'God Has Chosen Us, Too!: Christian Zionism in South Korea'

The Global Studies Seminar presents “God Has Chosen Us, Too!: Christian Zionism in South Korea” by Denison University’s Professor of Religion and Women’s and Gender Studies and Chair of Religion K. Christine Pae.

Pae’s presentation critically examines the political history of Christian Zionism in South Korea as a theo-political expression of “chosen peoples nationalism,” an ideology that imagines South Korea, Israel, and the United States as God’s elected nations. Despite the absence of a historical Jewish presence in Korea, Korean evangelical support for Israel has grown into a potent nationalist and imperialist project. Rooted in American missionary influence and Cold War anti-communism, Korean Christian Zionism has been militarized through state-led nation- building under dictatorships and remains deeply entangled with U.S. empire. By casting both Jerusalem and North Korea as a eschatological endpoint, Korean Christian Zionists frame reunification as part of an apocalyptic divine plan centered on Israel’s restoration. This ideology fuels Korea-led global missions especially in Muslim-majority countries (10/40 window), anti- Muslim sentiment, and moral crusades against LGBTQ rights. Through media analysis, Pae analyzes how Korean Zionists mobilize religious affect, historical revisionism, and fantastical theology to sacralize militarism and erase Palestine. Ultimately, the essay argues that Korean Christian Zionism is less about solidarity with Jews than about advancing a neo-imperial vision of global Christian dominance, rooted in fantasies of chosenness, moral exceptionalism, and nostalgia for authoritarian order.

Pae is an author of “A Transpacific Imagination of Theology, Ethics, and Spiritual Activism: Doing Feminist Ethics Transnationally” (2023) and co-editor of “Searching for the Future in the Past: Reclaiming Feminist Theological Visions” (2024) and “Embodying Antiracist Christianity: Asian American Theological Resources for Just Racial Relations” (2023).