Alumni Profile: Dr. Myung Soo Park

Myung Soo Park is a professor of Church History at Seoul Theological University, located in Bucheon, South Korea. He is currently the director of the Institute for the Study of Modern Christianity, a chief editor and publisher of Holiness Church and Theology, and the president of the Korean Church History Society. He received his S.T.M. from School of Theology and Ph.D. from the Department of Religious and Theological Studies at Boston University in 1992.

Both his S.T.M. thesis, “Roots of the Korean Evangelical Holiness Church with special reference to the doctrine of Holiness” and his Ph.D. dissertation “Concepts of Holiness in American Evangelicalism” under the direction of Dr. Dana Robert are considered ground-breaking research, shedding new light on the origins of Korean Evangelical Holiness Church (KEHC), the third largest denomination in Korea. In particular, his research has contributed to shift the historiography of the KEHC from a somewhat nationalistic “Self-born” theory into a “Trans-pacific” theory by relating the origins of the Korean Holiness Churches to the American Wesleyan Holiness movement. In 2007, celebrating its centennial, the KEHC published One Hundred Year History of the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church, Dr. Park played an important role as the editorial supervisor.

His current research interests include the global Holiness movement, global Pentecostalism, and the relationship between Korean society and Christianity. He has written numerous articles and book reviews in Wesleyan Theological Journal, Journal of Pentecostal Studies, and Church History and he is an author of more than thirty books. He was the founding director of the KEHC Historical Research Center, which now has changed its name to the Institute for the Study of Modern Christianity. He also served as the associate editor of the Church history from 2004 to 2009, and was the academic dean of Seoul Theological Seminary from 2005-2010. He is also an ordained pastor of the KEHC.

By Hye Jin Lee

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