• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.19
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• pp.125-143
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• 2005

This study offers an analysis of how Protestant Christianity in South Korea incorporated many beliefs and practices of Korean traditional religions in order to make the new faith more appealing to the masses. The paper also examines the way in which specific Protestant doctrines and practices were modified or accentuated to suit the disposition of the Korean people. In agreement with Confucianism, for example, Protestant churches in general emphasized the values of diligence, self-cultivation, righteous living, and, most importantly, filial piety. By overtly and subtly permitting ancestral rites to be conducted by Christians, moreover, Protestant Christianity evaded successfully the potential alienation of the tradition-bound Koreans. From Buddhism, Protestant Christianity syncretized such elements as the daily dawn prayer and all-night prayer as well as the practices of baekilgido ("a hundred-day prayer") and chunilgido ("a thousand-day prayer"). Hundreds of prayer centers that exist deep in the mountains also manifest a Buddhist influence. Shamanistic influences are also evident in Korean Protestantism, replete with the latter's emphasis on this-worldly success (health, prosperity, long life, etc.), faith healing, and conceptualization of God as being merciful and generous. What all of this reveals is that Christian conversion in South Korea did not involve an exclusivistic change of religious affiliation, meaning that it did not require the repudiation of traditionally held beliefs. Instead, millions of South Koreans eagerly embraced Protestant Christianity precisely because the new faith was advanced as an extension or continuation of traditional religious practices.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.68
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• pp.375-415
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• 2021

Although the interest in Christian education of spirituality has increased recently, the practice of the education of spirituality in the Korean Church has been fragmented in the contents and methods without any clear educational purpose of the Protestant tradition. This requires a creative study to seek out the contents and method best suited to realizing the educational purpose of the Protestant tradition, through a rigorous academic methodology. This study proposes just such a creative model for the education of spirituality with an educational purpose based on the core ethos of the Protestant spirituality, integrating the long tradition of spiritual practices of Christianity. First, I survey the teachings on 'the life of faith' of the main leaders of the Protestant church, including Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley. Through this process, I reveal 'liberated-ness' to be the common purpose of the Protestant leaders, and the core of the practices for that purpose are 'the means of grace,' which has a different meaning from that of the Roman Catholic tradition. I construct the meaning of 'liberated-ness' in a dynamic manner, which begins with the 'liberating will' of God, and is followed by the 'self-giving will' of the believer as the response to the 'grace' of the 'liberating will.' The contact point of these two 'wills' is what I call 'the living membrane of faith.' As a creative synthesis of the above discussions, I propose a model of 'the practice of liberated-ness' for an education in spiritual practice. The purpose of this education is for the learner to become a person who continuously experiences ever-increasing 'liberated-ness' through continuous personal 'encounters' with God, and to become ever more faithful in carrying out practices for the 'liberated-ness' of her or his neighbors. The relationship between the teacher and the learner is that of personal 'encounter' as put forth by Sherrill, and also incorporates elements of 'co-authorship' as conceptualized by Kim. I transform and rename major practices of spiritual discipline according to a principle of 'liberated-ness' based on the Protestant tradition, and these comprise the main content of my spirituality education model. They include: 'lectio divina of encounter,' 'prayer facing the Lord,' 'service in liberation,' 'reflection of liberated-ness,' and 'mutual spiritual direction.' The teaching and learning process draws on Dykstra's methods of coaching and mentoring. The key environment is that of a 'sacramental community' as defined by Moore. Evaluation can be performed only by the learner her/himself. The significance of this model is that it creatively inherits and succeeds the tradition of Christian spiritual discipline from the early church onwards by transforming it through a Protestant spirituality of 'liberated-ness.'

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.68
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• pp.307-344
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• 2021

After Protestant missionaries delivered the gospel to Korea in the 1880s, Korean Protestantism has pursued qualitative growth following quantitative growth. Pastors and scholars are continuing their efforts for qualitative growth in various fields such as theology, ministry, social participation, ethics, education, counseling, history, and spirituality. Prayer has been a significant spiritual resource and method in the history and for the faith of Korean Protestant churches. Historical and theoretical research on Korean Protestant prayer traditions has been continuously performed, and it is time to re-establish and renew the prayer traditions for the new generation and context of the Protestant churches. In this historical time, it is necessary to summarize the Korean Protestant prayer traditions and describe their significance for the change of Korean Protestantism and its prayer education. This study analyzes the characteristic elements of the Korean Protestant prayer tradition and discusses its significance in the church and Christian education. In addition, it analyzes the cause and background of the establishment of a specific prayer element in Korean Protestantism and describes the relationship with the topics currently being emerged. Through the research on the prayer traditions, this study reflects on the meaning of the Korean Protestant prayer tradition to Christian education and discusses the content, method, and purpose of future education in relation to Korean Protestant prayer. This study argues that prayer education should be conducted from the perspective of Christian history and tradition as a whole with understanding the characteristics of Korean Protestant prayer traditions and the educational and non-educational elements of prayer.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.18
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• pp.135-148
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• 2004

