• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.13-39
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• 2022

The author examines three new religious movements in South Korea: Jehovah's Witnesses, the Unification Church, and the Daesoon Jinrihoe, and aims to identify the factors that are conducive to the growth of each. All three organisations believe in a coming paradise, and the article explores their respective attempts to interest the populace in their appeal. Discussion is given to membership statistics and the problems of measuring allegiance and moves on to consider methods of propagation. Most obviously, evangelisation strategy is important: Jehovah's Witnesses and Unificationists have tended to engage the interest of strangers, while followers of Daesoon Jinrihoe are more inclined to evangelise family and friends. Additionally, there are other factors that determine an organisation's progress: cultural appropriateness, engagement in social and educational work, and attitudes to conflict and peace, the latter being particularly important in a society that has experienced war and occupation. Reference is made to the ways in which these three organisations finance themselves, and it is argued that financial resources merit greater attention in the scholarly study of religion, since monetary assets are needed to secure a spiritual movement's existence. Of the three organisations under discussion, the Daesoon Jinrihoe has been the most successful, being South Korea's largest new religion, while Jehovah's Witnesses are in steady state, and the Unification movement is experiencing slight decline.

• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.161-163
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• 2023

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.72
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• pp.341-366
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• 2022

In Korean society, church once witnessed the period of its being considered light and salt. After the liberation, Korean church bestowed Jesus Christ's love to underprivileged neighbors in the industrialization process and organized practical participation activities for human rights and democratization. Nonetheless, church was sunken into quantitative growth without having qualitative growth. As church was cited as the epicenter of the spreading COVID-19, the image of selfish church has started receiving attention and there has appeared a criticism for immoral church tendency, which brought low trust about church. These things are resulted from church's failure to undertake its role with responsibility, in society. Such as this, church has lost its identity as the model of the Kingdom of God. In such a situation, church needs to remind itself of the enlightenment of the Ecumenical Movement, in order to recover trust and perform its mission. The Ecumenical Movement means accomplishing unification of the universe through a renewed church. This movement is aimed to create the earth as 'where humans can stay' and to consider the sustainability of mankinds. This purpose of this study is to examine political activities conducted for responsible participation in the church world and to find the way for church roles in this world. This researcher will attempt to investigate educational methods to help Christians in this world take full responsibility given to them, through an educational discussion about Christianity made in this context. This educational attempt means, in other words, political affairs also.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.41
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• pp.11-18
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• 2003

This study was carried out to find the cases of change in the Anglican Church including its rectory in Onsuri, Gangwha island, which was built in Korean traditional architecture style. The materials used for the study were published books, old photos taken before the change, drawings, and field survey. The result are as followings. 1) Painting concealed natural wooden grain should be removed as well as carpet on the wooden floor. The way of ceiling finishing is to be restored as traditional way. 2) Refer to the rectory, it needs to be restored totally, since it has been changed many times through partial renovation. It lacks unification of design in entire elevation, windows and door. The practical spaces such as indoor flush toilet and boiler room are desirable not to be revealed or designed in harmony with other spaces. 3) Stript flooring in the rectory are to be restored to frame flooring, room finishing including vinyl flooring, vinyl wall paper and moulding along the cornice to the traditional paper finish. Lattice patterns of windows and doors are recommended to be restored according to the traditional design.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.66
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• pp.147-178
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to clarify the contribution of Christian faith in the process of establishing self-identity and stably settling in the process of North Korean youth settling in Korean society. The research method used narrative. Participants in the study were nine late youth who belonged to the church, aged 17 to 24 years old, who had been in Korea for more than one year. Through this study, themes were derived from four categories. First, a retrospective narrative of the North Korean defection motive was dealt with. Second, it deals with the psychological adaptation process and unsolved tasks. Third, I dealt with the thoughts of the family, the discourse and vision for unification, which they dream of in Korean society as Christian believers. Fourth, it is about the Christian faith, and it is said that the Christian faith gives North Korean refugee youth the power to reflect on their lives, and to see the essence of life through the values of interest in others, history, society, and the kingdom of God. These results are based on the encounters with church and alternative school leaders and various curriculums that North Korean refugee youth experience and talk about. In the sense that it seeks and suggests a new direction in the era of preparation for unification, this article can be said to be of great value for Christian education.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.13-27
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• 2008

