• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.29
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• pp.101-133
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• 2016

The term 'myth' is modern terminology. It was introduced to the East Asia from late 19th century to early 20th century. Under the rule of Japanese imperialism, some Japanese historians insisted that Dangun(檀君) has no relation with Kochoson(古朝鮮). Some Korean historians have refuted their conjecture. The arguments between Japanese and Korean historians bring about the motives of making the concept of Shinwa(神話) The purpose of this study is to investigate the historical procedures of making myth of Homogeneous Korean as a case study of "teaching religion". For the scholar the historic beginning is to be distinguished from later myths of origins. The scholars, particularly among the historians of China, Japan and Korea take it as the beginning of the history to investigate myths, for the ending parts of narratives are in themselves involved in a social constructs in order to give legitimacy to the story. It is apparent to satisfy for the current social demands of the nation-states building. It is also an act of casting and projecting their national values into the far distant past which is considered to be authentic and authorative. The western term 'myth' had been made up in Japanese historical context in order to build "nation-state concept". In Korea, the myth of homogeneous ethnicity of Koreans had been also reconstructed as modern myth during the late 19th and the early 20th century. We can call it the invention of the tradition accordingly.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.22
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• pp.15-50
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• 2012

This paper consists of two parts. The first part presents a review of academic studies on the concept of religion in Western countries; why the subject matters and how it has been discussed and evaluated. The second part contains a self-reflection of the conceptual analyses of religion from the Korean point of view; how we evaluate "their" studies and an attempt to understand the more than one hundred years of reception of the concept of religion in Korea. The idea of religion is an important part of the modern "map" that Korean society was obliged to accept in the middle of its crisis during the second half of the nineteenth century. Examining this process and the context of its reception can help to understand our intellectual and religious heritage. In this vein, it is of primary importance to consider how the modern concept of "Jonggyo" is different from the traditional concept of "Gyo".

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.50
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• pp.33-68
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• 2024

Byun Chan-rin (1934-1985) intertextually reconciled important world religions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism from the perspective of Pungryu (風流), also known as Seon (僊), which he considered to be the foundation of the Korean spirit. Naturally, his category of Pungryu also encompassed modern Korean national religions. He emphasized the necessity of a neo-religion in order to overcome the exclusive limitations of various world religions as each was bound by their own tradition, and hence deviated from the mainstream of the Great Way of Pungryu. He also appreciated various indigenous new religions in modern Korea, including concept of epoch-making and the practices of Kang Il-sun (姜一淳), as "neo-religion" that could overcome the limitations of world religions by elevating the magical activities of shamanism to the Great Way. His appraisal was positive, and he refrained from dismissing this growing movement as "superstitions" or "new emerging religions" embraced by the common people. From his viewpoint, the important indigenous new religions in modern Korea were not the ruling religions of the empire but alternative religions of the colonial people, and the concept of "Great Opening of the Later World (後天開闢)" in modern indigenous Korean religions and Kang's idea of the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence (解冤相生) were creative evolutions of religion that overcame the contradictions and limitations of the world's religions. He presented the insight of a spiritual seeker who heralded the era of "SBNR" (spiritual but not religious), which seeks new possibilities for spirituality by escaping limitations of religiosity.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.25_1
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• pp.189-229
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• 2015

동아시아의 19세기는 근대화 물결 안에서 변화의 시대였다. 중국, 한국, 일본은 식민지적 압박가운데 정치적 위기를 대면하였고 선진 문물과 기독교는 사회, 문화, 종교, 사상의 변화를 가져왔다. 신종교운동도 각 나라에서 다양한 형태와 철학으로 등장하였다. 이들의 근본적인 사상은 일반적으로 불교, 유교, 도교, 신교, 샤머니즘과 연관되어 있었다. 근대한국이 정치적 혼란을 겪을 때 여러 신종교들이 1860년을 전후로 나타났다. 나중에 천도교가 된 동학, 증산계, 대종교, 원불교 가운데 증산계 계통의 대순진리회는 사회-종교적인 영향력 차원에서 한국에서 가장 성공적인 신종교 운동이다. 그들은 상제가 스스로 구천에서 혼탁한 삼계를 회복하기 위해 직적 내려왔음을 따르고 있다. 그렇다면, 구천상제에 대한 가르침이 어떻게 이해되고 있을까? 대순진리회의 근본적인 우주관은 무엇일까? 또, 이것이 일본의 유명한 천리교와 중국(대만)의 대규모 일관도와 어떻게 구분될까? 이 논문은 청계탑의 상직적인 콘셉트 안에서 대순의 상제관과 우주관의 관계를 이해하고자 대순의 경전격인 전경, 현무경, 예화들인 심우도, 사신도, 12지신도 등을 탐구할 것이면 이 한국의 대표적인 신종교의 우주관을 천지공사와 후천의 가르침과 연관하여 논리적으로 접근해석 할 것이다.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.35
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• pp.73-107
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• 2020

