Rethinking Women's Oppression in the Korean Church: Christianity's Complicity and Confucianism’s Possibility:

Confucianism has been accused of engendering oppression of women in the Korean Church. It is alleged, early Christian missionaries’ endeavors to liberate Korean women have been overcome by male-centered Confucian society. However, is Confucianism the only perpetrator of the oppression of women in the Korean Church? Also, can we simply understand Confucianism as a sexist idea? This presentation aims to challenge the suspicions upon Confucianism in two ways. First, it reveals Christianity has reinforced the existing oppression by examining how Christian ethics of agape as self-sacrifice justifies women’s unrecognized works in the Korean Church. Second, it highlights the potential for women’s liberation in Confucianism by focusing on the Confucian virtue of ren (仁) as a post-conventional morality that challenges the existing convention. By offering a feminist reinterpretation of Confucian virtue, this presentation encourages the Korean Church to revisit the Confucian tradition and discover a liberative force from their own tradition.