Why do religions emphasize good deeds like charity or love? What kind of relation are there between good deeds and salvation? Early Buddhism stresses that the deed of mortal cannot escape retribution. And deeds are intentional act, so those are representation of mind. Therefore an issue of mind raises its head before action. The extinction of ignorance and thirsty gives rise to good mind, and the good mind produces good deed. Mahāyāna Buddhism accentuates charity. It signifies that the mind of oneself sympathizes the mind of others. That is impossible unless one throws away attachment to oneself. The alms deed makes that possible. In Roman Catholicism Ten Commandments assert absolute worship to god. The transcendental merits devaluate worldly ones, so the mind can obtain calmness. Protestant claims the one can acquire salvation only by faith. And the salvation leads human to good deed. In conclusion good deeds are not ways and means to mokṣa or grace, but identical with them in Early Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism, and Roman Catholicism and Protestant.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.70
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• pp.207-238
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• 2022

Faith education focuses on 'changing the direction of life' that pursues the life of Christ. This is possible only when the message of the Bible is embodied in life, not by accumulating biblical knowledge. Today, however, faith education does not allow biblical messages to be embodied in life. This is the result of focusing on knowing the Bible itself, instead of guiding the faith education to meet the Bible and the experience of human life. Church education emphasized the inner faith of individuals rather than changes in life and practice, preparing for the afterlife, and mostly for the training and quantitative growth of the church. As a result, in the COVID-19 era, Protestants showed an immature appearance that only cared about the safety of the church, and social trust in Protestants was lost. Therefore, faith education should educate what life of the Bible and the experiences of the learner will meet and respond to God in order for the Bible's message to be realized in life. I tried to find out how to prepare for this faith education in detail. So I would like to look at "The preparation process for religious classes related to experience" compiled by the German Protestant Lutheran Bavarian Presbyterian Church and present tasks for application to the Korean Church. Preparation for experience-related religious classes consists of five courses. It is a personal meeting, a theological orientation, a pedagogical orientation, a pedagogical decision, and a summary of the progress plan. The main purpose of this process is to learn how biblical believers interpreted their experiences in life from the perspective of faith and tried to overcome the problem. Faith education related to experience deals with the essence of faith education, not one of the Bible teaching methods. Although the field of education is in the social change of expanding from the real world to the virtual world, the essential nature of faith education cannot change. Therefore, research and application of faith education related to experience in Korean churches will help the biblical message to be embodied in Christian life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fashion and Beauty
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• v.3 no.1 s.4
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• pp.78-87
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• 2005

The Purposes of this article are to find Christian religion and Germany expressionism which were background of Nolde's art and analyze formation and special quality, expression mode of holy picture. If synthesize contents of these analysis, we could know that faith is giving religious inspiration continuously during his lift to Protestant experience through the Bible. Though there is some difference by time but we could foretell that he accomplished modern holy picture of new sensitivity by doing individual expression with equal Bible subject traditionally in 20th century that change unlike existent holy picture with these motive power. That is, with new trend which religious inspiration as imagination which spring up in experience that is not experience of artificial Christian religion is then expressionism various that historically, he accomplished unique holy picture to related each other with the historic event.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.73
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• pp.139-157
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• 2023

In Korean Protestantism, interest in Christian spirituality has grown significantly since the 1980s. Spirituality is now studied and used as a crucial term and topic in theology and ministry. As research on spirituality expanded to various areas of study and ministry and various topics related to spirituality were dealt with, research on spiritual direction also began. Oe-Shik Kim and Hae-Yong Yoo, who studied in North America, are the early scholars who began to study spiritual direction in Korean Protestantism in the 1990s. Their research has influenced Korean Protestant scholars and pastors to understand spiritual direction and apply it to seminary education and the Korean Protestant churches. Spiritual direction has been practiced in the Korean church in the form and content of faith education, spiritual training, devotional training, discipleship training, small groups, and pastoral counseling. The spiritual direction practiced by Eastern, Western, and monastic traditions throughout Christian history is not shared by Korean Protestants. Because Korean Protestantism has developed a unique spiritual tradition in the Korean context, its contents and forms of spiritual direction reflect the Korean context. Korean Protestants are more familiar with Tongsung Kido, early morning prayer, Bible study or Bible meditation, and small groups than contemplative traditions and individual spiritual direction. Thirty years have passed since research on spiritual direction began. The Korean Protestant academia needs to critically reflect on its research and practice. Spiritual direction is a term and tradition of different Christian cultures around the world and is part of Christian history and tradition. Korean Protestant scholars and church ministers need to accept the concept and application of spiritual direction considering the context and spiritual tradition of Korean Protestant churches, a flexible understanding, perspective, and attitude toward the concept and application of spiritual direction in Korean Protestant churches are needed.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 1999

