Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology (Madang J Contextual Theol)
4
Weeks in Review
2
Weeks to Publication
Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology
Open access, Peer Reviewed
pISSN 1738-3196
eISSN 3091-7824
Weeks in Review
Weeks to Publication
Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology
Open access, Peer Reviewed
pISSN 1738-3196
eISSN 3091-7824
Hyun Kee Na
Ph. D. Church History (Early Christian Studies and Patristics), Associate Professor, Hanshin University
Correspondence to Hyun Kee Na, Email: alm-1@hanmail.net
Volume 44, 3-23, December 2025.
Madang: Journal of Contextual Theology 2025;44:3-23. https://doi.org/10.58302/Madang.2025.44.2
Received on December 05, 2025, Revised on December 22, 2025, Accepted on December 22, 2025, Published on December 30, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This paper examines the historical development and contemporary expressions of far-right Korean Protestantism, proposing a spiritual-theological alternative rooted in the early Egyptian monastic tradition. Far-right Korean Protestantism has emerged as a socio-political force, characterized by dualistic worldviews, prosperity theology, anti-communist ideology, and aggressive political mobilization. This study argues that this phenomenon represents a distorted form of spiritual seeking that arose as an exclusionary response to secularization, heavily influenced by American fundamentalism. Through interdisciplinary integration of sociology of religion, patristics, and spiritual theology, this research analyzes the contemporary far-right Protestant movement exemplified by Kwang-hoon Jeon of Sarang Jeil Church. It demonstrates that, despite its claim to resist secularization, far-right Protestantism has paradoxically become politicized and materialistic, thereby distancing itself from authentic contemplative depth. In response, this study proposes the spiritual tradition of Origen, Evagrius Ponticus, and John Cassian as a therapeutic alternative. Their teachings emphasize progressive transformation, universal love, communal discernment, voluntary poverty, and contemplative interiority, offering comprehensive resources for addressing contemporary pathologies. The comparative analysis reveals stark contrasts: instantaneous conversion versus lifelong formation, hatred versus radical non-judgment, authoritarian control versus mutual accountability, and prosperity gospel versus voluntary poverty. This paper shows that ancient monastic wisdom speaks powerfully to postmodern contexts, offering Korean Christianity a third way beyond both fundamentalist extremism and uncritical secular accommodation.
Far-right Protestantism, Korean Christianity, Secularization, Fundamentalism, Early Egyptian Monastic Tradition, Origen, Evagrius Ponticus, John Cassian, Early Christian Spirituality
This paper examines the historical formation and contemporary manifestations of far-right Korean Protestantism, proposing an alternative grounded in the spiritual-theological tradition of early Egyptian monasticism exemplified by Origen, Evagrius Ponticus, and John Cassian. Farright Christianity has experienced rapid global growth in recent decades. In the United States, it has been driven by the New Apostolic Reformation and Christian nationalists envisioning a theocratic state.2 American far-right Christians played a central role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol storming and demonstrated robust support for Donald Trump.3
In Korea, far-right Protestantism has developed distinctive characteristics shaped by ties to American fundamentalism and its unique political-religious history. Following President Yoon’s December 3, 2024 martial law declaration, these groups defended the decree, opposed impeachment, and incited violent attacks. Korean far-right Protestantism is characterized by subservience to the United States, veneration of former conservative presidents, Seong-man Lee and Jung-hee Park, and condemnation of progressive policies. This produces extreme polarization and impedes Christian missionary work.4
International scholarship has primarily focused on American Christian nationalism. Whitehead and Perry identify it as central to American political polarization, arguing it functions as cultural identity and political ideology rather than faith.5 Du Mez analyzes fundamentalism through masculinity politics, while Posner reveals how racial anxiety and anti-immigrant sentiment drive the religious right.6 In Korean scholarship, In-chul Kang traces how anti-communism became integral to Protestant identity, while Jin-ho Kim analyzes the Protestant right’s political organization since the 2000s.7
Both international and domestic scholarship has focused on historical, sociological, and political approaches, leaving theological exploration, particularly from spiritual-theological perspectives, underdeveloped. This study posits that far-right Korean Protestantism has roots in distorted spiritual seeking that emerged as an exclusionary response to secularization, influenced by American fundamentalism. Contemporary secularization scholars understand it not as religious decline but as transformation in religion-society relationships. Human propensities toward transcendence-seeking persist even in secular ages. Problems arise when these needs are not met healthily, potentially becoming distorted into extremism and politicized religion. This paper explores alternatives in early Egyptian monastic spiritual tradition.
The paper first explains far-right Korean Protestantism’s formation through religious secularization, fundamentalism, and anti-communism. It then analyzes Kwang-hoon Jeon’s autobiography and related literature. Finally, it explores early Egyptian Christian ascetics’ spiritual formation and theological essence, investigating how this monastic tradition can serve as a healthy alternative in contemporary Korean contexts. Through integrating sociology of religion, patristics, and spiritual theology, this interdisciplinary research offers creative significance by analyzing far-right Protestantism and proposing theological alternatives.
