• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.133-157
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• 2022

Applying the long and distinguished heritage of rhetorical theory to any sacred text, such The Canonical Scripture of Daesoon Jinrihoe, could fill many volumes of many books. This study, then, will provide some suggestive prolegomena for directions rhetorical criticism of the Scripture can take, now and in future research. This study will, further, make necessarily broad strokes in order to familiarize audiences and scholars of new Korean religions, and Eastern thought generally, with Western, both ancient and more modern, modes of rhetorical thought. As rhetorical criticism is increasingly embraced by Western religious scholarship, and as comparative religious studies remain an important dimension of textual scholarship, this article will contribute to both areas by presenting perhaps the first rhetorical-critical approach to the sacred scriptures of Daesoon Jinrihoe. When the new English translation of the Scriptures becomes available in the West, general and scholarly readers will be interested to find parallels and departures with religious and critical traditions with which they are already familiar (in this case, early American Protestant Calvinism). This study will make contributions, then, to the areas of rhetorical-religious criticism, comparative East-West presentations of nature within scriptural contexts, and establishment of grounds for further comparative investigations of Western traditions and Daesoon Jinrihoe.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.29
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• pp.241-278
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• 2017

This study aims to classify broadscale anti-religious movements in Korea based on critical public sentiment and analyze the meanings of these movements. To carry out the research, global religious changes that have occurred in modern times were closely looked into first. The world religions have had an influence on the world's religious awareness. As a result, they intend to acquire universality on their own individual grounds while keeping consistency with the past. This phenomenon used to appear to retain the identity, recreate tradition, transform itself to fit in the present times, pursue innovation, or even become overshadowed by other forms of thought such as when religions have collided with nationalism. How does Korean society perceive the changes that emerged in world religions? In general, the circumstances that Korea faces in this era tend to manifest themselves via the Internet, multimedia, and Youtube wherein they sound off on religion and this includes criticism of Christianity, demand for reformation, attack on minor religions, pro-reform academic circles and media, and the propagation of anti-theism. Criticism of religion is interpreted as an anti-religious movement. The secularism and anti-theism brought up by some Western scholars and critical theories of religion from scientific or historical perspectives are being spread through bookstores. Christianity is prone to reflecting on itself and trying to emphasizing a meta-religious spirituality. This in short, characterizes anti-religious movements in Korea. Indeed, criticism against particular religions has also emerged in the past. However, anti-religious movements that have recently come into existence in Korea are in some regards unprecedented when compared to that of the past in terms of their patterns and context. Especially, the active anti-Christianity movement in general is definitely a new phenomenon. This research mainly focused on Christianity, but on-going anti-religious movements will be a major topic for further research that aims to understand the religious changes unfolding in Korea.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.27
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• pp.245-282
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• 2016

Currently, the whole world is being swept away by spiritual movements seeking divinity in oneself. Yet there are terror attacks, religious disputes and other conflicts continuously taking place on larger and larger scales as well as expanding further and further throughout the world. Interreligious harmony seems like a distant ideal. What is the ultimate cause of religious conflicts? Is interreligious communication truly that difficult? Even among different cultures, said cultures' varieties of ritual expressions, and various religious doctrines, there are points of general common to be appreciated if a deep perspective is adopted. When we find the common ground and understand each other's difference, it will be easier to communicate since everyone will be learning from each other. What could serve as common ground for different religions? Many scholars speak about the state of 'oneness' that is claimed by mysticism throughout a large array of religions. This state of oneness is typically not achieved overnight, but it serves as a prospective state which is pluralistically inclusive. This "religion of enlightenment" emphasizes the process of reaching comprehensive interreligious agreement would be characterized by a deep religious perspective. If superficial religious perspectives focuses only on faith to attain blessings and engage in blind belief, then, by contrast, deep religious perspectives emphasize inner divinity, the true self, orthe higher self. The words, 'superficial religious perspective' and 'deep religious perspective' were defined for personal convenience by O Gang-nam, a scholar of comparative religion. Consequently, this classification is a relative binary concept lacking hard and fast rules with regards to distinctions. But the concept of superficial religious perspectives and deep religious perspectives has its advantage in allowing clearer and easier discussion about religions because it could embrace all aspects of religious life and the development of various religious sentiment. In this way, the terms surface religious perspectives and deep religious perspectives will be used in limited framework. I both borrow this concept and reconsider it by referring to other scholars' methods of classification. From that point, I explore and these views in relation to religious experience. How does religiosity develop, maturity of religious faith take place, deep awareness of truth reveal itself, or an attitude of open-mindedness arise? After these states are realized, is interreligious agreement possible? Most religious studies scholars point out 'religious experience.' They say people could develop their faith from superficial religious beliefs into a more mature and deeper faith through religious experience while continuously aspiring towards enlightenment and practicing their religion in daily life. This study will try to examine aspects of superficial religious perspectives and deep religious perspectives represented in each religion and also explore criticism of each religion. With this view of superficial religious perspectives and deep religious perspectives, some cases documenting the religious experience of Daesoonjinrihoe disciples will be analyzed to see how their religiosity develops from superficial religious perspectives into deep religious perspectives through certain religious experiences. The characteristics of those experiences will also be investigated.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.399-413
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• 2009

