The purpose of this dissertation is to discuss the development of the history of Church in North Korea since 1945, by exploring the life and activities of Kang Ryang Uk, a prominent North Korean Church leader.
He was the founder and first chairman of the Central Committee of the Korean Christian Federation. He also took the high positions in the North Korean government, including the second highest political position.
The dissertation will focus on and mainly deal with Kang Ryang Uk. This figure was chosen by the author of the thesis on account of his place and role in the church of North Korea. He laid the foundation of the North Korean Church in the early days of the socialist regime.
Based on the aforementioned method each chapter of the dissertation will be summarized as follows:
Chapter I reviews the history of the researches on the North Korean Church since the Liberation. Chapter II examines the life of Kang Ryang Uk, considering both the background against which he was born and grew up and some of the influential figures who had an effect on him. Chapters III and IV respectively deal with the history of the Central Committee of the Korean Christian Federation that Kang Ryang Uk founded and his son, Kang Young Seop, who is the incumbent chairman of the Committee. Chapter V is the comparative study between Kang and other church leaders of Russia and China.
In Chapter VI the role and influences of Kang Ryang Uk as to the history of the North Korean Church since the Liberation are evaluated. With regard to the figure, Kang Ryang Uk, one may propose certain kinds of questions and assumptions.
While Kang Ryang Uk was brought up in the Christian environment to be a devoted and experienced pastor, he was entrusted by his pupil and relative, Kim Il Seong, to modify the North Korean Church to the socialist structure. Yet, when his son and daughter were killed by the then anti-communist activists and pastors denounced him, Kang Ryang Uk actively took part in Kim's party and later worked for the government as a high official.
The evaluations upon the role and influences of Kang Ryang Uk are contradicting. Some claim that Kang Ryang Uk should be commended for what he had done for the North Korean Church. On the contrary, he is blamed for nominal situation of North Korean Church and deaths of many martyrs who confessed their faith against socialism. Hence, any evaluation on him should take the future stance of the North Korean Church into consideration. Unless the North Korean Church tries to present the genuine Christian way of life even under the present socialist regime, the evaluation upon him would not be positive.
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