• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.65
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• pp.9-27
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• 2021

Religious language learning is crucial for children's spiritual development and how each child is encouraged to speak about the Sacred will drive the capacities for healthily connecting with one another, God, and the nonhuman world. Religious educators have an ethical imperative to teach religion with a commitment to celebrating lived experiences, while resisting dogmatic instruction that stunts linguistic, cognitive, and spiritual development. Cultural influences must encourage approaches that nurture children's wonder and inquiry, by teaching religious language as a tool for meaning-making and expression.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.38
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• pp.297-329
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• 2015

Since 1989 about one million Jews from Former Soviet Union have immigrated to Israel. Now Russian speaking Jews are the second largest ethnic groups after the Israeli Jews who were born in Israel. Although FSU Jews have returned to their ethnic homeland, they continue to live as 'foreigners' due to a cultural distance between sending and receiving society, such as, lack of knowledge about Jewish tradition and religious practice and low level of Hebrew proficiency. Because of this reason FSU immigrants tend to continue remain strong ties with Russian language and culture. There are several reasons for such a relatively slow process of language shift of FSU Jewish immigrants, the language shift to Hebrew. Firstly, majority of FSU immigrants moved to Israel since the 1990s are older than 45. Secondly, their first residences in Israel are mostly located in small and mid-sized cities, where the proportion of Russian speaking immigrants is more than 30%. And finally they consider Russian culture is 'superior' to Israel's Levantine culture. For many Jewish diasporic communities, Judaism was a dominant factor for self-consciousness, but because of Soviet regime, aimed to break all the religious institution including Jewish, Soviet Jewry was uprooted from their religious traditions. Besides about 30% of FSU immigrants are not defined as Jews by the Jewish religious law(Halakhah). And many of them are reluctant to convert to Judaism. FSU Jewish immigrant agree that Israel must be a Jewish state, but for them 'Jewish' does not include religious elements. FSU immigrants consider that religious affiliation of citizens of Israel should not affect their civic rights.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.149-180
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• 2023

This article explores religious responses to significant cultural and social change in a northern Vietnamese delta village from 1996 to 2008-the second decade after de-collectivization. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in both the village and surrounding religious networks, the article teases out the meanings of the new religious movements for northern rural people in the new era of market economy; the symbols, language, and metaphoric resources people used in response to their uncertainty and mistrust of the new social landscape; and the unintended consequences of rapid societal development such as marginalization, tensions, and social disintegration. The article argues that as in milleniarism elsewhere, new religious movements in northern rural Vietnam embody unorthodox syncretism between world religious and local traditions, thus linking past, present, and future. However, when drawing upon a common reservoir of memories and experiences to cope with risks and challenges of the new market world, local people not only drew on the power and imperial metaphor of deities in their traditional religion and belief, but became more creative to recuperate meanings, standards, and symbols from revolutionary discourse to reorient themselves, and overcome alienation and marginalization.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.18
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• pp.53-79
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• 2004

This paper explores the relationship between Korean immigrants to the United States and their religious identity from the cultural point of view. Most scholarly studies on Korean immigrants in the United States have been dominated by sociological approach and ethnic studies in examining the social dimension of the Korean immigrant communities while neglecting issues concerning their religious identity and cultural heritage. Most Korean immigrants to America attend Korean churches regardless their religious affiliation before they came to America. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the fact that Korean church has provided a necessary social service for the newly arrived immigrants. Korean churches have been able to play a key role in the life of Korean immigrants. Korean immigrants, however, have shown a unique aspect regarding their religious identity compared to other immigrants communities in the United States. America is a nation of immigrants, coming from different parts of the world. Each immigrant community has brought their unique cultural heritage and religious persuasion. Asian immigrants, for example, brought their own traditional religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism. People from the Middle Eastern countries brought Islamic faith while European Jews brought the Jewish tradition. In these immigrant communities, religious identity and cultural heritage were homo genously harmonized. Jewish people built synagogue and taught Hebrew, Jewish history, culture, and faith. In this case, synagogue was not only the house of worship for Jews but also the center for learning Jewish history, culture, faith, and language. In short, Jewish cultural history was intimately related to Jewish religious history; for Jewish immigrants, learning their social and political history was indeed identical with leaning of their religious history. The same can be said about the relationship between Indian community and Hinduism. Hindu temples serve as the center of Indian immigrantsin providing the social, cultural, and spiritual functions. Buddhist temples, for that matter, serve the same function to the people from the Asian countries. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, and Thais have brought their respective Buddhist traditions to America and practice and maintain both their religious faith and cultural heritage. Middle Eastern people, for example, have brought Islamic faith to the United States, and Mosques have become the center for learning their language, practicing their faith, and maintaining their cultural heritage. Korean immigrants, unlike any other immigrant group, have brought Christianity, which is not a Korean traditional religion but a Western religion they received in 18th and 19th centuries from the West and America, back to the United States, and church has become the center of their lives in America. In this context, Koreans and Korean-Americans have a unique situation in which they practice Christianity as their religion but try to maintain their non-Christian cultural heritage. For the Korean immigrants, their religious identity and cultural identity are not the same. Although Korean church so far has provides the social and religious functions to fill the need of Korean immigrants, but it may not be able to become the most effective institution to provide and maintain Korean cultural heritage. In this respect, Korean churches must be able to open to traditional Korean religions or the religions of Korean origin to cultivate and nurture Korean cultural heritage.