Pointing out the reality of criticism done mostly on Carlyle s original structure and rhetoric in his Sartor Resartus, this research paper focuses on Carlyle s dualistic philosophy revealed in the work, limiting its focus mostly to the dualistic theme of descendentalism and transcendentalism. The essence of Caryle s descendentalism is his irony and satire on human civilization, not for criticism itself, like other satirists, but rather out of his deep, secret humanism behind his mask. Roughly the two objects of his social criticism in the contemporary, descendentalisitc world, are mechanism and materialism in a variety of new ideologies. To diagnose the Zeitgeist and disillusion man living in contemporary civilization, Carlyle in this work uses a very original metaphor, the clothes-symbol. According to Carlyle, human history and progress can be said to be originated from man s adventitious invention of clothes that was not for biological need or social decency, but for decoration, the instinct of which implies man s innate vanity and desire. Interestingly enough here, however, Carlyle uses the same metaphor of clothes for his vision of transcendence, the world of Everlasting Yea. Man is also God s apparel and Matter is that of Spirit. Carlyle s Everlasting Yea world stresses especially the two attitudes, belief in God and love of man, which have been recently jeopardized in the socalled descendentalistic world. But Carlyle s transcendental and religious vision in Sartor Resartus is, as critics also have agreed, a unique and mysterious vision as something different from orthodox Christianity or other Victorian ideologies, as more like an amalgamation among Calvinism, Romanticism, Platonism and German Idealism. All in all, reading Sartor Resartus is still a valuable experience of an idiosyncratically original vision along with his warning against dehumanizing forces lurking in the name of civilization and with his ultimate eulogy on man, proving descendentalism as just part of transcendentalism, although the reader from time to time can be embarrassed by his male-centered, politically conservative, and individual-oriented dynamism.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.40
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• pp.39-76
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• 2022

The two religious ethics, Christianity's 'love your enemies' and Daesoon Jinrihoe's 'grievance-resolution for mutual beneficence', can be misunderstood as similar. The misunderstanding arises from these religious ethics having something in common that specifically points to a particular object, called an enemy, and contains instructions to treat that object altruistically. However, from the perspective of Religious Ethics, the two teachings are not the same. The beliefs they are based upon are different, the religious character they pursue is different, and their processes of obtaining legitimacy, logic, and implementation are different. The most distinct difference between these ethics is that the Christian ethic focuses on a victim's role whereas Daesoon Jinrihoe ethic emphasizes the roles of both victims and perpetrators. In case of 'love your enemies,' if a perpetrator turns away from a victim and believes that they would be forgiven for their sin, the victim is unlikely to practice the teaching 'love your enemies.' Accordingly, to avoid criticism over cases wherein love of an enemy is nothing but a shallow grace, the roles of the two sides should be more highlighted than that of the absolute being. As for grievance-resolution for mutual beneficence, this teaching encourages victims to resolve their grievance with a goal of mutual beneficence. The perpetrator should likewise resolve the grievances and grudges of their victim with the aim of mutual beneficence. Jeungsan especially stressed that perpetrators have to resolve 'Cheok (慼: the resentment and grievances that someone holds against the one who victimized them)' through the ethic of grievance-resolution in order for living well. In other words, 'the ethic of Cheok-resolution' is an ethic wherein the perpetrator also plays an important role in the implementation of grievance-resolution for mutual beneficence.