Secularization signifies the process of becoming less religious—a cultural phenomenon in which people distance themselves from religion-centered lives and values amid industrialization, urbanization, and the dominance of scientific worldviews.8 According to sociologists of religion, individuals influenced by secularization are transforming into highly individualized beings subject to pluralistic cultures that emphasize relativism. Consequently, established religions have been relegated to the private sphere as matters of individual choice. Classical theories of secularization predicted the eventual extinction of religion.9
However, substantial counterarguments from “desecularization theory” acknowledge secularization while rejecting the idea of the extinction of religion. Although the influence of established religions has diminished, fundamental anxieties about ultimate identity and primordial spiritual longings to understand life and death persist.10 Won-gyu Lee argues that Korean religion likewise began experiencing the effect of secularization after the 1990s, with a more severe intensification of antipathy toward religion among young people than in any other nation.11 Gallup survey data illustrates this trend. The proportion of religious adherents dropped from 54% in 2004 to 40% in 2021. Notably the decline was most pronounced among tha 19-29 age group, dropping from 45% to 22%.12
In this context, Christianity has exhibited two fundamentally opposed responses to secularization. Groups that emphasize openness to politics and sociocultural engagement have actively embraced secularization. These groups advocate for changes in worship culture and missionary methods by emphasizing the realization of Christian values such as human rights, peace, and justice, in political and social spheres.13 Conversely, another group like fundamentalism perceives secularizing dereligionizing cultural phenomena as challenges to traditional Christian doctrine and rejects secularization by following a “combat model.”14
The term “fundamentalist” first appeared in American Protestant history when Curtis Lee Laws coined it in 1920 to describe those who were fighting for foundational principles.15 They reject any Christian effort that acknowledges secular society and repudiate scientific development, including evolutionary theory and the findings of biblical criticism. Two strategic approaches were proposed by fundamentalist groups: biblical inerrancy advanced by Benjamin Warfield and J. Gresham Machen and dispensational premillennialism, as proposed by John N. Darby. These doctrines influenced American fundamentalists in the early 20th century, constructing the logic that all surrounding cultural phenomena must be rejected as anti-biblical occurrences of the end times.16
This countercultural fundamentalism reemerged in the 1970s as a rejection of the progressive changes occurring in American society. George Marsden describes fundamentalism as a militant form of anti-modernist evangelicalism.17 Perceiving changes such as the civil rights movements, women’s liberation, and the sexual revolution as a complete dechristianization, fundamentalists became politically active in order to defend America as a Christian nation. Jerry Falwell founded the Moral Majority, a political lobbying organization, that fought to block the Equal Rights Amendment and supported Ronald Reagan. Subsequently, Pat Robertson organized the Christian Coalition (1989), which supported George W. Bush’s election as well as American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.18 American fundamentalists also provided overwhelming support for Donald Trump’s election.
American missionaries influenced by fundamentalism that rejected secularization exerted significant influence on early Protestant missions in Korea. Furthermore, it remains true that the majority of Korean churches to this day remain under the influence of fundamentalist logic and faith to this day. Biblical inerrancy, verbal plenary inspiration, and dispensational eschatology were passed on to Korean ministers by professors at the Pyongyang Theological Seminary, which was established in 1901. Under Japanese colonial rule, the early Prebyterian Church, dominated by fundamentalist faith attitudes, refused to translate the Abingdon Bible Commentary, which reflected contemporary biblical scholarship. They warned pastors Changgeun Song and Jae-jun Kim, who participated in the project, and rejected its publication. The Church disciplined pastors Young-ju Kim and Chun-bae Kim for criticizing the Mosaic authorship claimed by biblical inerrancy and passages discriminating against women. The fundamentalists’ attempts to seize ecclesiastical power and their legalistic attitudes ultimately provided the decisive catalyst for the emergence of the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK) in 1953.19
As mentioned above, the process of dereligionization has accelerated since 2000, particularly among young people. Korean churches, accustomed to a fundamentalist environment, are becoming more radical in their countercultural attitudes to overcome their anxiety and fear of secularization. At the root of the far-right political radicalization phenomenon among fundamentalists, as exemplified by the Kwang-hoon Jeon phenomenon, is a militant struggle to reject secularization. Based on biblical inerrancy and a dualistic eschatological interpretation, fundamentalists argue through methods of exclusion and hatred that those who do not follow their beliefs must be rejected and eliminated through methods of exclusion and hatred. This exclusionary eschatology has been further intensified by the influx of the “New Apostolic Reformation,” which was proposed by C. Peter Wagner, an advocate of the church growth school. 20
Interpreting Ephesians 4:11 (“So Christ himself gave the apostles…”), Wagner argued that the apostolic commission is still valid today. He called for aggressive, countercultural movements to reform the church. He categorized 20th-century Pentecostal movements as Pentecostalism, the charismatic movement, and the Vineyard movement. He emphasized the importance of lay ministry experiencing the Holy Spirit. This experience can be attained by all worshipers through corporate prayer, fervent praise, and worship. Wagner considers the supernatural power of the Spirit, manifested through prophecy, speaking in tongues, healing, falling, demon exorcism, and intercessory prayer, to be important, as well as “direct revelation” and a life of faith that practices these experiences. The New Apostolic Reformation emphasizes biblical inerrancy, the separation between heavenly and hellish existence in the present moment, and evangelism for external church growth. This movement has further strengthened the fundamentalist eschatology of far-right Protestants through ecstatic mysticism. Furthermore, the model of American fundamentalist political participation is familiar to pro-American, far-right Korean Protestants. However, their efforts to acknowledge secularization and propose and enact Christian theological, spiritual, and ethical practices appropriate to their context remain largely unnoticed.
As mentioned above, religious fundamentalism emerged amid anxiety over the decline of the church. The rejection of secularizing cultural currents has significantly influenced the growth of far-right Protestantism. Additionally, one must understand anti-communism derived from the distinctive historical experiences of Korean churches and collaboration with authoritarian regimes. To examine contemporary far-right Protestantism, particularly the “Kwang-hoon Jeon phenomenon,” it is necessary to analyze the life, faith, and political worldview formation process of Kwang-hoon Jeon of Sarang Jeil Church.
Jeon’s formation can be divided into three stages.27 The first stage (1956-1983) spans from his birth in North Gyeongsang Province through founding Sarang Jeil Church while attending Daehan Theological School. He grew up in an underdeveloped rural village dominated by shamanism and Confucian customs, frequently describing his pre-conversion life as existing “in the uncivilized wilderness of Africa, amidst forces of darkness.”28 He showed minimal interest in academic learning, consistently ranking lowest, but exhibited strong motivation and bold executive ability.29
Exhibiting such propensities, Jeon became more accustomed to ecstatic practice than critical reflection. His faith formation centered on strong impressions from fragmentary biblical passages and emotional experiences rather than critical dialogue with diverse theological positions. His conversion occurred when a sermon on Matthew 12:45 triggered terror about disease recurrence.30 He subsequently experienced speaking in tongues at Shinseong Church, interpreting this as a revelation to choose between worldly demonic forces and good forces of the church.31 William James argued that conversion means “the process, gradual or sudden, by which a self hitherto divided, and consciously wrong inferior and unhappy, becomes unified and consciously right superior and happy,” requiring continuous faith experience, reflection, and ethical practice.32 According to him, a healthy religious conversion shows clear direction. It involves expanding altruism toward neighbors and ultimately progressing toward realizing that “you and I are not different but one” in the union of complete love.33 From this perspective, although Jeon’s conversion was intense, it led to anti-intellectualism and rigid ideology rather than growth in faith and social responsibility.
