In the 21st century, the era of change in Northeast Asia, Korean Christianity encounters a crisis of identity being Korean or Christian. Korean people tend to regard Christianity as a western religion connected with America and its faults and negative sides are widely broadcasted through the mass communications. Futhermore, the confucian fundamentalism revives and focuses on Korean nationality and the indigenous national religions has emphasis on their national identity. In order to respond their challenges to Korean Christianity, she should find her national identity in Korean people’s distinctions which can be found in the indigenous religions of Korea. The author finds some Korean indigenous distinctions with an analysis on the indigenous religious phenomena by using Friedrich Heiler’s analysis frame of religious phenomena. These are as follows: 1, 3, 7, 21, 40, 100 days as sacred times; mountains, divine place, and council rooms as sacred places; religious specialists as sacred persons; traditional religious words and writings as sacred words and writings; purification, sacrifice, unification as sacred practices; the concept of reconciliation as a sacred concept. These indigenous distinctions can be applied to Korean Christianity to be Korean and be indigenous Christian which may solve the problem of the identity crisis. Some cautions can be noticed when they are applied to and used by Korean Christianity. These distinctions must be contextualized critically by the consensus among the intercultural hermeneutic community in Korean and the world Christians. Through the process of the critical contextualization of Korean Christianity, she can be Korean and be Christian also in Korea.

• 노윤식(성결대 선교신학)