• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.22
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• pp.317-344
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• 2014

There are many modern elements in religions appeared in the early Korean modern era. From the nationalism perspective, most religions had tendencies toward anti-feudalism and anti-foreign power. Pak Eun Sik(朴殷植) emphasized the importance to explain those religions as the National Religion in his writing 《Korea Painful History(韓國痛史)》. That is, he realized those as one of Korean spirits or souls keeping Korean identities like the Jew's Judaism or the Turk's Islam. In the paper, I try to analyze religions on Kang Jeung San(姜甑山) with Daesoonjinri-hoe as the central figure from Pak's perspective. In the early Korean modern era when Kang went his own the Savior way, Korea and its society got into uncontrollable confusion because of strong demands both of a feudal-state breaking and against pillaging foreign-power especially Japan. For all countries of the world, it is difficult to change from a feudal state into the modern nation state to keep existing society order. Because the reformation under old social systems means the incomplete reformation. So in this era new religions showed the neglected class of people the vision of new society. Meanwhile Korean society try to become a modern state, and now became a recognized modern state in international society. But it is still insufficient to debate on groups and their roles for Korea modernity in that time especially new religions. Since Korea independence, new religions including Daesoonjinrihoe have not receive good reviews because of a certain religion group expansion and the government's regulation and control toward new religions. Till today, I think, Independence Movement as well as reform of modern awareness have not relatively receive reasonable reviews. So I hope to serve as a momentum that in early Korea modern era new religions receive reasonable and positive reviews.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.46
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• pp.1-32
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• 2023

The purpose of this article is to critically reflect on the 2022 national curriculum on religions. The perspective of this reflection is that since the religious curriculum is meant to be a national curriculum, it should be applicable to all high school students, be shareable, and function as a place for meta-reflection regarding the proper use of the category of religion. For this purpose, I reviewed the form and content of the 2022 curriculum on religions in Section 2. The form of the 2022 curriculum on religions looks similar to the previously utilized curriculum. However, the main change is that the subject of religions was arbitrarily placed into the category of 'subjects for choosing a career.' And the 2022 curriculum on religions has two characteristics in terms of content: the orientation of 'making religious people (spiritual formation)' and the reemergence of the concept of 'pseudo-religion.' In Section 3, I delved into the orientation of 'making religious people through religious reflection' among the characteristics of the 2022 curriculum on religions. In this process, I discovered that the concept of 'reflection as a metacognitive technology,' which was the core of the prior curriculum and school education, was transformed into the concept of 'religious reflection,' and the concepts of spirituality and religiosity were also added. In Section 4, I delved into the dichotomy of 'religion and pseudo-religion.' 'Pseudo-religion' is a new focus in the 2022 curriculum on religions. In this process, I revealed that the concept of 'pseudo-religion' is a combination of an outdated administrative term of the Japanese Government-General of Korea during Japan's occupation of Korea, and as such, the term is inherently value-laden and harmful. I also revealed that determining 'pseudo-religion' in school education regenerates the colonial Japanese Government-General's biased attitudes toward Korean religions and forces teachers to 'invent' (detect or personally appraise) modern day pseudo-religions through arbitrary judgements. The 'curriculum to emphasize religious reflection and detect pseudo-religions in order to create religious people' can distort the subject of religion in the national curriculum as into a 'subject for religion (promotion or degradation).' If this distortion continues, the appropriateness of curriculum on religions existing within the national curriculum will eventually become a subject of debate.

• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.57-85
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• 2023

The politico-economic waives of Western imperialism and colonialism, along with Christianity, affected East Asia's geopolitical landscape in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While the Korean people (of the Joseon Dynasty) witnessed the incompetence of Buddhism, Confucianism, and folk religions in maintaining social cohesion with a sense of frustration, the new religious movements (NRMs) emerged to provide altrnative teachings of hope through historical figures like Choe Je-u, Kang Il-sun (or Kang Jeungsan), Na Cheol, and Pak Chungbin. In terms of popularity, colonial Korea (1910-1940) was impressed by the native groups of Cheondogyo (=Donghak), Bocheongyo, and Mugeukdo. Son Byong-hee (1861-1922) was the third leader of the first Korean NRM, but both Cha Gyeong-seok (1880-1936) and Jo Cheol-Je (= Jo Jeongsan) (1895-1958) participated in the post-Jeungsan grassroots movements. How, then, did both of these new religions originate? How did they conceptualise their deities and interpret their teachings differently? What was their policy for national independence? The article explores the socio-religious leaders, historical origin, organizational structure, deities, teaching and doctrines, patriotism, and conflicts of both NRMs in a comparative context. As such, this article argues that they both maintained patriotic characteristics, but that Cha's Bocheongyo community with its ' 60-executives' system (60 bang) failed to manage their internal conflicts effectively. Meanwhile, Jo Cheol-Je of Mugeukdo had the charismatic leadership needed to maintain Mugeukdo, despite being seen as a pseudoreligion under the colonial pressure of Shintoism.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.93-106
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• 2008

