• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.61-87
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• 2022

This article compares the concepts of divine incarnation as expounded in Daesoon Thought and in Christianity and questions the essence of the divinity in both traditions. In Daesoon Thought, The Supreme God, Sangje, saw major disorganization leading to extreme violence and doom and decided to incarnate on earth under the human form of Kang Jeungsan (1871-1909). Then the living God taught the solution to human suffering through the revelations he sent in 1917 to Jo Cheol-Je, or Jo Jeongsan (1895-1958) and the revelations were passed on to Dojeon Park Wudang who in 1969 founded Daesoon Thought. In Christianity, God incarnated in his son, Jesus Christ, who allowed for the radical transformation of the condition of man through his physical sacrifice. Daesoon differs in that Sangje did not offer himself as sacrifice when he came on earth but reorganized the world and taught how to apply benevolence to establish the Earthly Paradise. The affirmation that Daesoon Jinrihoe is both monotheistic and polytheistic is then analyzed. If the concept of monotheism seems to differ vastly between the two traditions, it appears that biblical monotheism is itself relatively young in the history of world religions so that Christianity has ancient roots germane to those of Daesoon Jinrihoe. The article concludes on the originality of this religion: though it is built on Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, it has transformed their vision of the deity and of its message in a most convincing manner.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.35
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• pp.181-216
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• 2020

The incarnation of Jesus and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being are important theological theories in their respective religions, Christianity and Daesoon Jinrihoe. Both theories are the doctrinal devices necessary for the religious description of each religion. However, this kind of study is likely to result in a theological study that generates religious apologia or explanations. Therefore, it is impossible and meaningless to define the theory of another religion as meta-discourse in terms of one's own religious viewpoint. From a traditional theological point of view, the incarnation is an exceptionalist case wherein God descended as a human being named Jesus to save humanity from original sin. In the case of Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being, its religious features appear in various forms, so the attempt to unify these two is not an objective method of religious studies. However, this paper aims to find the religious significance of Jesus' incarnation and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being by understanding them from a third-person terminology or third-person religious viewpoint rather than from a specific theological position. To this end, this paper will use Kim Jong-seo's position that the concept of Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being was borrowed from the concept of the incarnation of Jesus as the premise of the research generated in this paper. Therefore, this paper avoids the quest for "Total Christ" or "Total Jeungsan" that integrates and views the divine and human elements of Jesus and Jeungsan. This is because such a research method becomes a theological study. Instead, it excludes transcendental elements or metaphysical aspects that discuss the divine pre-existences of Jesus and Jeungsan and clarifies the significance of the incarnation and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being at the physical level in terms which are objective and verifiable. According to this research methodology, this paper develops a discussion after presupposing the hypothetical names of "incarnationist religion" and "divine descent in human avatar religion." However, the two presuppositions mentioned above contain elements of criticism that they are materialistic interpretations that completely eliminate connotations of divinity and religious significance. Nevertheless, it can be said that the two presuppositions have academic significance due to the way in which they avoid the current entanglement of transcendence and instead aim for modernistic relevance.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.34
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• pp.323-351
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to reveal how Christian ideas are indicative of Theocentricity (God-centeredness) whereas Daesoon Jinrihoe ideas are indicative of anthropocentrism (human-centeredness). This task will be accomplished through comparing incarnation theology from the Bible and The Canonical Scripture. Both Christianity and Daesoon Jinrihoe affirm that there is another world above the human world that cannot be touched by human sense organs. And they both acknowledge a supreme deity who exists in that above world. Furthermore, they share the notion that the supreme deity came into the human world after being born from a woman. Where they depart is that in Christianity, this belief refers to Jesus, the one who was born in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago, whereas in Daesoon Jinrihoe, it is instead believed to be Kang Jeungsan (secular name: Kang Il-Sun) who was born in Gaekmang Village in Korea more than 100 years ago. The Christian God came to the human world as an atonement for humanity and died on the cross; The God of Daesoon Jinrihoe came to the human world to help mankind settle all enmities. To this end, he traveled through the realms of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity, to recalibrate the faulty Degree Numbers. The sin mentioned in Christianity means treachery against the supreme deity. It is implied that sin is not tolerated in the world of God. Due to this, the first man, Adam, was driven out of Eden after betraying God, and afterwards, there came to be an infranchissable boundary between the world of God and the world of man. By way of comparison the faulty Degree Numbers, mentioned in Daesoon Jinrihoe, were produced naturally. In other words, the faulty Degree Number existed not only in the human world, but also in the world of divinities, and those two worlds not only interact but also affect each other. Therefore, it can be said that the two worlds of Christianity are worlds in which order and systems are completely different, and that the two worlds of Daesoon Jinrihoe are worlds that operate under the same order and systems. Both explain via this two-part division to emphasize one part as more important than the other. Christianity regards the world of God as the ultimate source and ultimate concern of the human world and emphasizes the absolute faith and worship of God is the highest value in life. But Daesoon Jinrihoe, on the other hand, argues that the human world determines the value of the divine world, and that the co-prosperity of man and his surroundings are the core values of the human era (The Era of Human Nobility). Therefore, the root cause of Christianity's theocentricity is that among the two worlds that are completely cut off from one another, they believe in God's world as the ultimate source and purpose of the human world. The root cause of Daesoon Jinrihoe's anthropocentrism is that among the two worlds that interact and influence each other, they believe the human world determines the meaning of the divine world.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.494-504
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• 2014

