Forging Protestant Allies

Abstract

Forging Protestant Allies examines how South Korea came to be widely recognized as a site of Protestant vitality during the Korean War and the Cold War. Rather than attributing this reputation to demographic growth or cultural exceptionalism, the book argues that it emerged through transnational alliances linking American mission societies, faith-based aid organizations, and Korean church leaders. These alliances recast South Korea as a Christian ally within a global anti-communist framework, reshaping Western perceptions of the country and mobilizing support for missionary and humanitarian intervention. The book develops the concept of “forging” to capture a dual process in which Protestant partnerships were both built and strategically represented, smoothing over theological, racial, and institutional tensions while sustaining unequal power relations. Drawing on extensive archival research, it traces how agrarian reform, humanitarian aid to widows and orphans, medical missions, and ecclesiastical conflicts functioned as key arenas in which competing visions of Christianity, modernity, and authority were negotiated. By situating Korean Christianity at the intersection of Cold War geopolitics, postcolonial critique, and global religious networks, the book demonstrates that Protestant “success” in South Korea was a historically contingent and discursively produced outcome. In doing so, it offers a framework for rethinking religion, humanitarianism, and alliance-making in the Cold War world.