The Protestant Ethic Reversed; A Study in the ＂Elective Affinity＂ between Neo-Liberalism and Christian Fundamentalism

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article pays attention to a close affinity between the spirit and practices of the neo-liberalist global market system and those of Christian fundamentalism, especially in the Korean context. The problematic point in this affinity is located in their shared conviction of the universality or complete truth of their assertions, often resulting in imperialistic world domination without consideration of possible alternatives that other traditions have suggested. In an emerging global world, in which we now have a strong consciousness of “one world” and “global citizenship” alongside advanced technological communication/transportation methods, these two imperialistic groups of neo-liberalist economic-political adherents and Christian fundamentalists are transcending their national boundaries and go to the end of the world in order to complete their missions.
In Korea, Protestantism as a “package” of modern Western civilization was introduced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the time of national crisis when Korea was experiencing visible military aggression from the West and the Westernized imperial Japan. Purchased as a “Western religion” which promises wealth and prosperity both in national and individual life, the Korean churches have formulated a so-called “Capitalist Christianity” that envisions material blessings and spiritual peace. When this “Capitalist Christianity” meets the neo-liberalist global economic system, which emphasizes the absolute power of the free competing market, it accelerates its materialistic tendency providing an “irrational method” of God-given power to the believers’ rational profit-making calling. It is the exactly the reversed version of the spirit of Protestantism, which flourishes in the globally-transmitted Christian fundamentalist social teachings.
Bringing some examples of Capitalist Christianity and its conflation with the spirit of neo-liberalism, this article aims to call forth the attention of the mainline Korean churches to develop an historical consciousness to analyze, evaluate, and make decisions on our contemporary human conditions.

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