The second phase includes founding Sarang Jeil Church and establishing the Puritan Spiritual Training Center. In 1983, he began ministry as an evangelist despite lacking pastoral ordination. His ministry centered on repetitive fasting, revival-style worship, and door-to-door evangelism. When moving from Dapsimni to Jangwi-dong, he urgently collected 4 billion won despite having only 500 million available for the 3.4 billion won move.34 He boasts of quickly collecting 4 billion won.35 Compared to traditional Christian perspectives,36 Jeon’s understanding of wealth appears seriously distorted. He believes that money is the key to achieving anything in a capitalist society. As a messenger of God receiving inspiration through prayer, he firmly believes his missionary objectives constitute absolute truth that congregation members must unconditionally follow. This attitude resembles pseudo-religious leaders who demand unconditional obedience.
The third phase involves participating in Christian political parties and becoming a far-right political icon. Two experiences sparked his political interest. First, he learned about Seongman Lee’s achievements and was influenced by Lee’s anti-communism, liberal democratic advocacy, and pro-American worldview, viewing Lee’s “Christian Nation-Founding Theory” as a model.37 Second, the influence of Joon-gon Kim and Yong-gi Cho proved decisive. Kim emphasized that Jeon must successfully create a “Christian Party” as his dying wish, while Cho praised Jeon for completing his work in conservative Christian politics.38 The foundation of Jeon’s political participation lies in an anachronistic worldview attempting to directly apply Lee’s anti-communism and “Christian Nation-Founding Theory” to twenty-first-century Korea. Conservative Protestant leaders selected Jeon as part of their “active political participation” strategy, imitating American fundamentalist Christians who oppose cultural changes.
Jeon actively entered politics starting with the 2007 presidential election, participating in support campaigns for Myung-bak Lee and becoming co-representative of the Christian Love Practice Party in 2008.39 After Jae-in Moon’s government inauguration, he intensified protests demanding Moon’s resignation and was repeatedly detained for election law violations. He founded the Liberal Unification Party with Moon-soo Kim but suffered crushing defeats in multiple elections, receiving only 1.83% and 2.26% of votes. After Suk-yeol Yoon’s 2022 election, Jeon claimed responsibility for Yoon’s victory and has since claimed electoral fraud.
Through Jeon’s faith perspective and political trajectory, we discover the characteristics and dangers of Korean far-right Protestantism. The most prominent characteristic is an extreme dualistic religious perspective rooted in fundamentalist faith. To them, the world is where good and evil collide. They believe only their doctrines, church, and encounters with God constitute Christian sacredness; everything else is secularized and demonic. There is a division between their camp and the Devil’s camp, as well as between the saved and the damned. Korean farright Protestantism views sexual minorities, Muslims, refugees, and women as enemies tainted by evil secularization. They reject pluralism and advocate exclusion, hatred, and violence.
Biblical inerrancy legitimizes this dualistic perspective by selectively choosing biblical passages conforming to their views and interpreting them literally and distortedly. When combined with far-right politics, this extreme perspective continuously intensifies generational and regional conflicts in Korean society and endlessly produces media content on platforms like YouTube.
Next, far-right Protestantism, as revealed through Jeon, includes prosperity theology and an embrace of success. Jeon believes God unilaterally gives him wealth and external success, claiming poverty and failure result from a lack of faith while equating capitalism with Christianity and ignoring social structural problems. Korean far-right Protestantism pursues the same prosperity theology as American fundamentalism, which initially opposed scientific civilization and secularization but ultimately fell into paradoxical materialism and exclusivity, supporting conservative right-wing politics and advocating imperialism and white supremacy.
The most important reason this religious and political perspective came to be is the lack of healthy spirituality demonstrated by the Christian tradition. Far-right Protestants pursue dualistic perspectives, extreme political activism, and prosperity theology colluding with capitalism. Absorbed in extreme dualistic doctrinalism and political activism, prayer becomes a tool for political victory and worship becomes political rallies, as seen in Gwanghwamun gatherings. Even mystical experiences during ecstatic worship cannot produce spiritual growth and freedom because the theological framework interpreting those experiences is dualistic, exclusionary, and hate-filled. Through Kwang-hoon Jeon and Korean far-right Protestantism, we see that fundamentalism, claiming to resist secularization, has paradoxically become the most secularized form of Christianity—politicized and materialized.
This paper has examined far-right Protestantism’s background and the Kwang-hoon Jeon phenomenon’s characteristics and dangers. The crucial question of how to overcome this issue now needs to be addressed. The paper posits that far-right Protestantism is a countercultural response driven by anxiety toward secularization, sharing a common trajectory with American fundamentalists. As secularization proceeds rapidly in Korea and rightward radicalization strengthens, far-right Protestant forces appear poised for expansion, seriously exacerbating obstacles to Christian missions. Overcoming this requires reflection on fundamentalism’s relationship with secularization.
Many scholars argue that religion has not entered decline. Instead, contemporary people reject traditional religious practices and missionary methods, yet their pursuit of spirituality has intensified due to desires to escape psychological suffering such as depression and anxiety. This spiritual longing manifests in “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR). Harvey Cox characterizes this as the “Age of the Spirit,” proposing renewed attention to the early Christian community’s dynamism before doctrine and institutions emerged.40
In a secular context, where religion has become a personal choice, many have lost their way. Researchers who desire the church’s transformation still regard the role of Christianity as significant. Diana Butler Bass asserts that spiritual experiences have deteriorated within existing Christian systems, underscoring the need for tangible methods.41 Unconditionally rejecting secularization only makes Christianity seem more alien and exclusionary. It is necessary to examine current worship of Korean churches and spiritual training methods, and review Christianity’s two-thousand-year spiritual tradition to meet contemporary demands. Secularization should be understood as a form of resistance that rejects existing Christian spirituality, worship, doctrine, and mission methods.
