Evangelizing Korean Women and Gender in the Early Modern World

Susan Broomhall leads the Gender and Women's History Research Centre at the Australian Catholic University. Her research explores women's experiences and gender ideologies in shaping the early modern world.

Susan Broomhall’s Evangelizing Korean Women and Gender in the Early Modern World unearths the rare experience of Koreans who engaged with Catholic missions in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—the period considered one of the most chaotic times in Korean history, dotted with political upheavals and wars with Japan (1592–1598) and China (1627 and 1636). These tumultuous wartime experiences, in turn, offered an unexpected haven for Koreans who entered the global Christian community and whose lives were subsequently documented in mission archives. Meticulously weaving together rich and complex missionary accounts, this book examines how Jesuit missionaries viewed Korean women as both vulnerable and key figures in their evangelizing efforts. It opens a new window not only onto the lives and experiences of Koreans as recorded, circulated, and commemorated in mission archives but also on how “gender ideologies” influenced “interactions between missionary men and Korean women” (2).[...][T]his book brings to light fresh perspectives on Korean women and men across social strata, through interactions that transcended the gender boundaries prescribed by Confucian norms in Chosŏn society. By tracing the intersections of gender, faith, and cultural identity, it offers nuanced insights and valuable resources for scholars of Korean history, religion, and cross-cultural exchange in early modern East Asia and beyond.

• AcknowledgementsNotes on TextList of MapsTimeline of Key EventsIntroductionChapter 1: EncounterChapter 2: CommunityChapter 3: SufferingChapter 4: MobilityConclusionsBibliographyIndex