Asia Folk Costumes are certainly different from the Western Costumes. This distinction is based upon the effect of environment, technology, and social structure, and especially, which was generated by religion, ideology, and philosophy. The ideas of fundamental ground of this eastern features are religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. The religion of the East has determined the form of traditional costumes, affecting the costume up to now. This study aims at the investigation of the effect of religion on the formation of East Asia Traditional Costumes around Korea, China, and Japan and its figurative beauty. Study was carried out by chiefly referring to literatures. Eastern Aesthetics was formed by accepting aesthetic concepts, acquired from the idea of Three Religions. Especially, the ideas of non-duality(不二), emptiness(空), five aggregates(五蘊), mind control(心法), derived by Buddhism, and nature theory(自然論) and creationism(創造論) of Taoism, and abstinence theory(節制論) and decorum(禮法) and the principles of Yin and Yang(陰陽) of confucianism have had great effect on the aesthetics of costume. The figurative features of costume, affected by three religions are described by the factors; First, non structural feature, second, the beauty of abstinence and chastity of ample silhouette, third, the feature of natural color and achromatic color, fourth, the figurative feature of costume by the principles of Yin and Yang, and fifth, bright ornaments. The aesthetic values of the East Asia Costume are 'A Beauty of Vacancy', 'A Beauty of Concealment', 'A Beauty of Nature', and 'A Beauty of Symbolism'. As philosophy, culture, and ethnics itself, the religions of Asia have had effect on the overall culture, which is inclusive of social structure, as well as art and aesthetics, and have decided the style of costume.

• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.111-132
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• 2022

In the 1920s, a new religion emerged in Tay Ninh Province, Southern Vietnam, under the name Caodaism; also known as the Third Universal Salvation of the Great Dao. It is the result of the typical combination of three main religions (Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism). Different ethnic groups populated Tay Ninh, such as Chinese, Khmer, Cham, and Kinh. Additionally, the core principle of Caodaism is known as The Three Religions Returned to the Origin, and it is also expanded as The Five Branches Reunited. The Five Branches are humankind's five ways of self-cultivation: the Way of Humans, the Way of Deities, the Way of Saints, the Way of Immortals, and the Way of Buddhas. Although Caodaism was only founded in 1920, this religion is well known domestically and internationally. This is because Caodaism has a distinctive identity; it is a new religion that advocates a syncretistic combination of essential religious teachings that follow the harmonization and reconciliation between the East and West as well as between the past and present. Moreover, the Tay Ninh Holy See is the most important, first, and largest Cao Dai temple in Vietnam. The temple is located in Tay Ninh Province in southwestern Vietnam. This article aims to introduce the Tay Ninh Holy See as the birthplace of Caodaism and as the largest Cao Dai religious palace, not only in Vietnam but also in other countries that practice Caodaism. A brief overview of Tay Ninh Holy See's origin, history, and planning will be provided. Most importantly, the style of the architecture at the Tay Ninh Holy See will be comprehensively analyzed to shed more light on the meaning of each section and the details of this temple structure.

• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.101-121
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• 2023

Daoism was introduced into the South-West of Vietnam via two main entries: the missionaries from North and Central Vietnam who migrated to the South by following the Southward movement and the spread of Daoism by Chinese migrant men who came and settled in the South-West of Vietnam from the late seventieth century to late nineteenth century. However, the biggest influence of Daoism in the Southwest of Vietnam was mainly the Chinese missionaries of Daoism. As time went by, together with the impacts of social and historical circumstances, Daoism had a strong influence on the lives of the South-West people in terms of different aspects, especially their faith and religions. The impact of Daoism into people's faith and religion was considerable, especially to the indigenous religions, of which the religion, Four Debts of Gratitude, is a representative example. With the aims of clarifying how Four Debts of Gratitude was influenced by Daoist thought and how the indigenous religions and systemized ideologies in the South-West of Vietnam were related during the period of living condition expansion as well as cohabitation of several ethnic groups in the region, this article focuses on Daoist thought expressed in typical symbols in the sacred architecture of the Four Debts of Gratitude such as Cổ Lầu, wine gourds, and the Eight Trigrams. Once properly examined, it becomes clear that the prominent symbols and other Daoist elements show that Daoism had a profound influence on the Four Debts of Gratitude.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.21
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• pp.409-452
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• 2013

