Yoo/Korean Religious Texts, 3. Performative Scripture Reading Rituals in Early Korean Protestantism

Chapter 3 ferrets out the social function and meaning of performative utterance as illustrated by the Bible study meeting in early twentieth-century Korean Protestantism. The main activity consisted of reading the Bible aloud. Many scholars of the history of Korean Protestantism assert that the Bible study meeting played a crucial role in the rapid growth of Korean Protestantism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most agree that the Bible study meeting promoted “the Great Revival,” which led to a fourfold increase in church membership in Korea between the years 1903 and 1907. These meetings have not been widely studied by academics until now. Analysis of Korean public scripture readings from a comparative perspective not only provides a vivid illustration of the social function of the performative dimension of scriptures, but it also suggests the need to further define the meaning of “performative.” As to the first point, the particular ways in which the Bible was read in the Korean context contributed to the growing number of converts to Christianity. Bible readings in the context of study groups in early Korean Protestantism facilitated the absorption of Christianity into Korean culture by building on traditional religious practices and by offering a way for native Koreans to take a leadership role in the growth of the new religion. Second, these scripture readings were performative in the way defined by J. L. Austin’s theory of performative speech and elaborated by Roy Rappaport’s description of the indexical function of ritual, because they led to Koreans’ conversions to Christianity and strengthened their Christian faith. The necessary conditions for performative utterances, as defined by Austin, were satisfied by ritualizing the activity of reading the Bible itself.