• 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.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.50
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• pp.483-507
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• 2018

Shylock in Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice has been considered as either a devilish villain, or as a victim who was persecuted unfairly by the Christian society in Venice. By focusing on the matter of the Other, which has been summarily overlooked in literary texts and the literary criticism, it is noted that the New Historical and Cultural criticism interpreted Shylock as the racial, religious, and economic Other in the Venetian society which at the time was dominated by Christian ideals. The purpose of this paper is to show how Shylock becomes an abjected Other, that is, the abject, based on Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection. According to Kristeva, an abjection is the process of expulsion of otherness from society, through which the subject or the nation tries to set up clear boundaries and establish a stable identity. Shylock is marginalized and abjected by the borders drawn by the Venetian Christian society, which in a strong sense tries to protect its identity and homogeneity by rejecting and excluding any unclean or improper otherness. The borders include the two visible borders like the Ghetto and the red hats worn by the Jews, and one invisible border in the religious and economic fields. By asking for one pound of Antonio's flesh when he can't pay back 3,000 ducats owed, Shylock tries to cross the border between Christians and Jews. Portia frustrates Shylock's desire to violate the border by presenting a different interpretation of the expression, 'one pound of flesh,' from Shylock's interpretation. And in doing so she expels him back to his original position of abject.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.72
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• pp.147-164
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• 2022

Stories have been studied as an important educational method in Christian education. In recent discussions on religious education, stories are positively evaluated in terms of stimulating children's unique fantasy, as opposed to visual media, and in terms of face-to-face direct communication. Our most profound and passionate orientation to the world is shaped by stories. This is because stories move us by moving us and shape our unconscious to act accordingly. However, the subjects that supply stories to children now are various mass media and consumer culture. The story it tells instills a secular worldview and makes us dream of a world completely different from the kingdom of God. Our children need a story to imagine the kingdom of God. This paper focuses on story-style sermons in children's worship and tries to deal with the Christian educational implications of story-style sermons. To this end, first of all, I would like to treat the Bible as a story according to the approximate concept of the story and the position of literary criticism who approached the Bible as a story. The second will deal with narrative preaching. First, we will look at narrative sermons for adults, and then deal with narrative sermons for children. The two narrative sermons were treated separately in the sense of considering the characteristics of children rather than being separated. Lastly, I would like to draw out the Christian educational implications of narrative preaching.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.679-700
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• 2012

This study aims to examine Mark Twain's criticism of American capitalistic ideals in the late nineteenth century. During this second industrial revolution, industry showed rapid growth and capitalism established an order, while America suffered under the monopolization of capitalistic conglomerates. This resulted in the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the dehumanization caused by rapid industrialization. In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Hank Morgan, the protagonist--who represents nineteenth-century America's industrialism, individualism, and capitalism--is sent back in time to the sixth century of Arthurian England. Hank attempts to introduce nineteenth-century technologies and machines to build a capitalistic system in the middle ages. However, Hank's efforts lead to disaster in which the country and civilization he worked to build is completely destroyed. Although Twain does not deny capitalistic ideals, he criticizes the "governmentality" that operates Hank's reform system to the extreme. Hank values efficiency and utilizes human beings as capital. Hank's economic reason not only transforms the Round-Table knights into speculators but also transforms their religious acts and abstract ideals into moneymaking businesses. The destructive ending anticipates the World Wars and the Great Depression in the first half of twentieth century and even serves to predict the dangers that follow.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1103-1117
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• 2012

This paper focuses on eighteenth-century English pastor, poet, and hymnist, Isaac Watts (1674-1748), a significant yet neglected nonconformist dissenter, who defines a public religion and transforms poetry as a new literary political genre. During England's post-Revolutionary religio-political turmoil, Watts's poem, "The Hurry of the Spirits, in a Fever and Nervous Disorders" (1734), deliberately engages in a methodical refusal to settle upon a single system of images or terms for describing or referring to the speaker's identity or situation. Watts's, literal and metaphoric, refusal to identify with one religio-political approach to nonconformist dissent has been the very point of criticism that not only undermines the poet's monumental work on hymns but also the lasting impact that the poet had upon England's national consciousness. This study, therefore, questions why the poet refuses to choose one ideal path in his pursuit for religious freedom and, further, analyzes how the hymn writer defends his demotic aesthetics. This paper investigates Watts's comprehensive and detailed formulation of what a secularized "social religion" should entail and, further, explores its beneficial role in the pursuit for society's peace. In contrast to Milton's apocalyptic vengeance, Watts's nonconformist goal seeks to balance and locate authority in the individual with the ancient ideal of a "sacred order" that is represented in "The Hurry of the Spirits" through the means of poetic imagination.