Wall Street Journal’s Cheng to examine Korea, Christianity and its connection to Hanover
Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal’s bureau chief in China, will explore North Korea’s complex relationship with Christianity and its connection to Hanover College during an early-October address in the Duggan Library.
Cheng, author of the book “Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult,” will offer insights into the mysterious nation’s religiosity that traces its roots to the Christian fervor of post-Civil War America. The path features local resident and Hanover alum Samuel A. Moffett, an 1884 graduate who is widely regarded as a founder of Korean Presbyterianism.
Cheng will speak at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, on the second floor of the Duggan Library. The lecture is open to the public, free of charge.
For nearly eight decades, North Korea has marched defiantly to its own beat, shaking off its Soviet and Chinese sponsors to emerge as the world’s most enigmatic nation — a nuclear-armed state ruled by a dictatorial dynasty. Underpinning the state is a personality cult more soaked in religiosity than those constructed by Stalin or Mao.
Cheng, a former Wall Street Journal bureau chief in Korea, will go deep inside Pyongyang, a city once so dominated by Christianity that it was known as the “Jerusalem of the East.” He will introduce the audience to Moffett, a Presbyterian missionary from Madison, Ind., who would venture into Pyongyang at the end of the 19th century and build a remarkable following — one that would include the Kim family that today presides over one of the world’s harshest persecutors of the Christian faith.
At the center of Cheng’s work is North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, son of two fervent Christians and progenitor of an ideology known as Kimilsungism, an exercise in idolatry that has elevated him, and his successor son and grandson, to Christ-like status. Drawing on letters, diaries and never-before-unearthed archival material that temper and often contradict the glorious historical record promoted by Kim Il Sung’s legions of hagiographers, “Korean Messiah” tells the true story of a country shrouded in mythology, fictions, half-truths and sheer lies.
Cheng, who previously spoke on Hanover’s campus in 2017, has extensive experience with news coverage of the Korean peninsula, including North Korean and South Korean politics and South Korean businesses. He was previously a reporter in New York, covering stocks and trends in financial markets for Money & Investing.
About Samuel A. Moffett
Samuel Austin Moffett (1864-1939) was one of the most influential Presbyterian missionaries in Korea and a pioneering leader in the growth of Korean Christianity. After completing his studies at Hanover and McCormick Theological Seminary, he arrived in Korea in 1890 and devoted more than four decades to missionary service.
Moffett emphasized Bible study, local leadership and evangelism, helping foster one of the world’s most remarkable church-growth movements. He established the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang in 1901, served as its president for 17 years and became the first moderator of the Korean Presbyterian Church when it was formally organized in 1907.
Cheng photo courtesy Gilles Sabrié