Daesoon Jinrihoe tends to be perceived as a 'nationalistic religion' by both internal members of the religious body and outside scholars of religious studies. However, the character of this particular nationalistic religion is rather complex. On top of emphasizing the special status of the Korean ethnic group while focusing on nationalism as a nationalistic religion, Daesoon Jinrihoe futrther asserts an implication of the universality of world religion aiming to bring relief to humankind and the world. This dynamic is one of the specificity of nationalistic religion and also the universality of world religion. However, this dual logic of specificity and universality is not characteristic of only Daesoon Jinrihoe. Many religions in the world have also exhibited duplicity as nationalistic religions and world religions. And this thesis pays attention to Sectarian Shinto as it formed in modern Japan. Kyoha Shinto formed when the modern Japanese government established the national Shinto system which had a total of 13 sects. Most of them do not only call themselves a nationalistic religion, inheriting the ethnic tradition of Japanese people, but also jump into overseas missionary work. This started during the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars. With that in mind, how did the overseas missionary work of Sectarian Shinto aspire for status as a world religion while maintaining their identities as nationalistic religions? Furthermore, how did their movements fare in their efforts to become world religions? Thus, this thesis aims to examine the possibility Daesoon Jinrihoe becoming a world religion through some cases of Sectarian Shinto that showed the duplicity as nationalistic religions and world religions. Also, this thesis makes suggestions regarding the future direction of Daesoon Jinrihoe. As such, this paper aims to review the new direction of Daesoon Jinrihoe as it stands on the borderline between being a nationalistic religion and a world religion. This is done by examining the historical flow of theory regarding 'nationalistic religion' or 'minjung religion' which have long been discussed in Korean society. Also examined is the case of Won Buddhism which likewise aims to simultaneosuly be both a nationalistic religion in Korea and a world religion abroad.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.37
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• pp.141-190
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• 2021

In early modern Korea, the founders of three main-stream indigenous new religions, Choi Je-woo (崔濟愚), Kang Il-sun (姜一淳), and Park Jungbin (朴重彬), were all ruined yangban, who could no longer maintain the social dignity of yangban. Prior to their regular religious activities, they earned livings as rural teachers, peasants, merchants, and fortune-tellers. They were marginalized for having declined from upper-class nobles to lower-class people. Due to their subalternal status, they religiously represented the inexpressible aspirations and resentments held by various subalterns. The millennial movements of marginal religions in the late Joseon Dynasty exposed and deviated from the fetters of the established order, but they did not propose a new alternative order to replace it. Unlike these millennial movements, Choi Je-woo, Kang Il-sun, and Park Jungbin all proposed utopian visions of post-subalternal alternative religions that systematically presented and practiced new alternative worldviews characterized by the "Great Opening of the Later World (後天開闢)." The world they longed for was one wherein anti-subalternal social regulation were overthrown, the oppression of various subalterns end, and the established social order was replaced. In this article, I have argued that three main-stream indigenous Korean new religions, Donghak (Eastern Learning), the Jeungsan-inspired religious movements, and Wonbulgyo (Won Buddhism) are utopian alternative religions. I made this argument by analyzing some aspects by which they represented subalterns and offered subalterns a new religio-social status.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.25
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• pp.195-241
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• 2014

