Biography
BA, MDiv, MTh, PhD
Dongjun Seo works on the modern history of Christianity, with a particular interest in Korea and its place in World Christianity. He completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2023, supervised by Professor Brian Stanley, with a thesis on the search for cooperation and unity among Korean evangelicals between 1945 and 1997. He previously took an MTh in World Christianity at Edinburgh, after studying theology at Chongshin University and Chongshin Theological Seminary in South Korea. Before joining the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in 2026, he undertook a one-year research project on the religious Cold War, funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea, and worked as a part-time lecturer at Korean Bible University.
Research
Dongjun Seo's research sits at the intersection of religion, politics, and global history in the twentieth century. Over the course of that century, South Korea emerged as a dual powerhouse — an economic success story and, at the same time, one of the world's most dynamic centres of Christianity. Working outward from this modern history of Korean Protestantism, his research connects several fields: the global history of evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, the religious dimensions of the Cold War, and the transnational currents of Christian influence linking Korea, Asia, and the wider world.
His Leverhulme project, Religious Transnationalism during the Cold War: The Global Significance of Kyung-Chik Han, examines Kyung-Chik Han (1903–2000), a North Korean refugee pastor and a leading figure of Protestant Christianity in South Korea whose influence reached well beyond Korea. Drawing on bilingual archival research and oral history in South Korea and the United States, it explores how Korean Protestantism became an active agent, and not merely a recipient, of transnational Christian influence during the Cold War.
Research interests: Korean Christianity; evangelicalism and Pentecostalism; the religious Cold War; transnational religious networks; World Christianity; Christian unity and mission.
Publications
Peer-reviewed articles
- ‘The 1973 Billy Graham Crusade in Seoul: Korean Protestant Exceptionalism and American Uniqueness’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 77, no. 1 (January 2026): 120-41. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046925000016.
- ‘Testing the Spirits?: The Theological Controversy Surrounding David Yong-Gi Cho and the World’s Largest Church, 1981-1994’, Studies in World Christianity 31, no. 2 (July 2025): 151-70. https://doi.org/10.3366/swc.2025.0508.
- ‘Redefining Evangelicalism from the Margins: South Korean Student Evangelical Experiments, 1986–89’, Studies in Church History 61 (May 2025): 586-608. https://doi.org/10.1017/stc.2024.51.
- ‘Ambiguities in the Search for Christian Unity: The General Council of Protestant Evangelical Missions in Korea, 1905–1912’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 73, no. 2 (2022): 348–67. Joint Winner of the 2021 World Christianities Essay Prize. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046921002207.
Book Chapters
- ‘The Holy Spirit and Capitalism: The Making of Yonggi Cho’s Pneumatology in the Context of Korea's Economic Growth’, in John Maiden (ed.), Evangelicalism and the Holy Spirit (submitted).
Translations (from English to Korean)
- 그랜트 왜커, 서동준 역, 빌리 그래함: 한영혼을 위한 발걸음 (서울: 선한청지기, 2021); Grant Wacker, One Soul at a Time: The Story of Billy Graham (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2019).
Book Reviews
- Review of Adopting for God: The Mission to Change America through Transnational Adoption, Studies in World Christianity 32, no. 2 (July 2026): 244-46.
- Review of Robert Louis Stevenson and the Pacific: The Transformation of Global Christianity, International Bulletin of Mission Research 49, no. 4 (October 2025): 339-41.