• Lingua Humanitatis
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.5-50
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• 2002

This paper aims to illustrate and illuminate the relationship between language and its neighbor disciplines, in particular between language and literature, language and religion, and language and music. 1. Language and literature. Literature is an art of language. Therefore, linguistics, the science of language, should be able to explain how the grammar of literature elevates and ordinary language into a literary language. I illustrate poetic syntax with examples from Shelley, Coleridge, and Wordsworth. 2. Language and religion. I show how a linguistic analysis of a religious text can illuminate the background, authorship, chronology, etc., of a religious text with an example from the Book of Daniel. I also illustrate how a misanalysis of a poetic meter led to a mistranslation with an example from the Book of Psalms. 3. Language and music. First I trace an epochal event in the history of the Western music, i.e., the change of the musical style from the liturgical music of Latin in which the rhythm was created by the alternation of syllable duration into the liberated music of German in which the rhythm was generated by the alternation of lexical stress. I then illustrate a parallelism between linguistic and musical structures with several musical pieces including Gregorian chant, the 16th century music of Palestrina, the 17th century music of Schutz, the 18th century music of Mozart, and the 19th century Viennese music. Finally, the importance of text-tune (verse-melody) association is discussed with examples of mismatches in translated Korean hymns and contemporary Korean lyrical songs. In the concluding part, I speculate on some factors that are responsible for the same organizational devices in three different modes of human communication. An answer may be that all are under the same laws of mind that govern the way man perceives and organizes nature, i.e., the same cognitive abilities of man, in particular, the capacity to organize and impose structure on their respective inputs.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.65
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• pp.29-54
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• 2021

In Europe, the diversity in religions, cultures, languages and historical backgrounds is enormous. World War II and the Soviet Regime have played a large part in this and the flow of refugees from other continents increases the pluralism. How can religious education add to bridging between differences? The language across European countries is different, literally between countries, but also figuratively speaking and even inside individual countries. These differences occur in cultural sense and across age groups as well. Secondary education has the task to form young people to become firmly rooted people who can hold their own in society. It is essential that they learn to examine their own core values and their roots. Recognising their values should be a main focus of religious education. However, schools are currently accommodating increasing numbers of non-religious pupils. What role do religious values still play in this situation? How do pupils feel about active involvement in religious institutions, and about basing life choices on religious beliefs? Can other, non-religious values be detected which could form the basis for value-oriented personal formation? Research of these subjects has been ongoing in the Netherlands for more than twenty years and is currently being expanded to the Czech Republic and(former East) Germany. These are also secularized countries but have a very different history. Does the history and context of these countries play a role, and does this show in the values that are important to pupils? A comparative pilot study is being conducted as start of this broadening perspective geared towards greater insight into the values of pupils in these three European countries. This information helps to design appropriate new forms of religious value-oriented worldview education.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.539-565
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• 2009

T. S. Eliot attempted the combining of the liturgy of Anglican Church and a drama in Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and created a modern verse drama which comes most close to the regular tragedy like Greek tragedy today. Eliot chose the drama to deliver his religious insight because of its ritualistic origin and its potentiality to deliver a dramatic world which can contain a complete order. The central theme of this play is the martyrdom. The dramatic action of killing the archbishop Thomas Beckett in this play, however, is not treated as important event enough to be a dramatic climax. He is portrayed as a witness to the reality of God's will rather than a man who wills to give up his own life for any religious belief or cause. In Eliot, a martyr is nothing but "a witness" in its ancient sense. This paper purposes to review the language of this play. The various and new meters and rhythms of the language of this play function enough to bring its playwright to encounter 'the real audience' in 'a living theatre'. The interactions between different verbal models also play a big role to make this play a living theatre. Eliot found the poetry which crosses the various classes and levels of the tastes of audience is the most useful poetry. And the poetry of this play proves as the very thing which intensifies the theme of the play and gives the most powerful force to the play. Especially Eliot's poetry succeeds smost in the various and free meters of chorus, which makes Eliot the first playwright since Aeschylus, who could bring the chorus to undertake the function of extending the dramatic action of the play into the universal meaning. In the theatre the real audience identifies themselves with chorus. And the chorus leads the audience to respond to peace which passeth understanding beyond words and sounds of this play, which is the desired response in Eliot's conception of drama.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.39
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• pp.1-32
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• 2021

