The Meaning of Water in Indigenous Korean Culture and Baptism in Early Korean Protestant Churches

Abstract

The Christian ritual of initiation, known as a baptism, is important because baptisms form the Christian character of believers. In the early stages of missions, the administration of baptisms was accepted as a cultural relationship between indigenous Koreans by the usage of water. This helped Koreans accept Protestantism as their religion, and the Protestant missionaries’ conservative theology was easily connected with the meaning of water. Traditionally, water has been deeply related with five major elements: the birth myth, wishful rain, acceptance, shamanism, and folklore. These understandings that Koreans had of water was conjoined with the significance of baptisms and their meaning. The imagery of water in relation to birth myth is that of being reborn, as a child of God, a disciple of Jesus, and/or being reborn as a Christian during the early stages of the Korean church. The projection of wishful rain rituals is that of examination and purification of oneself, connected to the rituals of repentance and conversion into Christianity during the early stages of the Korean church. In acceptance rituals, water symbolized the removal of corruption, thus related to the removal of sins by the faith in Christ. The imagery of water in shamanic rituals and folklore are that of cleansing and life, emphasizing the cleansing of impurity and receiving eternal life through the grace of Christ. A deity in Korean folklore, Chowang, was a deity that dwelled in each and every one, much like the Holy Spirit in Christianity. Such experiences and beliefs that Koreans had of water has made the Korean Christianity’s beliefs and practices rather unique. For example, dawn prayer meetings and the theological connection of God, Heaven, the cosmos, the earth, and human beings. Water as a means of new beginnings, cleansing, and symbolism of anticipation can still work for the modern Korean church and society. This type of reproduction and expansion of our experiences of Christianity opens up new perspectives of the future.