When the objective of a modern state focuses on securing basic human right of an individual and realizing public good in a state community, the direction of policy on religion of a state can not deviate far away from such objective. Meanwhile, the policy on religion of modern states today mostly takes the church and state separation principle as its basis. The states secure religious freedom and enforce the separation of church and state by differentiating religion and the mundane world and establishing the relation between the two. This study examined the church and state separation principle, which is an important system device of recent age nation-states, and explored the possibility of more active policy on religion. First, the relationship among religion, state and politics was examined from more structural and functional viewpoint. Next, how the separation of church and state principle has become recent age political principle and what was the settlement process of church and state separation in other countries are summarized. At last, the actual situation of church and state separation in Korea, the structural limitation of it and the direction of policy on religion are examined. The application experience of church and state separation principle is quite short in Korean society. In addition, when there is a religious issue, there is the trend of evading the issue unconditionally or responding to it passively. However, the religious culture in Korean society is one of the biggest cultural resources and social assets. Since it has big potential as driving force for the advance of state, it is regretful to leave religion alone as it is. Therefore, this study explored the original limitations of church and state separation principle which are limiting the religious policy of of state and searched for a theoretical basis for the utilization of resources in religious culture as driving force of state by overcoming the limitations. This study examined the situation in Korea by paying attention to how differently the church and state separation principle is being applied in other states, The separation of church and state, which is the basis of policy on religion in Korea, belongs to 'similar separation type' like in Japan; therefore, there is a trend of doctrinaire interpretation or arbitrary interpretation. This study suggests that it is required to overcome this limping state and settle down the church and state separation principle, which fits to Korean society, as a social and cultural practice. It is also suggested that more active policy on religion would be enforced by wider interpretation of church and state separation.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.24_1
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• pp.145-208
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• 2014

아시아 국가들은 근대사에 들어 서양 제국주의와 식민지주의로 인해 정치·사회적 과도기를 경험하였다. 지역종교들도 이러한 영향에서 예외는 아니었는데 19-20세기에 나타난 신종교들이 그 좋은 사례들이다. 한국도 이러한 지구적인 현상에 포함되었다. 주변국들의 문화적 계몽주의와 조선왕조의 쇄국정책 사이의 정치적 혼란은 방향 감각 없는 국가적 위기를 초례했고, 정치·사회적 부패와 국가적 불안정은 중·하류층 시민들로 하여금 고통스러운 삶을 극복하기 위해 새로운 진리나 믿음을 찾게 동요하였다. 근대사에 근원을 둔 대순진리회는 한국에서 가장 영향력 있고 성공적인 신종교일 뿐 아니라 현대사회의 기존 종교들에게도 많은 도전을 주고 있다. 그렇다면 이 신종교운동의 근원은 어디에 있을까? 그들의 교리나 가르침은 어떤 것일까? 다른 신종교적 현상들과 어떻게 구별될까? 이 논문은 창시자인 강증산의 역사적인 출현과 업적을 "성취관념"에서 분석해 볼 뿐 아니라 대순진리회가 기존의 유교, 불교, 도교의 가르침을 단순히 혼합한 것이 아니라 음양합덕, 신인조화, 해원상생, 도통진경의 특유한 가르침들은 미륵사상, 천지공사, 인존사상과 함께 그들의 최고신인 구천상제가 후천세계를 위해 성취한 완전한 미션을 반영하는 창조적인 사상임을 논증할 것이다.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.149-156
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• 2014

In the Russian 'spirituality' which played an important role in realization of 'abstraction' in modern arts, the three elements of Universalism - Oriental thoughts, Universal ideas, and Froebelian influence - can be found with no difficulty. More notable is the fact that, along with theosophy, the emergence of modern existential thoughts such as Bergson, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche is a new search and a new recognition of nature and human as views of panentheism and humanism, essentially of Humane and Divine. Therefore, it goes without saying that the thoughts constituting the Suprematism or Constructivism in Russia are, in a word, implicit in the existential humanistic ideas of Panpneumatism or Panentheism that is explained as the nature of Russian religious ideas. Furthermore, which is not only Suprematist's metaphysical principle but also the expression of universal thoughts; interestingly, which is closely akin to several Oriental mystic ideas including Taoist thoughts, as well as the contents of Universalism including mystic Christianity, by extension, which ideas and principles have a remarkable resemblance with thoughts and principles of Froebel.

• Journal of Korean Historical Folklife
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• no.52
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• pp.197-250
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• 2017

Many kinds of ritual manual books for the four ceremonies (coming-of-age, wedding, funeral, and ancestral rites) were published and transcribed during the Japanese Colonial Period. The ritual manuals are classified by 5 different types: 'ritual standards', 'ritual books for the four ceremonies', 'ritual books for the written prayers', 'religious ceremonial books', and 'general manners books'. All of them contributed much to the formation of folk rituals and religions, even though the purpose and contents of each book were different. The ritual manuals were not intellectual results of elites, but rather compilations of pre-modern ritual books and contemporary manners. These were widely spread among the people with the help of modern printing techniques. The ritual manuals aimed at common readers who wanted to look for ritual references easily. They were not just made for the special upper class. We can understand the contexts and characteristics of folk ritual and religion of the $20^{th}$ century by comprehending the ritual manuals of the Japanese Colonial Rule.