Huntley, Martha. To Start A Work: The Foundations of Protestant Mission in Korea (1884-1919). Seoul, Korea: Presbyterian Church of Korea, 1987. First Edition. [2001]
Large softcover, 7 1/4 x 10, a couple of creases to the binding, bump to top right corner. xiii. 660 (1) clean pp. Very good.
"In 1884 and 1885 the foreign mission boards of the Northern branches of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches of America appointed four couples, a bachelor and a middle-aged woman to go to Korea to 'start a work.'...This book deals with that work and the workers, the coming of Protestantism to Korea, how it changed Korean life and thought, how Korea influenced Christianity and changed the missionaries.
"I have attempted to trace some patterns alluded to but not closely examined by other books on missions: the participation of missionaries in so many of Korea's significant moments and movements, from the little war of 1884 to the murder of the Queen in 1895 and the independence movement of 1919; the role of missionaries as agents of change, their contribution to the modernization of Korea, including the freeing of slaves, the enfranchisement of butchers, the release of women from lives of seclusion and servitude and the development of nationalism. I was also interested in the problem of messengers bearing a message so much greater than themselves, and in the role of women in the missions and in the church." - from the Preface.