This is a study of Hick's self-described Christological 'Copernican revolution.' Since Hick as a former Christian theologian did not want to reject one of the core Christian doctrines(incarnation), he presented his copernican revolution in terms of Agape Christology, an inspiration Christology and myth Christology through his Christological reinterpretation. Thus Hick's Christologies that are developed gradually are discussed and evaluated chronologically. First, agape Christology understands that the incarnation is taking place all the time in different degrees everywhere. As a result agape Christology makes Jesus as a mere human being. Second, an paradox of grace or inspiration Christology views the incarnation as the Spirit of God enabling people to fulfill the will of God by their free responses. This Christology assumes that divine incarnation can occur anywhere and anytime in any person. Thus, according to this, Jesus is not literally God incarnate as Christian claims. Third, myth Christology views that the incarnation is not literal but mythological. Though he prefers to use metaphor in his later writings because it has a more positive connotation than myth, myth and metaphor have one thing in common: they are neither literal nor historical. Hick's mythological Christology implies the denial of Jesus Christ as God incarnate. Accordingly, the researcher must conclude that Hick's Christology as copernican revolution cannot said to be a perfect solution for today's religious situation, even though it was a sincere try to communicate with pluralistic world.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.36
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• pp.299-331
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• 2020

In Daesoon Jinrihoe, the Supreme God descended into the mortal world by incarnating as Kang Jeungsan to save the world from imminent disaster. Daesoon Jinrihoe is regarded by some Chinese scholars as a new Korean Daoism, and Jo Jeong-san, the Lord of the Dao in Daesoon Jinrihoe, revealed the Supreme God's name to "Gucheon Eungwon Noeseong Bohwa Cheonjon Kangseong Sangje." Comparative studies are often conducted to highlight the similarities between this god and the nearly identically named god in Chinese Daoism. However, this Chinese god is only a god of natural phenomena and has no previous connections to descension into the world via human incarnation. My research has determined that the closest basis for comparison would be Emperor Huizong within the context of Northern Song Dynasty Daoism. In the Daoism of that time period, he was understood to be the Supreme God who incarnated as a human to save the world. Borrowing Eliade's Phenomenology of Religion, this paper has discovered that core archetypes of these two godheads are different due to their different soteriological missions. In order to solve the grievances among humans, divine beings, heaven, and the afterworld, Kang Jeungsan actualized the Earthly Paradise of Later World. Drawing on the archetypal notion of an Original Time, he reshaped the world into the beginning of chaos to completely eliminate the past, and to create a fundamentally and qualitatively new era. On the other hand, Emperor Huizong tried to absorb what he viewed as heretical Buddhism into something sacred that could be used to save people from its harm. He established a hierarchy radiating from the archetypal notion of the Center of the Universe, and he cosmosized Buddhism, which he viewed as barbaric, into that order. Their core godheads mainly show differences in terms of time and space. Additionally, their extended sub-godhead symbols are quite different. Emperor Huizong, like the common supreme gods of other religions, established law of order, and then retreated as the symbol of heaven, the abdicated god. His divine power was specialized as Lin Lingsu's symbol of natural phenomena. Kang Jeungsan was completely different. He always proved his power over the three realms through different symbols. The main symbols he used were the moon for healing and resurrection, water for establishing order from chaos, and light for enabling secular individuals to experience sacred profundity.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.639-666
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• 2010

Meditation on Christ's body is peculiar to late medieval female mysticism. The somatic meditation on Christ basically derives from the Incarnation, but the female mystics focused more on the Passion and the Eucharist, i.e., Christ's bleeding and feeding. Then, female body structure and the gender role of nurturing were combined to make facile her imitatio Christi, because the female body was aptly identified with Christ's body. The blood flowing in the side of Christ was often in medieval graphics and texts identified with a mother's milk for a baby to suck. Wound and food, suffering and nourishing, were inseparable in Christ's and the female mystics' body. Thus, in late medieval female mystical practice, it is important to note, first, female mystics' bodily pain was not to be cured but endured; second, that not only did a female mystic eat Christ's body, but her own body was to be "eaten" by poor neighbors, just as Christ gave his own body to be eaten by believers. As Christ's body is punctured, so does the female body have open holes, and as Christ is food, so is the female body. This female meditation on Christ's body developed the notion of "divine motherhood" to be accepted and enjoyed quite literally by the female mystics in late medieval times. Yet, in a sense, the female mystics' meditating on Christ's feminine function of nourishing can be considered as their accepting and interiorizing the socially constructed female gender role and thus lacking in subversive power. Nevertheless, this meditative practice at least functioned to redeem the female body which had typically been labelled inferior and even dirty. Through Christ's feminized body, the female mystics rehabilitated their bodily dimension, presenting it to be shared by male believers. Capitalizing on the gender stereotype of womanhood itself, they converted female weakness to power.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-60
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• 2018

