Working the Boundaries: Race, Space, and “Illegality” in Mexican ChicagoWorking the Boundaries: Race, Space, and “Illegality” in Mexican Chicago, by GenovaNicholas P. De. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005. 329 pp. $22.95 paper. ISBN: 0822336154.

TLDR: In this paper, the authors examined the personal commitment of early missionaries in the Korean mission and found that individual attitudes, commitment, and the nature and frequency of encounters with Koreans were significant factors in the variation.

Abstract: mission identity, policy, and direction in the midst of two conflicting Korean responses; a relatively favorable reception of Christianity on the one hand, and a strong demand for the implementation of secular education from Korean leaders and intellectuals on the other. During initial years of the Korean mission, missionary activities were focused primarily in medicine and education due to legal restrictions against Christianity outside of these sectors. Going into the 1890s, the mission priority shifted to evangelism due largely to the strong personal commitment on the part of two leading missionaries, Horace G. Underwood and Samuel Moffett. Chapter 3 focuses on the issue of identification. Missionaries made efforts to overcome barriers of national, cultural and racial bias and superiority in light of the ideals of the Christian mission with varying degree of success. The author discovers that individual attitudes, commitment, and the nature and frequency of encounters with Koreans were significant factors in the variation. In chapters 4 and 5, the author examines the home, family, and the type of work missionaries engaged in and how these respective factors affected Korean encounters and identification. Chapter 6 looks at the ways in which conflicts are negotiated and resolved between the American missionaries’ priority on evangelism and Korean Christians’ emphasis on nationalism and modernization. Although American missionaries gradually accommodated the demands for higher education originating from Korean church leaders, the strong emphasis on evangelical activities from early missionaries worked to establish the conservative and evangelical tone of Korean Christianity that still exists today. In order to adequately understand the history of the Korean church, it is imperative to learn what these early pioneers had in mind for its nature and future direction. The strength of this book lies in the original way it deals with subjective interpretations from the key actors who formulated and modified early mission policy and vision through everevolving interactions with, responses to, and demands of Koreans. The analysis is objective and fair, free of the nationalistic biases often found in the writings of modern Korean history by Korean authors. However, the inclusion of a couple of additional key elements may have added to the overall analysis. Horace G. Underwood is known, especially to older Koreans, as Won Du-woo. Many other missionaries also had Korean names, and a more detailed explanation as to the significance of name adoption among missionaries may have provided more insight into the study of identity formulation. Methodist missionaries also constituted a significant portion of the Christian mission, and many of the medical and/or educational mission projects in Korea were jointly sponsored by Presbyterians and Methodists. At least a minor reference to the contribution of Methodist missions and their mutual influences on the formulation of the mission identity and policy would have been helpful. Overall, the book is a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the roots of the Korean Christian phenomenon.