This paper aims to cast light on the theoretical characteristics of Korean new religions' utopian theory from the perspective of theology and apply the findings to the utopian theory of the new religions in Korea. The utopian theory of the new religions in Korea occurred to meet people's aspiration towards a new world on the background of the national ordeal and its consequential psychology in the late Chosun dynasty. As a result, it has the characteristics of a shift from a pure religious framework to participation in reality to realize religious ideals 'right here, right now'. Thus, it basically defined an utopian theory as the product of a society and history, and explained the utopian theory as the projection of the thoughts about current conflicts. However, an approach in this way may leave the likelihood that the individual characteristics of Daesoonjinrihoe would be overlooked and the utopian theory would be limited to the byproduct of the age, only. Thus, this paper has dealt with the religious experience of the founders as the lead of discussion, not a sociological approach. In this context, the religious experience of founders can be more significant clues to view the characteristics of an utopian theory. This directivity of a study can be understood as an attempt to improve the previous sociological methodologies, the leading discourses, and to contribute to the different perspectives on an understanding of the utopian theories of Daesoonjinrihoe. Furthermore, this paper is anticipated to give salience to the individual characteristics reflected in the new religions in Korea and to enhance its status in the history of thoughts, not as the trend of the thought limited to the past.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.34
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• pp.203-238
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• 2020

This paper focuses on legal risks and risk management affecting foreign religions or foreign religious legal persons in Taiwan. Beginning with an overview of relevant legal norms, types, processes, precautions, other such considerations, the purpose of this paper is to assist foreign religions when they first come to Taiwan for development. The contents of this paper can inform the adoption of a suitable methodology. If foreign religions want to come to Taiwan to develop, there may be several methods for their development: 1. Send Individual Missionaries to preach in Taiwan 2. Send Groups to Preach in Taiwan: 1) specify these groups as temples (or religious groups called "Lingtai (靈臺)"). 2) form civil associations or unincorporated religious groups 3) cases of temples that have not been registered (or specified as "Lingtai") 4) cases of offices and independent property and religious purposes that are not registered with the government or registered as temples (differentiated from item 3) 3. Establishing a research center in Taiwan: When foreign religions have established religious consortia in foreign countries, they can come to Taiwan to set up branches. 4. The establishment of legal persons in Taiwan: These are divided into "school legal persons", "religious corporate legal persons" and "religious consortium legal persons." Each of the above types has a different law applicable to it. This article will introduce the contents of each applicable law and important related matters such as the relevant funds, setting incentive rules for outstanding religious groups, and religious groups applying for foreigners. Due to foreign-related factors in the development and setting up of foreign religions in Taiwan, Act Governing the Choice of Law in Civil Matters Involving Foreign Elements is the parent law for solving conflicts regarding laws and regulations. The spirit of Article 2 and Italian Private International Law, Article 25, Paragraph 1 and so on, adopts the legalism of establishing legal personhood. It is clear that the national law regarding legal persons is the law under which it was incorporated. Therefore, foreign religious legal persons who encounter legal issues in Taiwan fall under the national law, which was established as domestic law. Therefore, internal matters regarding foreign legal persons are also applicable to domestic law.

• 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 Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.22
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• pp.259-304
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• 1992

This paper examines 'Religion Class' in the scheme of the DDC. The major findings of the study are summerized as follows. 1. The first edition of DDC was published in 1876 in order to classify Amherst College Library collections. In spite of the continuous study and revision of the experts, the frameworks of the DDC systems are still kept unchanged. Only their subdivisions, reflecting those developments in the academic world, are developed and detailed more sophisticatedly. 2. The division of 200 does not function as generalities for all class of religion. Therefore, it is necessary to amend the division of 200 to serve generalities for all the religions of the world. 3. Standard subdivision for the christian religion and for the non-christian religion is different. So, the mnemonic nature has become weakened due to the dual standard subdivisions and the classification number becomes much longer and complicated. Therefore, one standard subdivision for all religions of the world is required. 4. Religion science was organized in late 19 C and developed continuously, but the DDC does not accomodate the religion science as a science. Accodingly, the DDC should be revised recognize religion science as a science not the christian science. 5. The deployment of classification scheme in Dewey's 200 is severely biased. That is to say, 9 division were assigned for christian religion, whereas only 1 division was assigned for non-christian religion. Therefore, an adjustment should be made to allocate subdivisions equally to all religions of the world. 6. General classification order of religion is prehistoric, primitive, ancient, modem and world religion in religion science. But, DDC does not accept this general classification order of religion, sticking to the biased expansion towards christianity. Therefore, DDC must adopt the general classification order of religion in the religion science. 7. Lastly, because of the limitation of decimal notation in DC, DDC does not accomodate new subject equally and classification number becomes longer. Therefore, centesimal expansion is proposed in order to make the classification number short, to enlarge its capacity of inclusion of new subject and to maintain consistency in the scheme.