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to identify hospice volunteers' perception of the death. Methods : This study was conducted with 327 adults who registered for the hospice volunteer education program in Severance Hospice Center from 1996 through 1999. The 4-years data was collected through a self-reporting questionnaire constructed and revised by the authors. The questionnaire was classified into 5 categories. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS/W. Results : 1) Hospice volunteers were mostly female(93.9%) with an average age of 48 years. The majority(82.6%) of the participants were Protestant. 2) From the 4-years data over 90 percent of participants thought of death as a process of life and responded positively to these three items : 'Death is a temporary separation from family', 'I will die in peace', 'Faith in God results in a freedom from fear of death'. 3) Age were statistically relevant to the following items: 'I often read the obituaries in the newspaper', 'Dying is a tragedy', and 6 items were significantly related to religion: 'I rarely think of dying unexpectedly', 'Death is a temporary separation from family'. 'Dying is a tragedy', 'We have to do our best to prolong life by use of modem medical technology', 'I feel comfortable thinking of death and dying, 'Faith in God results in a freedom from fear of death'. The finding that religiosity was related to perception of death is consistent with other reports. And $40{\sim}50$ year old Protestant women had more positive perception of death than $20{\sim}30$ year old women. Conclusion : The findings indicated an importance of considering the age and religiosity when we educate the hospice volunteers. And that will be a important basic-data to develope program for hospice volunteers.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.642-657
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• 2017

The Protestant Reformation that erupted 500 years ago has influenced all aspects of society and have become a crucial stepping stone to modern times from the Middle Ages. The purpose of this study was to show the reformational characteristics of the social welfare revealed in the process of the Reformation in the 16th century and how they apply to the Modern Christianity, especially from the view of the missional church. Therefore, in the main body, the two doctrines of Justification by Faith only and the Priesthood of All Believers were based on the Luther's Reformation were examined. A researcher confirmed that his Reformational characteristics concerned about second-class citizens and disadvantaged such as the weak faith, women, and the social situations were considered all the time in his Reformation. There were three characteristics of Luther's social welfare reforms: relief activities, education businesses, and economic policies. In addition, a researcher discussed some suggestions that the missional church can apply to its ministry for creating a healthier community.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.31
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• pp.255-287
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• 2017

This paper analyzes the religious circuit of suicidal concept based on verbal expression and ritual acts, which are found in the suicide discourse of Korean Catholic Church and Protestant Church. In the relationship of suicide and religion, it is easily overlooked the religious circuit and its construction that forms the concept of suicide among the religious laymen. It is assumed that the belief system of traditional religions prohibits suicide and the laymen accordingly construct a perception or concept of suicide along with this belief system. Various studies on this subject have proved it. However, in order to understand the religious way of constructing the concept of suicide on a personal level, it is necessary to pay attention to the religious environment in which the concepts and emotions of suicide circulate. The laymen do not passively and perfectly accept the finely established suicide concept provided by the doctrine or the theology. Rather, the laymen tend to collect the pieces of concept over the suicide that are drifting in the religious environment of his/her daily routine life and to make an concept of suicide in an incomplete form. We can find the unstable and imperfect traits of such a suicide concept through the experience of suicide survivors who have a religious background. For the suicide survivors with religious beliefs, they resist the formal doctrinal and theological provisions to suicide, or try to understand the notion of suicide in their own contexts. In terms of linguistic expressions and ritual acts relating to suicide, the attentions are differently directed in the public and the private domain among the religious groups. Considering on the high rates of suicide in Korean society, the Korean Catholic Churches are increasingly tolerant over the suicide and accept it in the public sphere. It is unlikely when comparing to the negative attitudes of the suicide in the past. However, such tolerance does not go beyond the doctrinal and ethical judgment that defines suicide as a serious sin. The once-committed lay believer's speech and gestures usually contain the various emotions, such as sadness, grief, anxiety, regretfulness, eagerness, and pain in the private spheres. The language and gestures with these emotions have been activated in the religious circuits of suicide, being extended to the religious apparatus for the person who died of suicide. In case of Protestantism, the institutional organizations, such as the particular denominations and the individual-churchism of the Korean Protestant Churches, and their own interpretations of the Bible have in the private sphere strongly effected on the linguistic expressions and the rituals related to the suicide. The religious-ethical judgment of the suicide is varied how the suicide is interpreted by the theologians and the pastors. And the ritual acts for healing the complex feelings and the psychological wounds of the suicide survivors are not actively explored and adopted yet. It makes harder to approach and heal the protestant followers since they emphasize the innermost belief and the salvation assurance faith.