An Oral History Study of Women’s Religious Lives: Church Lives of Elderly Women in A Small Urban Church in Korea

The study of women’s religious lives requires the application of oral history. Women carry lifelong experiences of internal and external conflicts that arise from the exceptional gender roles imposed on them throughout significant life events and daily life. These experiences include evidence of the inhumanity of patriarchal systems and the strategies women have employed to grapple with such systems. Patriarchy has systematically coerced women into silence regarding these experiences in the public sphere. Consequently, women have expressed their lived realities not through official records but in private forms, such as stories and oral narratives. In their religious lives, women have similarly conflicted, negotiated, and overcome gender norms. The true essence of women’s religious experiences is more effectively revealed through oral narratives rather than official documents. Between the 1960s and 1990s, Korean Protestant churches experienced significant quantitative growth. Small churches accounted for 80% of Korean churches, and women made up 55% of church members. To understand the factors behind this growth, it is necessary to examine the roles and contributions of women and small churches. This study explores how elderly women in small urban churches in Korea have used their church lives to lead active, self-directed lives, using oral history as a research method. LP Church, for example, is a small church with about 90 members. It was established in 1967 by rural migrants to Seoul during Korea’s rapid urbanization and compressed modernization. Over time, the church and its members have adapted to the changing dynamics of urbanization, maintaining a fluid and flexible character. Elderly women in LP Church have maximized their religious lives within these fluid circumstances to lead active, self-directed lives both in their church and in their households. From the 1960s to the 1990s, during Seoul’s rapid urbanization, women played a crucial role in the remarkable growth of Korean Protestant churches. They actively participated in small church communities that offered opportunities to gain leadership roles and status, and they expanded their faith to include their children, husbands, families, and social networks.