexts, had an overall positive influence on the mindset and initial receptivity to Christianity in Korea and an overall negative influence on the mindset and initial receptivity to Christianity in Japan. In Korea, the traditional concept of God had an overall positive influence on the people's mindset toward Christianity as influenced by Shamanism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, despite some negative influences by their concept of salvation and the tradition of ancestor worship. In Japan, traditional religious beliefs, such as the concept of God, the concept of salvation, and the tradition of ancestor worship, all had an overall negative influence on the people's mindset toward Christianity as influenced by Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.; Korea's status as a falling nation, a nation with diminishing world power, as manifest by its annexation and oppression through Japanese colonial rule, together with the independence movement and later the Korean War, helped to foster a positive initial receptivity to Christianity. On the other hand, Japan's rise as a superpower, with victories over both China and Russia in wars fought over the rights to occupy Korea, as well as the growth of nationalism and anti-Westernism, especially during World War II, contributed toward a negative initial receptivity to Christianity.; Despite seemingly considerable similarities in the ethnographic and cultural backgrounds between the peoples of Korea and Japan, there are significant differences in the cultural contexts between the two countries. This difference affected their mindsets and initial receptivities to Christianity, with remarkably different outcomes. |