Throughout history, Christianity has taken root in new cultures by responding to cultural demands. Richard Niebuhr emphasizes Christians should view culture as a place to find grace in God’s creative order.42 Both Cox and Niebuhr propose finding answers in early Christianity’s formation for new spiritual movements facing secular age challenges. Early Church Fathers established theological boundaries to prevent Christians from becoming overly mystical while promoting spiritual growth. The spiritual theology of Egyptian monks, as handed down through Origen, Evagrius Ponticus, and John Cassian, is an early form of Christianity that had a significant impact on later generations. It offers a different approach to spirituality that can counter fundamentalism and far-right Protestantism.
The Egyptian monastic tradition, passed down through Origen, Evagrius Ponticus, and John Cassian, is one of the most influential currents in Christian spiritual history. These three figures formed a coherent spiritual-theological system that profoundly shaped both Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic spirituality. Following Constantine’s recognition,43 their teachings strongly influenced the response to the church’s accommodation of imperial power—a historical parallel to contemporary fundamentalism’s embrace of political authority. Their integrated vision of spiritual formation, contemplative practice, and scriptural interpretation provides comprehensive resources for addressing far-right Protestant movements’ pathologies.
Origen of Alexandria emerged from one of the most intellectually vibrant contexts of early Christianity, combining rigorous philosophical training with biblical study and ascetical practice. He developed the most influential model of spiritual exegesis, proposing that Scripture possesses multiple meanings corresponding to human nature’s tripartite structure: somatic (literal/historical), psychic (moral/ethical), and pneumatic (spiritual/mystical).44 This hermeneutical approach aimed at transformation rather than merely transmitting information.45 Origen’s homilies exemplify this method—commenting on Exodus, he interprets Israel’s wilderness journey as the soul’s passage from bondage to vice toward freedom in virtue. Significantly, Origen insisted that any interpretation producing hatred contradicts Scripture’s ultimate purpose of union with God who is Love.46
Origen proposed a systematic three-stage theory of spiritual growth, correlating stages with three Solomonic books interpreted allegorically.47 The Proverbs stage involves pursuing ethical life through practical wisdom and distinguishing virtue from vice. The Ecclesiastes stage involves grasping life’s essential vanity and recognizing worldly pursuits’ futility. In the final Song of Songs stage, the human soul achieves transformative union with God through passionate love directed toward the divine Beloved. Origen also developed Eastern Christianity’s central soteriological concept: theosis or divinization—humanity’s participation in divine nature. Drawing on 2 Peter 1:4, Origen taught that salvation means becoming by grace what Christ is by nature, insisting that spiritual progress requires not merely intellectual contemplation but also moral transformation, ascetic discipline, and reliance on Christ’s redemptive work.48 This gradualist soteriology contrasts with theologies of instantaneous conversion and the prosperity gospel.
Evagrius Ponticus is a crucial link between Origenian theological speculation and practical desert asceticism.49 Born in Pontus and ordained by Gregory Nazianzen, he became a brilliant Constantinople theologian. After fleeing due to romantic entanglement, Evagrius entered the Egyptian desert in 383, spending his final sixteen years among monks. Following Origen’s threefold schema, Evagrius articulated spiritual life as progressive movement through three interconnected stages with greater precision regarding ascetical methodology and psychological dynamics.50 Praktike denotes active spiritual warfare against eight evil thoughts (logismoi) through ascetic discipline and cultivating opposite virtues, aiming for apatheia—not Stoic apathy but freedom from tyrannizing passions enabling authentic love. Physike or natural contemplation involves perceiving creation’s spiritual depths, understanding the logoi (divine principles) through which God creates and sustains all things, enabling one to discern divine wisdom manifested in nature. Theologike represents mystical knowledge (gnosis) of the Holy Trinity—pure prayer transcending images and concepts, providing direct experiential knowledge of God. Each stage prepares for and enables the next.
Evagrius’ most influential and enduring contribution was his systematic analysis of eight evil thoughts or logismoi: gluttony (gastrimargia), lust (porneia), avarice (philargyria), sadness (lype), anger (orge), acedia (spiritual listlessness or “noonday demon”), vainglory (kenodoxia), and pride (hyperephania).51 This analysis became the foundation for the seven deadly sins in the Western tradition through the later adaptation of Gregory the Great. Evagrius analyzed these thoughts rather than external act or behaviors. A thought pattern that becomes second nature and operates almost automatically is called disposition. Apatheia, frequently mistranslated as “apathy” but actually meaning freedom from destructive passions (pathē), represents the goal of praktike and the prerequisite of physike. John Bamberger defines apatheia precisely as “health of soul” wherein disordered attachments and compulsive desires no longer tyrannize the mind, thus liberating one for pure prayer, undistracted by passionate thoughts, and for genuine charity, uncontaminated by selfish motives.52 For Evagrius, the apathetic monk sees others— even enemies—with compassionate clarity rather than through the distorted lenses of desire, fear, or anger. Evagrius insists that apatheia is not the final goal, but a preparatory condition for love. When passions no longer distort perception and corrupt motivation, genuine love becomes possible—love that is free from a selfish agenda, manipulation, or neurotic neediness. This love extends universally because it flows from God, not from passion. Evagrius’ On Prayer describes the nature and conditions of contemplative prayer. The ultimate form of prayer is pure prayer— wordless, imageless, conceptless standing before God.53 This apophatic emphasis profoundly influenced Eastern Christian spirituality, particularly Hesychasm. Despite his emphasis on contemplative transcendence, Evagrius insists that spiritual ascent culminates in love. All ascetic struggle ultimately aims at perfect charity toward God and neighbor.