The paper was inspired by Jung's words in the Red Book "just as Christ tormented the flesh through the spirit, the God of this time will torment the spirit through the flesh." I propose that the new form of torment in this era could be eroticism as a way of the individuation process because it seems to be one of a very few ways left to modern men to grasp the sense of permanence, the essence of the divine, without religion because of its peculiar nature of transcendence. I suppose that it is not only a man who is tortured but also god is in torment since the divine needs a man as a womb for his incarnation. Therefore I suggest that man and god are fated to seduce each other to be redeemed by each other. I imagine that Eros with numinous sexuality seduces a man who has potentials for the god's incarnation and who would be willing to give in to the god's demand. This god needs a man who desires his essence of perpetuity, the eternal water of life, in ecstasy. Thus the purpose of the divine's seduction is to make a man awake from unconsciousness to pursue god himself, namely the individuation process. I call such divine seduction "eroticism of god" There seem to be a certain type of people who are destined to live eroticism as a way of individuation process. Through investigations, a melancholic tendency appears to be suitable for this type of individuation. Melancholia is deeply related to the poignant awareness of impermanence as the existential condition, which is a precondition for seeking permanence through eroticism. Melancholia essentially causes deep longing for eternity that bears fulfillment, which exists in eroticism, so melancholic agony seems inevitable for eroticism as the path for individuation in that, without knowing about deficiency, we never seek what is lacking in us. It can also be viewed that while a lover is driven to seduce lost love, what actually waits to become seduced for redemption is the god of love itself behind the human beloved. Man and god are fated to seduce each other for redemption. I suppose that the initiation to Eros implies how to seduce Eros. In a woman's psyche, psychological virginity is one of the essential qualities that her ego needs to attain. To the male it is vital to live his sensuality thoroughly and to experience his own and his lover's emotions to their limit. It cannot be an easy task because it demands us to give up our egotism entirely. Through eroticism, unconsciousness seduces us to make us live life as a whole. The god of love brings powerful sexuality as a means of "spiritual crisis" to redeem our lukewarm soul. Only a few can withstand the experience since it requires a strong will to bear the brunt of the sword despite the keen awareness that it may leave us bleeding in pain.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.22
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• pp.1-32
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• 2014

This paper is searching the meaning of Gangseong(姜聖) which came from Gucheon Sangje(九天上帝, the Lord and Creator of the Great Origin of the Ninth Heaven) incarnated in the Gang(姜) family. To study the meaning of Gangseong(姜聖), this paper concentrate on Maitreya(彌勒尊佛) and the sentence about Wonsibanbon(原始返本) Sangje's incarnation in the Gang's family appeared on term Gangseong in the middle of divinity terms(九天應元雷聲普化天尊姜聖上帝). Furthermore, Sangje's surname Gangseong(姜姓) has relation with Maitreya and the sentence about Wonsibanbon. What Maitreya has relation with Gangseong(姜聖) is the legendary poem that Maitreya Statue became complete woman(六丈金佛 化爲全女) and what Wensibanbon has relation with Gangseong is the fact that family name Gang is primary surname all over the world's human beings. Wonsibanbon comprises correction of family lineage and theocracy(政敎一致) which came from tracing and reviving the beginning. As a primary family name, Sangje's incarnation family name Gang plays a leading edge role of religious activity of Sangje because primary family name Gang represents the one and only Truth(眞法) or the principle of Wensibanbon which means the union[unity] of religion and politics(政敎一致), and combining saintliness and heroism (聖雄兼備). According to the one and only Truth(眞法) like this, the first emergence and role of the completely "DoTongKunJa" (道通君子, the perfection of man with Dotong) who Sang-Je declared will build the union[unity] of religion and politics shows realization of advance-oriented salvation. Under the principle of Yangsan(兩山, twin mountain, 甑山, 鼎山, the three-story Maitreya Statue of Geumsan Temple) which implies emergence of the completely "DoTongKunJa"(道通君子) who will accomplish the union[unity] of religion and politics(政敎一致), combining saintliness and heroism(聖雄兼備) and advent of the one and only Truth(眞法出現). This could be possible by the almighty of Sangje who incarnated in Gang's family name according to the principle of Wensibanbon from the text Jeonkyung(典經) as shown. Adjusting family lineage (血統) means to straighten out the relation between ancestors and descendants, and which has close relation with the activity after Sangje's incarnation in Gang's family name according to the principle of Wensibanbon. As far as family lineage was concerned, there are three aspects of close relation between ancestors and descendants. First, general connection between ancestors and descendants, Second Dotong(道通)-related connection, Third after -death entrance(冥府)-related connection. Descendants should know a family history from moral laws of family relationships(天倫) by the Compatibility principle. As for second Dotong-related connection between ancestors and descendants, the fact descendants' Dotong can be accomplished by the act of ancestors' charity shows human beings world(人間界) where descendants live has close organic relation with divine world(神明界) where ancestors live. As for third after-death entrance-related connection between ancestors and descendants, after-death entrance are totally related with both Heavenly order(天道) of ancestors and Humane-order(人道) of descendants. At this point, we can see the relation between ancestors and descendants are very close and organic. As shown from the text Jeonkyung, Sangje as Gucheon Sangje(九天上帝, the Lord and Creator of the Great Origin of the Ninth Heaven) and Maitreya(彌勒尊佛) has descended to the earth adopting Gang's family name according to principle Wensibanbon. By Sangje's incarnation in Gang's family name, the legitimacy of the religion and the perfection of Do could be successed under the law of Yangsan(兩山). Furthermore, Sangje realize the one and only Truth by Adjusting family lineage and producing the completely "true man" through Cheonji Gongsa.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.45-111
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• 2023