The advancement of information and transportation technologies in the context of economic and cultural globalization facilitates international marriages. However, it is ironic that image and fantasies play a significant role in the actual process of these marriages. Using data from a national survey conducted in 2006 (Survey for the Conjugal Life of the International Marriage Families) this study examines the experiences of Korean men and foreign wives. The findings confirm the negative impacts on marital satisfaction of the spousal image of hypergamy (i.e., imaginings of a high-earning husband and a submissive wife) and abbreviated marriage processes (i.e., broker-mediated marriage and incorrect information about a future spouse), but the detailed patterns differ by gender and by the ethnic origin of the wife. Korean Chinese (and to a lesser extent Han Chinese) wives are more negatively affected by the marriage process and spousal imaginings than are Southeast Asians and 'other' wives. While Southeast Asian wives are more likely to have received incorrect information about their husbands, they show significantly more flexible attitudes toward the marriage and spouses. Unification Church members are excluded from the analysis because their marital lives are distinctive enough to warrant separate research. As previous qualitative findings suggested, some Korean Chinese wives seem to perceive that returnees to the home country deserve an improvement in economic status as opposed to the disappointing reality. Imagining a submissive wife hurts the marital satisfaction of husbands regardless of the ethnic origin of the wife.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.765-778
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese female marriage immigrants' dietary life and health-related characteristics after immigration to Korea. A survey was conducted with Japanese women married to Korean men and having one child or more aged 7 to 18 years old. Data were collected from 243 women during the summer of 2014. A total of 204 questionnaires were analyzed, after excluding 39 questionnaires with a high percentage of incomplete responses (84% analysis rate). Over 85% of respondents were the members of the Unification Church, and over 92% of respondents had stayed in Korea for longer than 10 years. Based on the overall mean score for dietary adaptation level (3.68 out of 5 points), respondents were classified into two groups: low dietary adaptation group (mean score 3.12) and high dietary adaptation group (mean score 4.19). The collected data were compared between the two groups. The high dietary adaptation group reported higher percentages of decreasing consumption in processed food, confectionary, and bread than the low dietary adaptation group after immigration to Korea. A higher percentage of respondents in the high dietary adaptation group perceived their health status as good and reported changes that led to a healthier dietary life after immigration to Korea compared with those in the low dietary adaptation group. In conclusion, Japanese female marriage immigrants well adapted to Korean dietary life tended to eat healthier and perceive health status better compared with those who were not well adapted. The results of this study could be useful for prospecting dietary life and health-related characteristics of immigrant women in the long term after immigration to Korea.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.64
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• pp.21-50
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• 2020

The main purpose of this study is to present a map for setting a new direction for future North Korean ministry by applying Russell's theory on Christian education as a mission. As is well known, Russell was the first Christian educator who interpreted Christian education from a mission's perspective. According to her, Christian education is not a mere instrument for church to maintain and nurture new believers, but it is part of 'Missio Dei' in a broader sense. In other words, it is a way for everyone to accept Christ's invitation, and join in 'Missio Dei' that restores true humanity through reconciling with God and our neighbors. Based on the understanding of Russell's Christian education theory, the study examined up-to-date North Korean mission's situation, analysis, and limitations in the introduction. In chapter 2, the researcher reviewed approaching methods for understanding North Korea as well as prior studies on North Korean mission and unification within the field of Christian education. In chapter 3, Russell's theory on Christian education for humanization was briefly introduced. In chapter 4, the study attempted to apply Russell's theory in North Korean mission in the following areas: what is the true meaning of restoring humanity for North Koreans (including the refugees) and what are some of the specific ministry ideas; what is a realistic and sustainable humanization ministry; what environment can foster North Koreans to reconcile with both God and their neighbors; what are the ways to explain that such ministry is an invitation from Christ; what should the people involved in the ministry prepare; in what areas can Russell's theory be more effective in North Korean mission compared to other methods in terms of Christian education for humanization. Finally, a conclusion was drawn in chapter 5.