John Cassian (ca. 360-435) played a crucial role in transmitting Egyptian desert wisdom to Western Christianity. After spending approximately fifteen years with the Eygptian desert fathers, he settled in Massilia (Marseilles in France) around 415 and founded monasteries based on the semi-eremitical Egyptian models. His major works, De institutis and Collationes patrum, aimed to transmit Egyptian monastic spirituality to Gallic monks. Benedict of Nursia prescribed their daily reading, ensuring a central place for them in medieval spirituality. Columba Stewart demonstrates that Cassian wrote partly to reform what he perceived as lax monastic practices in Gaul.54 He observed that monks lacked a clear understanding of the purposes of monasticism. Cassian particularly emphasized the need for experienced spiritual guidance, recognizing that spiritual formation requires personal direction from those advanced in virtue. While spending years among semi-eremitical monks, Cassian’s own monasteries adopted a cenobitic organization. He strongly emphasizes hospitality as a central monastic virtue, recounting how Egyptian monks would break their fasts to welcome guests and recognize Christ’s presence in strangers. Similarly, Cassian emphasizes material sharing and voluntary poverty, with monks relinquishing private property and holding possessions communally.55
Cassian transmitted Origenian-Evagrian spiritual theology, adapting it for Latin readers. In Conference 1, he sets out the purpose of spiritual life: the final objective (telos) is the Kingdom of God, and the immediate goal (skopos) is purity of heart (puritas cordis), which is nothing other than perfect charity.56 The teleological clarity provides a criterion for discernment: practices and doctrines are evaluated based on whether they cultivate charity. Cassian also made seminal contributions to the development of lectio divina as a contemplative practice. He described how Egyptian monks practiced continual scriptural meditation by memorizing and repeating passages throughout the day. Cassian’s teaching on unceasing prayer had a profound influence on Christian spirituality. In Conference 10, he presents the “formula of piety”—a short prayer verse repeated constantly: “O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalm 70:1). This prayer anticipates the tradition of the Jesus Prayer.57 While avoiding Origen’s speculative excesses, Cassian preserved the core Origenian-Evagrian teaching on divinization, expressing it in accessible language for Western readers. Cassian stresses that theosis occurs through progressive transformation, which requires a lifelong cooperation between divine grace and human effort. He articulates synergy: God initiates salvation and provides the grace enabling the response, but the human soul must actively cooperate.58 Cassian gives sustained attention to poverty and humility as foundational monastic virtues, emphasizing that voluntary poverty liberates the human soul from avarice and anxiety.
As mentioned above, the Egyptian spiritual tradition understood the ultimate purpose of the Christian life as theosis—transformative participation in divine life. This process involves restoring the divine image defaced by sin, conforming to Christ’s likeness, and opening oneself to the Spirit’s sanctifying grace within the church community. Following Origen, the tradition emphasizes that spiritual maturity develops progressively through stages: from active virtue to natural contemplation and to mystical theology. The developmental understanding recognizes that conversion is the beginning, not the conclusion, of the spiritual journey. The Egyptian spiritual masters also insist that authentic spirituality culminates in love toward God and neighbor. Love toward God is manifested as an unceasing longing, while love toward neighbor is manifested concretely in hospitality and sharing. The Desert tradition emphasizes welcoming strangers as Christ himself. Monks relinquish private property and hold possessions communally. The economic practice embodies the theological conviction that all goods come from God and should serve the common good.
As indicated above, while the Egyptian ascetics withdrew from cities, this withdrawal itself constituted a prophetic critique of the church’s accommodation to imperial power. Their departure protested the embrace of prestige and political influence. Occasionally, desert monks intervened directly when their conscience demanded it, but these interventions emerged from a contemplative depth rather than an ambition for power.59 The early Egyptian tradition practiced spiritual exegesis, seeking the transformative depths of Scripture. The test of authentic interpretation is whether it cultivates charity. Any reading that produces hatred indicates a misunderstanding. While acknowledging Christ’s future return, the Egyptian tradition emphasizes that God’s kingdom has already arrived and can be experienced in the present moment. Thus, monastic communities embodied kingdom values, that is, shared possessions, mutual service, peaceful conflict resolution, and hospitality.60 The tradition also rejects escapist apocalypticism, which focuses on end-times timetables. Instead, it emphasized present faithfulness and building communities that reflect divine love. The Egyptian spiritual masters achieved a remarkable integration of contemplative prayer and active service. They refused the false dichotomy between interior transformation and engagement with the needs of others.
In Chapter II, this paper has explained that far-right Korean Protestantism emerges from fundamentalist theology emphasizing biblical inerrancy and dispensational eschatology. It fuses with anti-communist ideology, providing emotional intensity. Fundamentalism embodies itself in figures like Kwang-hoon Jeon, who exhibit a dualistic worldview, prosperity theology, an absence of genuine contemplative depth, and aggressive political mobilization. Now, we can systematically compare these characteristics with the radically different spiritual vision of Egyptian ascetics. This section seeks alternatives to overcome the limitations and dangers of farright Protestantism.
First, contemporary Korean Christianity desperately needs to recover the interiority that the Egyptian tradition emphasizes as the foundation for an authentic spiritual life. Far-right Protestant movements externalize spiritual struggles by projecting internal conflicts onto designated enemies. LGBTQ, Muslims, and progressives become scapegoats for anxieties rooted in the unexamined fears, unhealed traumas, and unacknowledged desires of practitioners. The Egyptian spiritual tradition, particularly through Evagrius’s sophisticated analysis, insists that authentic spiritual combat occurs within the consciousness rather than against external enemies. As indicated above, Evagrius’ teachings on the eight evil thoughts provide a remarkably sophisticated and psychologically astute analysis of destructive inner pattern, such as anger (ruminating on offenses and fantasizing about revenge), avarice (anxiously hoarding and fantasizing about wealth), pride (attributing success to self rather than grace), acedia (producing restlessness and abandonment of spiritual practice). These patterns distort perception, corrupt motivation, and produce harmful behavior unless they are identified and therapeutically addressed. Therefore, Korean churches should develop comprehensive formation programs that teach contemplative practices making this interior work possible and sustainable. For instance, Lectio Divina, influenced by early Egyptian monastic literature, is a slow and meditative reading of scripture that seeks a personal encounter through text. It trains spiritual reading beyond mere information extraction.61 The Jesus Prayer, rooted in John Cassian, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” when repeated continuously, coordinates prayer with the rhythm of breathing. Gradually, it becomes an interior rhythm that unites consciousness with God.61 These disciplines, adapted from desert traditions for contemporary contexts, counteract the frenetic pace, constant digital stimulation, and addictive consumerism of modern culture. They create a contemplative space for a genuine encounter with the divine presence that transcends the far-right protestant movement.
