The Pyongyang Revival or the Great Pyongyang Revival of 1907 was a Protestant revival that occurred in and around the city of Pyongyang, what is today the capital of North Korea. A key figure of the movement is often seen to be Kil Sun-joo (or Gil Seon-ju), one of the first Korean Protestants ordained as a Presbyterian minister. [1] R. A. Hardie, a Canadian physician and Methodist missionary who primarily worked in Wonsan, was also an inspiration for the movement. [2]
Prior to 1907, there were a series of local revivals in Korea. For instance, in 1903, due to famine in the center of the country, two local revivals were experienced in a Presbyterian church near Seoul and in a Methodist church in Wonsan. This would be followed by a series of revivals amongst Methodists (1904–1905) and Presbyterians (1906). [3] Moreover, in the fall of 1906, Korean Christians began hearing reports about the Welsh revival (1904–1905) and Kassia Hills revival in India (1905–1906), and reportedly had "a great desire to have the same blessing." [4] [5]
In January 1907, across two weeks, the Presbyterian seminary in Pyongyang held a Bible conference of about 1500 Korean men. At the conference, through the dynamic preaching of Kil Sun-joo and his personal confession of sins, hundred others followed in public repentance. This would continue through a series of revival meetings in Pyongyang and other nearby cities, which eventually subsided in the spring of 1907 due to Kil's exhaustion from the meetings. [3]
The Pyongyang revival resulted in an increase in the number of new Protestant converts and the growing establishment of Korean Christianity led by Korean Protestants. It also introduced key aspects of Korean Protestant Christian spirituality, such as early morning prayer and all-night prayer. [3] [6]
The practice of Christianity in Korea is marginal in North Korea, but significant in South Korea, where it revolves around two of its largest branches, Protestantism and Catholicism, accounting for 8.6 million and 5.8 million members, respectively. The initial variety of Christianity in the peninsula, Nestorianism, spread to Korea in the Middle Ages by way of China via Middle Eastern adherents to the Church of the East. Catholicism was first introduced during the late Joseon Dynasty period by Confucian scholars who encountered it in China. In 1603, Yi Su-gwang, a Korean politician, returned from Beijing carrying several theological books written by Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit missionary to China. He began disseminating the information in the books, introducing Christianity to Korea. In 1758, King Yeongjo of Joseon officially outlawed Catholicism as an "evil practice." Catholicism was reintroduced in 1785 by Yi Seung-hun and French and Chinese Catholic priests were soon invited by the Korean Christians.
The Welsh Methodist revival was an evangelical revival that revitalised Christianity in Wales during the 18th century. Methodist preachers such as Daniel Rowland, William Williams and Howell Harris were heavily influential in the movement. The revival led eventually to the establishment of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists as a denomination and it also revitalised older dissenting churches.
The Presbyterian Church of Wales, also known as the Calvinistic Methodist Church, is a denomination of Protestant Christianity based in Wales.
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William Nantlais Williams, better known simply as Nantlais, was a Welsh poet and a Presbyterian Christian minister who played a prominent role in the 1904-1905 Welsh Revival.
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Gil Seon-ju, considered by some to be the father of Korean Christianity, was one of the first Koreans ordained as a Presbyterian minister. He was an early supporter of Korean nationalism and helped shape the nature of the Korean Protestant Christianity.
The Pyongyang Theological Seminary is a Protestant theological seminary in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. It is run by the government-controlled Korean Christian Federation (KCF) and trains pastors and evangelists for it.
Chu Ki-chol was a Korean Presbyterian minister and martyr. After having dropped out of Yonhi College due to poor health and being briefly associated with the March 1st Movement for the independence of Korea, Chu attended a faith meeting of Kim Ik-du. Thereafter, he sought a career in ministry, enrolling first at the Pyongyang Theological Seminary becoming a deacon. Chu was ordained a minister in 1926 and served as one in Pusan, Masan, and Pyongyang.
Robert Alexander Hardie was a Canadian physician and Methodist evangelist who for 45 years served as a missionary in Korea. He is recognized as the catalyst for the Wŏnsan Revival (1903) and also inspired the Great Pyongyang Revival (1907) in what is now North Korea.
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Joseph Jenkins was a Calvinistic Methodist preacher, known as a progenitor of the 1904-1905 Welsh revival, a Christian revival in which, the BBC says, "a hundred thousand people had made a new commitment." A strong personality, Jenkins affected many church communities as a preacher, his contemporaries saying he resembled a volcano — "sometimes lifeless and sometimes in full eruption."
Mary Alice Fish Moffett was an American Presbyterian medical missionary in Korea, with her husband Samuel A. Moffett.