This paper examines the apparition of the Virgin Mary revealed in Rue du Bac, Paris, France, in 1830, from a perspective of analytical psychology. To do so, it amplifies the archetypal motifs manifested in the images of the Virgin Mary of Rue du Bac by introducing the medieval alchemical picture titled "Glorification of the body portrayed as the coronation of the Virgin Mary" from Reusner's Pandora (1588). This image of the Virgin Mary is full of archetypal motifs that show the process and end result of individuation, which is the main idea of Jungian psychology. These symbols that depict the individuation process, both in Reusner's Pandora and in the Mary of Rue du Bac, are expressions of mythologems, constituent elements of the collective unconscious. Jung noted that these mythologems are the ultimate base and matrix of all religions. Through examining the archetypal motifs, which appear in the Mary of Rue du Bac, the apparition of the Mary turns out to be the revelation of the archetypal image of the Self in a space-time continuum, which is constellated in the collective unconscious. That is, an archetypal figure revealed itself to a witness' ego-consciousness to whom a space-time continuum functions as a cognitive category. The Mary of Rue du Bac represents the union of the opposites of divinity and humanity, which lacks in the symbolism of the Cross in Christianity. In this regard, she is an image of the new savior, who opens the new aeon of the Aquarius. The revealed image of Mary shows that divinity originates from the inner realm of the human psyche, that corporeal human beings are the matrix in which the divine incarnates, and that human being is the subject of psychological redemption. The image of Mary awakens us to the value of divinity in the human psyche in the times when the spiritual values Christianity has retained declines drastically.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.105-159
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• 2021

The Red Book is a personal record that contains Jung's psychological self-experiment and describes his own experiences of the individuation process. Throughout The Red Book, Jung describes how he got caught by the spirit of the depths and dethroned the spirit of this time, how he regained his lost soul by getting to the bottom of inner processes, how he differentiated the soul upon encountering the various aspects of his soul, and finally how he confronted God approaching Jung in the form of the divine opposites. The spirit of the depths as a personification of the collective unconscious caught up with Jung and launched him into the individuation process. The spirit of the depths was "the God yet to come". Jung realized that he had been driven by the collective spirit of his time and then set off on a journey into a new territory of life under the guidance of the spirit of the depths. Jung first encountered his lost soul, afterwards experiencing various aspects of the soul-spirit duo such as Salome-Elijah, Helena-Simon, and Baucis-Philemon. In the process of individuation, the initial experience of the soul can appear to the ego as a Satanic force which darkens the consciousness. The Red Book describes how Jung consciously integrated the Satanic force and came to realize the meaning of it. Jung's experience of emotionally gripping aspects of the soul led him to the awareness of the dark side of God, Satan, while the insights he gained from that Satanic emotionality led him to the awareness of the bright side of God, Christ. Through this process, he finally encountered the opposites in God. Jung also referred to the Self as an image of God which manifests itself in the psyche. Jung later discovered God as a phenomenal psychic reality which incarnates itself from the unconscious into the conscious. He did it in terms of strict empirical science. Although the incarnation process of the deity is the main cause of psychological conflict and distress of a human being, if accepted consciously, we come to realize that the incarnation process of the deity in the psyche is the ultimate teleology and meaning of our life as well.