In order to overcome the creation of an adversary figure that far-right Protestantism attacks, there is something we must remember. The purpose of contemplative practices is not to engage in narcissistic introspection, but rather to develop truthful self-knowledge, which enables an authentic relationship with God and compassionate engagement with others. Through sustained contemplative practice, Korean Christians recognize their own profound capacity for self-deception, rationalization, and destructiveness. As a result, their judgment toward others naturally softens and transforms. Awareness of one’s own desperate need for divine mercy produces genuinely merciful attitudes toward others’ failings instead of self-righteous condemnation. This interior transformation gradually manifests as increased patience in the face of frustration, compassion for the suffering of others, generosity in sharing resources, and humility in acknowledging limitations and the need for others.
Second, as discussed in chapter 2, far-right Protestant churches often exhibit either an oppressive authoritarian hierarchy in which celebrity pastors such as Jeon, wield dictatorial, unaccountable power or an atomized, consumerist individualism in which spiritual seekers shop for the religious services and entertainment that suit their preferences. Conversely, Egyptian monasticism offers a compelling alternative model: communities that practice genuine mutual submission and collective discernment, appropriately honoring the wisdom and experience of spiritual leaders without granting them absolute, unquestionable power.63 Contemporary Korean churches should consider developing small communities specifically for spiritual formation.64 These groups should be small enough to foster genuine, intimate relationships based on trust and vulnerability. They should meet regularly (weekly or biweekly) with enough consistency to develop depth. The groups should be structured around practices that foster mutual accountability and support, rather than mere socializing or superficial fellowship. These communities could study Scripture together through lectio divina, which emphasizes contemplative engagement rather than intellectual analysis or prooftexting used to support predetermined conclusions. Members can share honestly and openly about their struggles with anger, greed, lust, and pride. Such groups provide an essential context for spiritual friendship— relationships that are focused on mutually encouraging one another toward holiness rather than on mere social compatibility or shared interests.
Third, the prosperity theology of far-right Koran Protestantism and its pervasive and pernicious grip on the faith require direct confrontation with the teachings of the early Egyptian spirituality: voluntary poverty and material simplicity. These teachings are rooted in Jesus’s teachings and the prophetic tradition of wealth.65 Churches must recover and actively teach the biblical and traditional perspectives on the spiritual dangers of wealth, such as anxiety, injustice, idolatry, and alienation from God and neighbor.66 Communities could implement concrete practices of economic sharing practices, such as establishing common funds to support members facing unexpected hardship and creating systems to ensure that the genuine needs of vulnerable individuals receive attention and resources. They could also direct surplus funds toward marginalized communities suffering injustice rather than toward institutional aggrandizement through building projects. Members should be encouraged and supported to honestly examine their consumption patterns, which are shaped by advertising and cultural pressure. They should choose simplicity over accumulation and mindful purchasing over impulse buying and discover genuine joy in generous giving rather than anxious hoarding. Churches could organize workshops on simple living, financial planning that prioritizes generosity, ethical consumption that considers labor practices and environmental impact, and economic literacy that understands structural injustice. To be sure, this does not mean being impractical or irresponsible, romantically ignoring legitimate economic needs or expecting miraculous provision without prudent planning. The point is to challenge the unquestioned cultural assumption that more is always better. It means questioning whether lifestyle inflation actually serves authentic human flourishing or merely feeds endless desire. It is to recognize that accumulating more than is reasonably sufficient poses a spiritual danger.
Fourth, far-right Protestantism, including activist political mobilization, aggressive culture war engagement, and coercive evangelism, typically lacks any contemplative grounding. This produces predictable pathologies, including burnout from unsustainable frenetic activity, ideological captivity, which involves projecting personal issues onto political causes, and harmful zealotry, which involves justifying violence through religious conviction. Egyptian spirituality demonstrates that authentic action necessarily emerges from contemplative depth rather than from anxious, disconnected activity. In Contemplation in a World of Action, Thomas Merton persuasively argued that genuine social engagement requires a substantial contemplative foundation to prevent destructive activist pathologies and sustain long-term commitment.67 Korean Christians must recover this essential integration through sustained practice. Rather than rushing reflexively to activism, one should first cultivate substantial interior transformation through disciplined prayer, honest self-examination with a spiritual director, and ongoing formation in the Christian tradition. This contemplative grounding serves multiple essential functions. Through self-examination, one can see how much activism serves the ego’s need for significance, recognition, or power rather than genuine compassion.
However, this does not mean abandoning social responsibility through quietistic withdrawal from engagement with suffering and injustice. As the early Egyptian ascetics demonstrated through occasional prophetic interventions, authentic contemplation produces a heightened sensitivity to injustice and an intensified commitment to compassionate action rather than comfortable indifference or spiritualization as an escape. Contemporary Korean churches should explicitly teach and practically model that prayer and action are inseparable rather than competing for time and energy. Worship should regularly culminate in the commissioning and sending forth of Christians to serve the world, and service should consistently drive them back to prayer for wisdom, strength, and discernment. Christians should thoughtfully engage with political issues, persistently work for justice, responsibly care for creation, and advocate for the vulnerable—but always from a contemplative center rather than a frantic state of doing. They should always act with prophetic independence rather than partisan captivity.
