Korean messiah : Kim Il Sung and the Christian roots of North Korea's personality cult / Jonathan Cheng.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cheng, Jonathan, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Kim, Il-sŏng, 1912-1994--Cult.

Kim, Il-sŏng.

Moffett, Samuel H--Influence.

Moffett, Samuel H.

Political leadership--Korea (North).

Political leadership.

Personality--Political aspects--Korea (North).

Personality.

Heads of state--Korea (North)--Biography.

Heads of state.

Missions, American--Korea (North)--History--20th century.

Missions, American.

Presbyterian Church--Korea (North)--History.

Presbyterian Church.

Korea (North)--Politics and government.

Korea (North).

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

viii, 745 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 25 cm

Edition:

First hardcover edition.

Other Title:

Kim Il Sung & the Christian roots of North Korea's personality cult

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Alfred A. Knopf, 2026.

Summary:

"A landmark history of North Korea, told through the rise of the Kim Dynasty and its surprising ties to American Christianity--a spectacular, penetrating account of a world like no other. North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom. For eight decades, it has marched defiantly to its own beat, shaking off its Soviet and Chinese sponsors to emerge as one of the world's most enigmatic nations-a nuclear-armed state ruled by a dictatorial dynasty unlike any the world has seen. Underpinning the state is a personality cult larger and more soaked in religiosity than those constructed by Stalin or Mao-one that, unbeknownst to the world, traces its roots back to the Christian fervor of post-Civil War America. In Korean Messiah, Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal's China bureau chief and former Korea bureau chief, takes us deep inside Pyongyang, a city once so dominated by Christianity it was known as "the Jerusalem of the East." Cheng introduces us to Samuel Moffett, a Presbyterian missionary from Madison, Indiana who would venture into Pyongyang at the turn of the nineteenth century and build a remarkable following-one that would include the very Kim family that today presides over one of the world's harshest persecutors of the Christian faith. At the center of this story-its messiah-is North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, son of two fervent Christians and progenitor of an ideology known as Kimilsungism, an exercise in idolatry that has elevated him, and his successor son and grandson, to Christ-like status, from the humble manger where he was born to the subway seat on which the venerated leader once placed his posterior, cordoned off as if it were a religious relic. Drawing on letters, diaries, and never-before-unearthed archival material that temper and oftentimes contradict the glorious historical record promoted by Kim Il Sung's legions of hagiographers, Korean Messiah tells the true story of a country shrouded in fictions"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue: An unexpected invitation

Act I: The Jerusalem of the East

Farewell to Madison

Hermit kingdom

Arrival

The untamed Northwest

The destruction of Pyongyang

A new hope

A new threat

A church rises

Act II: The bible-woman's son

A prayer for Korea

A Christian home

Render unto Caesar

Revolutionary days

Wilsonian ideals

Mansei

Specter of socialism

An education

Ch'angdOk days

A father's legacy

The Sunday school teacher

Divine intervention

ShintM shrines

Act III: The sun of the nation

A speech in Pyongyang

A scramble for Korea

A Moses-like leader for Korea

A collision course

Pastor versus church

A church loyal to the leader

A permanent division

De-Stalinization

A cult is born

Rival faiths

A cult without parallel

Spreading the gospel of Kim

Faith of a child

Epilogue: Immortality

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 559-704) and index.

"A Borzoi Book" -- title page verso.

Other Format:

Online version Cheng, Jonathan. Korean messiah

ISBN:

9781524733490

1524733490

OCLC:

1553178099