The purpose of this article is to explain the conceptual changes that the notion of Haewon (解冤) has undergone by examining the evolution of the usages of Haewon. In order to achieve this purpose, I reviewed the conceptual connotations and denotations of Haewon contained in data from the Joseon Dynasty (Section 2), the Japanese colonial period (Section 3), and the scriptures and major preceding research of Daesoon Jinrihoe (Section 4). The research results described in this article are as follows. First, Haewon is a term with historical, social, and cultural characteristics. This means that Haewon, a term that has been used since the Joseon Dynasty, was a concept used to solve collective problems but could also be applied on the individual level. This further means that, if culture is regarded as a collective consciousness or as a collection of material products, Haewon would be a term that contained social and cultural aspirations. Second, Haewon is not a concept that has been impervious to innovation throughout its history. This can be confirmed by the fact that Haewon's scope of application has changed depending on the problem domain (legal, natural disasters, an institutional domain, etc.). Third, Haewon has converted into religious language a doctrinal system that came about after the emergence of Jeungsan. This means that previously the concept of Haewon was mainly used at the legal level in the Joseon Dynasty, but after the emergence of Jeungsan, it became a term in religious language and in doctrine. The materials of Daesoon Jinrihoe show that this concept of Haewon was expanded to be included at the doctrinal level. These research results show a historical shift in the ideological thought contained in the concept of Haewon. As a term in religious language that is included in a doctrinal system, Haewon has an extension of denotations that is applied to the world beyond individuals and societies, yet it maintains connotations of resolving grievances. This concept of Haewon mediates the transformation of the world and creates a rationale by which training and ethical practice are necessary components of that process of transformation.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.1057-1070
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• 2020

This paper investigates the determinants of students' success in Vietnam through conducting online interviews and surveys with 2,500 Vietnamese students at eight famous universities in Vietnam. By applying both SPSS 22 and STATA software, the study is to evaluate the impact of four driver factors, which affect GPA, language efficacy, and personal achievement. These factors are psychological perspective, home environmental, student demographic, and school environmental. The research results emphasize a positive effect of psychological and home-environmental determinants, but the negative effect of school environmental factors on the students' success. Besides, the relationship between demographics and student success was tested and indicated that male students have a better language learning ability, but a low level of academic achievement than female students. The results also point out the impact of religious affiliation and ethnicity on personal achievement. Non-religious students are better achievers than those having a religion or those in minority ethnicity. Moreover, accumulated schooling years are negatively associated with students' success. The more working experience students accrued, the higher possibility they are successful. Finally, the finding provides an insight into students' success that might be useful to government authorities and other universities in designing policies for enhancing the quality of education.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.975-999
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• 2012

This paper interrogates what a new point Schmitt shows concerning the problem of sovereignty in Hamlet or Hecuba in comparison with his Political Theology. Schmitt reveals his political stand on sovereignty through ‘political representation’ that connects the politics to the aesthetics in Hamlet or Hecuba since Hamlet is above all aesthetic work as play. He stresses the determining effect of political reality over the play as he links the story of Hamlet to the tragic family of James I and the religious conflicts of the Stuart dynasty. This leads to, on the one hand, supporting the myth of absolute sovereignty by elevating Hamlet to the transcendental and the exceptional status of sovereign. However, Schmitt’s intent over the absolute sovereignty is, on the other hand, demolished with the two shadows that he scrutinized through the couple of Hamlet and James I: first, the suspect that Gertrude(Mary Stuart) was involved in the murder of Hamlet(James I)’s father, and second, the century’s conflicts with religious reformation and civil war. The perils of sovereignty are manifested not only in these two, “the taboo of the Queen,” and “the Hamletization of the avenger.” It is most of all evidenced in Hamlet itself that subverts the unconditional sovereignty consistently. Hamlet’s selfreflective remarks likening the king to the beggar and the reality of Denmark succession prove that Hamlet’s political discourse is totally different from the politics that accentuates the divine sovereignty.