This paper has examined far-right Korean Protestantism, particularly the Kwang-hoon Jeon phenomenon, as a countercultural response rooted in anxiety toward secularization. As secularization accelerates alongside right-wing radicalization, overcoming this requires critical reflection on the relationship between fundamentalism and secularization. The Egyptian monastic spiritual theology, developed by Origen, Evagrius, and Cassian, demonstrates an alternative spirituality capable of overcoming fundamentalism and far-right Protestantism.
The Egyptian monastic tradition offers a coherent alternative to distortions in fundamentalism. While fundamentalists use literal biblical interpretation for political agendas, Egyptian ascetics practiced spiritual exegesis for personal transformation and love. While far-right movements cultivate anger and hatred, they therapeutically addressed passions to achieve interior freedom and genuine charity. Whereas prosperity theology equates faith with material success, Egyptian monastics taught that detachment from possessions enables spiritual freedom. While contemporary movements pursue political power, early monks maintained a critical distance from worldly authority.
Fundamentally, while far-right movements exhibit dualistic worldviews dividing humanity into righteous and demonic, early Egyptian spirituality recognized everyone as bearing God’s image. The ascetics believed everyone deserved love. Their goal was overcoming the passions that create the illusion of enemies, not destroying enemies. This doesn’t imply political passivity— the Desert Fathers’ withdrawal enabled prophetic critique, and their activism emerged from contemplative depth and genuine charity.
Despite necessary cautions against romanticizing the past, the early Egyptian spiritual tradition offers Korean Christianity invaluable resources for addressing contemporary crises. This tradition demonstrates that authentic Christian spirituality fosters love, hospitality, and prophetic freedom rather than hatred, exclusion, and political idolatry. By adapting desert wisdom, Korean churches can offer genuine alternatives to both fundamentalist extremism and secular accommodation.
This study reveals that, despite claiming to defend authentic Christianity, far-right Korean Protestantism has paradoxically become one of the most secularized forms of Christianity, becoming politicized and materialized in the process. Korean Christianity stands at a crossroads. One path leads toward continued radicalization and irrelevance. The other leads toward renewal through recovering authentic spiritual tradition, offering a genuine encounter with the living God, liberation from destructive passions, growth in authentic love, and prophetic witness for justice and peace. Early Christian spirituality illuminates this second path.
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1 This work was supported by Hanshin University Research Grant.
2 André Gagné, American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times (London and New York: Routledge, 2024), 30-46, 71-84.
3 Ibid., 58-60.
4 Jae-yeong Jeong and Gyeong-hwan Choi, et al., Christian Waving the Taegeukgi: The Background, Formation and Overcoming of Far-Right Protestant Phenomena (Taegeukki reul heundeuneun geuriseudon: Gaesingyo geugu hyeonsang ui baegyeong gwa hyeongseong geurigo geukbok) (Seoul: Hanguk Gyohoe Tamgu Center/IVP, 2021), 158169.
5 Andrew L. Whitehead and Sameul L. Perry, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 1-21.
6 Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (New York: Liveright, 2020). 1-14; Sarah Posner, Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind (New York: Random House, 2021).
7 Sung-ho Kang and In-chul Kang, Modern Korea History and Protestantism (Hanguk Hyeondaesa-wa Gaesingyo) (Seoul: Dong Yeon, 2020); Jin-ho Kim, Megachurches and Well-Being Conservatism: The Birth of the New Right (Daehyeonggyohoe-wa Welbing Bosujuui: Saeroun Upa ŭi Tansaeng) (Seoul: Owol ŭi Bom, 2020).
8 Larry Shiner, “The Concept of Secularization in Empirical Research,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 6 (1967): 207-220; Anthony Giddens, Sociology, 6th edition (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009), 673-717.
9 Byan Wilson, Religion in Secular Society (London: C. A. Watts & Co., 1966); Peter Berger, The Social Reality of Religion (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973).
10 Grace Davie, The Religion in Britain since 1945: Believing without Belonging (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), 74-92; Jaeryong Song, “The Limits of Secularization Theory: The Emergence of the Desecularization Thesis,” Korean Society for Social Theory 7 (November, 2005): 121-150.
11 Won-gyu Lee, “Empirical Research on the Secularization of Religion in Korea,” Theology and the World (Shinhak gwa Segye) vol. 37, (December, 1998): 219-272.
12 The Proportion of Religious Population and Religious Distribution in Korea between 1984 and 2021 (Korea Gallup Survey, www.gallup.co.kr).
13 Tae-sik Jung, “Religious Participation in Politics from the Perspective of Secularization Theory: Focusing on American Protestant Fundamentalism,” Theological Thought (Shinhak Sasang) vol.146 (2009): 7.
14 Ibid., 7.
15 Jae-yeong Jeong and Gyeong-hwan Choi, et al., Christian Waving the Taegeukgi: The Background, Formation and Overcoming of Far-Right Protestant Phenomena, 211.
16 George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). 1-8.
17 Ibid., 141-198.
18 José Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 135-166; Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 167-198, 233-277.
19 For the influx of American fundamentalism into Korean churches and the formation of early fundamentalism in Korean Protestantism, refer to the following book. The Institute for Korean Church History Studies, ed., History of Korean Christian Thought (Hanguk Gidokgyo Sasangsa) (Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1998), 21-41.
20 Sun-gi Han, “Research on the New Apostolic Reformation,” The Institute for Theological Studies Anyang University 25 (December, 2012): 55-79.
21 Sung-ho Kang and In-chul Kang, Modern Korea History and Protestantism, 62-66.
22 Ibid., 96-99.
23 Ibid., 141.
24 Ibid., 141.
25 Ibid., 144-148.
26 Eun-sik Cho, “Controversial Issues of the Private School Act and Strategies for Christian Private Schools,” Journal of Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary (Jangshin Nondan) vol.55 (2023): 181-208.
27 This analysis of Kwang-hoon Jeon’s faith and political worldview draws primarily from his biography, with the threestage analytical framework representing my own approach. Gwanhwamun Research Institute, Jeon Kwang-hoon: The Path to Liberal Unification (Jeon Gwang-hun: Jayu Tongil ui Gil) (Seoul: New Puriten, 2024).
