Sung-Deuk Oak

Professor Sung-Deuk Oak, the first holder of the Dongsoon Im and Mija Im Endowed Chair of Korean Christianity, joined the Department in 2005. His scholarly expertise encompasses the history of Korean Christianity, with a particular emphasis on its East Asian and global interconnections. His initial research critically examined the interactions between Christianity and indigenous Korean religious culture within broader sociopolitical frameworks. Notably, his monograph, The Making of Korean Christianity: Encounters of Protestantism with Korean Religions, 1876~1915 (Baylor University Press, 2013), the inaugural volume of the Studies in World Christianity series, was recognized as the “book of the year” by Books and Culture in 2013.

Professor Oak’s extensive publication record demonstrates a sustained and multifaceted engagement with the history of Korean Christianity. This includes the editorial and publication of primary source materials, exemplified by the five-volume Horace G. Underwood Papers (2005-2010), the four-volume Samuel A. Moffett Papers (2017), and the seven-volume Sources of Modern Nursing in Korea, 1886~1945 (2011-2025) and two volumes of Pictorial History of Modern Nursing in Korea, 1885-1945 (2012, 2025).

Furthermore, he has authored significant historical monographs in the Korean language, including the three-volume The History of the Korean Bible Society, 1876-2002 (1994, 1995, 2020), A New History of Early Korean Protestantism (2016), The Making of Korean Christianity (2020, awarded “the book of the year” by the Korean Christian Publication Association), A Historian’s Diary amidst the Decline of the Protestant Churches in Korea, 2016-2021 (2021), The First Events of the Early Korean Protestant Churches (revised and enlarged ed. 2025), the three-volume Stories of Early Korean Protestantism (2025), and a forthcoming History of Modern Nursing in Korea, 1885-1945.

His scholarly contributions will be further augmented by his forthcoming second English-language monograph, Pyongyang Christianity and Seoul Christianity, 1876-1948.

For more information, please visit his blog: “Online Archives of Korean Christianity” [http://koreanchristianity.cdh.ucla.edu/]