The "other" success story. Protestant churches in South Korea

This article deals with the explosive growth of the Protestant churches in South Korea (1950-1995). This religious change is analyzed empirically in c onnection with the influence of foreign powers, the relationship between st ate and religion, urbanization, church splits, an offensive mission policy, the creation of new elites and specific cultural influences, as well as ot her factors. The study is a contribution to the current, controversial deba te in the sociology of religion which discusses processes of religious mobi lization in connection with social structural conditions (the "European app roach"), on the one hand, and the extension on the religious supply side (t he "American approach"), on the other hand. The analytical potential of bot h positions is applied in the research. In addition, the discourse is exten ded and complemented by emphasizing the structure of religious demand and t he resulting collective effects. This leads to important impulses for the s ociological study of comparable transformation processes in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.