28 Ibid., 18-26.
29 Ibid., 34.
30 Ibid., 78-79.
31 Ibid., 88.
32 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Hunman Nature (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), 150.
33 Ibid., 171-254.
34 Gwanhwamun Research Institute, Jeon Kwang-hoon: The Path to Liberal Unification (Jeon Gwang-hun: Jayu Tongil ui Gil), 285-291.
35 Ibid., 285-291.
36 For the theological implications of early Christians’ ideas of wealth and poverty, see Justo L. González, Faith and Wealth: A History of Early Christian Ideas on the Origin, Significance, and Use of Money (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990), 92-224.
37 Gwanhwamun Research Institute, Jeon Kwang-hoon: The Path to Liberal Unification (Jeon Gwang-hun: Jayu Tongil ui Gil), 357-358.
38 Ibid., 329.
39 Jang-saeng Kim, “Jeon Kwang-hoon and His Protestant Supports,” 139-188.
40 Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009), 1-20.
41 Diana Butler Bass, Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening (New York: HarperOne, 2012), 11-102.
42 H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001). 190-229.
43 Peter Brown, Body and Society: Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York and Oxford: Columbia University Press, 1988), 210-338.
44 Origen, Traité des principes, trans. Henri Crouzel and Manlio Simonetti, Sources Chrétiennes 268 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1980), 4.2.
45 Henri Crouzel, Origen, trans. A. S. Worrall (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1989), 61-86.
46 Karen Jo Torjesen, Hermeneutical Procedure and Theological Method in Origen’s Exegesis (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1986), 108-147.
47 For a detailed explanation of Origen’s theory of the stages of spiritual growth, refer to the following primary source. Origen, The Song of Songs Commentary and Homilies, trans. R. P. Lawson Ancient Christian Writers 26 (New York: The Newman Press, 1956), 39-41.
48 Mark Edwards, Origen Against Plato (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), 87-122.
49 David Brakke, Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 47-76.
50 Evagrius, Praktikos, trans. Antoine Guillaumont and Claire Guillaumont SC 171 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1971), 1.
51 Ibid., 6. The Greek original text is as follows. πρῶτος ὁ τῆς γαστριμαργίας, καὶ μετ’ αὐτὸν ὁ τῆς πορνείας· τρίτος ὁ τῆς φιλαργυρίας· τέταρτος ὁ τῆς λύπης· πέμπτος ὁ τῆς ὀργῆς· ἕκτος ὁ τῆς ἀκηδίας· ἕβδομος ὁ τῆς κενοδοξίας· ὄγδοος ὁ τῆς ὑπερηφανίας.
52 John Eudes Bamberger trans., Evagrius Ponticus: The Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1981), Ixxxii-lxxxvii.
53 Evagrius of Pontus, “Chapters on Prayer,” in Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus, trans. Robert E. Sinkewicz (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 51-73(198-201).
54 Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 15-19.
55 Hyun Kee Na, “Ioannes Cassianus’ Criticism of the Fifth Century Gallic Aristocratic Monks and the Significance of Radical Poverty Reflected in His Monastic Literature,” Journal of the Church History Society in Korea vol.46 (April 2017), 7-38.
56 John Cassian, Collationes patrum, ed. E. Pichery SC 42 (Paris: : Les Éditions du Cerf, 1955), 1.4(81). The Latin original is as follows. Finis quidem nostrae professionis ut dicimus regnum dei seu regnum caelorum est, destination uero, id est scopos, puritas cordis, sine qua ad illum finem inp;ossibile est quempiam peruenire.
57 John Cassian, Collationes patrum, ed. E. Pichery SC 54 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1958), 10.10.
58 Hyun Kee Na, “Reassessing John Cassian’s Understanding of Deification,” Pierson Journal of Theology vol.14 (Feb., 2025), 81-110.
59 Athanasius of Alexandria, The Life of Antony: The Coptic Life and The Greek Life, trans. Tim Vivian and Apostolos N. Athanassakis (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 2003), 81.1-6 (228-230).
60 Rowan Williams, Silence and Honey Cakes: The Wisdom of the Desert (Oxford: A Lion Book, 2003), 8-14; Douglas Burton-Christie, The World in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 213-235.
61 For research on the historical development of lectio divina in Christian spirituality, particularly from Origen through John Cassian and its subsequent practical applications, refer to the following studies. Duncan Robertson, Lectio Divina: The Medieval Experience of Reading (Collegeville, Minnesota: Citercian Publications, 2011); Michael Casey, Sacred Reading: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina (Liguori, Missouri: Liguori/Triumph, 1996); James C. Wilhoit and Evan B. Howard, Discovering Lectio Divina: Bringing Scripture into Ordinary Life (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2012).
62 Christopher D. L. Johnson, The Globalization of Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer: Contesting Contemplation (London and New York: Continuum, 2012), 15-30.
63 Graham Gould, The Desert Fathers on Monastic Community (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 26-87.
64 Mi-young Kim and Soo-young Kwon, “A Pastoral-Theological Examination of Integrative Spirituality: Focusing on a Systematic Approach,” Theological Forum (Shinhak Nondan) vol.113 (September, 2023): 35-79.
65 Hyun Kee Na, “The Significance of the Ideal of Egyptian Monastic Poverty in John Cassian and Its Implications,” The Journal of Classical Studies vol.50 (2017), 111-141.
66 It should be noted that the ideas for alternatives to overcome prosperity theology are drawn not only from the spiritual theology of the Egyptian monastic tradition, but also from the following studies. Joel Robbins, Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), 80-104; Miyoung Cho, “Christian Educational Suggestions for Christians Living in a Consumer Society,” Journal of Christian Education in Korea vol.79 (September, 2024), 147-167; Jang-hyun Ryu, “A Theological Critique of the Prosperity Theology,” Theological Forum (Shinhak Nondan), vol.61 (September, 2010): 7-30.
67 Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action (Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998), 154-161.