Korea

1
Koreas PluralisticReligious Culture

• Don Baker
• University of British Columbia

2
Animism

• Village guardian pair a mountain
  god

3
Animism and shamanism

• Animism assumes that various non-human entities
  have personalities and can be interacted with.
  They can be rivers, mountains, trees, rocks,
  tigers, etc.
• Shamanism assumes that certain human beings can
  communicate with spiritual beings through ritual
  or trance.
• Animism and shamanism are analytically distinct.
  In Korea, shamans are normally not possessed by
  animistic spirits. Instead, they are possessed by
  imaginary or dead human beings. However,
  sometimes they interact with non-human spirits
  such as disease-causing spirits, a house
  roof-beam god, or, recently, an engine-block god.

4
types of shamans

• charismatic--are possessed by spirits
• hereditary---are not possessed but have inherited
  the ability to perform rituals that influence the
  supernatural realm.
• diviners--may go into a trance but are not
  possessed.
• The vast majority of shamans are women
• Saju (Four Pillar) fortune tellers are not
  shamans
• Shamans are not the only ones who can make lucky
  charms. Some monks make them, too.

5
types of kut (?)

• Initiation kut
• kut to honor a shamans guardian deity
• kut for the dead, either to send them off or to
  interact with them.
• kut for good luck --- -health and wealth, or a
  son
• A kut for a new beginning (new home or business)
• kut for healing (through exorcism)
• village kut
• kut for rain
• kut for telling the future
• kut for household gods (a kosa can be held
  without a shaman)

6
spirits and gods shamans interact with

• Deities of nature (wind, rain, mountains,heaven,
  the Big Dipper, grain gods, etc)
• tutelary deities
• dead humans who have become gods or spirits
  (heroes, generals, officials, ancestors, hungry
  ghosts, and great shamans from the past) Some are
  fictional.
• deities dealing with birth and death
• deities of disease
• Buddhist deities
• Daoist deities

7
Shaman gods

• No supreme being (No Hananim/Hanunim) Even the
  Jade Emperor is not like a God of monotheism. Nor
  is the heavenly spirit.
• not arranged in a tidy hierarchy.
• Usually dont serve as models of moral behavior.
  (They can be bribed or flattered.)
• Have specific rather than unlimited powers and
  responsibilities.
• Interaction is more like bargaining than
  worshipping.

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A shaman ritual
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Shamanism in Korea today

• There may be 100,000 active shamans in South
  Korea today.
• Shamanism is not considered by the government to
  be a religion. There is no nation-wide clerical
  hierarchy of shamans.
• Moreover, the clients of shamans dont call
  themselves shamanists. Instead, they are likely
  to say that they are Buddhists. Shaman shrines
  take many different forms. They may look like a
  Buddhist temple, or they may be a home with an
  identifying flagpole. Some have signs says
  such-and-such a bodhisattva lives here or
  philosophy research center.

10
Confucian spirituality

• The term Confucianism refers to
• an ethical philosophy
• certain rituals and music
• a philosophy for organizing a government and
  society
• an approach to writing history
• an overall approach to culture (including art and
  literature)
• a philosophy, also known as Neo-Confucianism,
  that aspires to explain everything that is and
  everything that happens.

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Honoring Royal Ancestors
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Confucian ethics

• Confucian ethics is primarily an ethics of
  interpersonal interaction and, secondly, an
  ethics of personal moral cultivation.
• The five fundamental moral relationships of
  Confucianism are ruler/subject parent/child
  husband/wife elder/younger and friend/friend.
  All have reciprocal obligations.
• Harmony is valued over equality
• The patriarchy was considered natural and
  therefore moral
• Sincerity/integrity, reverence/mindfulness, and
  benevolence/humanity are key virtues.

13
Confucian etiquette

• Participation in Confucian rituals is believed to
  stimulate cooperation with your community.
• An individual is defined in terms of his or her
  roles in society and his or her relationships.
  There is no I apart from those roles and
  relationships.
• Proper etiquette is necessary to ensure a
  harmonious society, with everyone playing their
  assigned role.
• This is probably the feature of Confucianism
  modern Koreans find most irritating, yet they
  still abide by much of it.

14
Ancestor worship
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Neo-Confucian practices

• reading texts aloud over and over again.
• quiet sitting (they refuse to call it meditation)
• engaging in appropriate rituals of interactions
  with ancestors, spirits, and other human beings.
• Aligning mind and behavior with li (the patterns
  of appropriate interactions) and disciplining
  ourselves so that ki (C. Qi), the matter-energy
  that makes us individuals, doesnt lead us to act
  more like an individual than like a member of a
  family or community. The goal is to determine our
  proper place in various networks of relationships
  and behave according to our proper place in those
  networks.

16
Confucianism in Korea today

• Survives in the continued performance of ancestor
  rites by the majority of the population. Even
  Christians have Christian ancestor rites.
• Survives in the ethical rhetoric of Koreans.
  Ethics classes are required in school, and most
  of the ethics taught have Confucian roots (filial
  piety, respect for elders, playing our assigned
  roles, etc.)
• The patriarchy is still strong.
• Yet few Koreans would all themselves Confucians.

17
Daoism

• In China, the term Daoism is used for an
  anti-Confucian philosophy, for a popular
  polytheistic religion with revealed scriptures
  and rituals, for longevity practices, for certain
  types of fortune-telling, etc.
• In Korea, little institutional presence, either
  in the past or today.
• However, some gods of Daoism, such as the Jade
  Emperor, are included in some shaman pantheons.
• Internal alchemy (longevity-enhancing techniques)
  has been important at various times in Korean
  history, including today. However, it was often
  seen as more medical than religious.

18
Christianity Arrives
19
Persecution and Catholicism

• Catholicism reached Korea through books rather
  than missionaries.
• In 1784, one young Confucian scholar was baptized
  in Beijing as Peter Lee. When he returned to
  Korea, he converted many of his friends.
• In 1791 two Catholics were killed for refusing to
  use a spirit tablet in a mourning ritual.
• In 1795 a Chinese priest was smuggled into Korea.
  
• In 1801 a major persecution broke out. 100s were
  killed.

20
A century of Persecution

• Paul Yun and James Kwon 103 martyrs of Korea

21
A church in hiding

• After it survived a century-long persecution, the
  Korean Catholic church continued to keep a low
  profile, opening few schools or major medical
  facilities. That changed only after the Korean
  War.
• The Catholic Church opened its first major
  medical center in 1936. It opened its first
  university in 1956.
• Korean priests began to greatly outnumber foreign
  priests in the 1960s.
• Now the Catholic Church is the fastest growing
  major religious community in South

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Growth since 1949
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why this spurt in growth?

• Korean priests now greatly outnumber foreign
  priests.
• Catholic rituals are now in English.
• In the 1970s and 1980s many Catholic priests and
  even a bishop were active in the democratization
  struggle.
• No scandals in the Korean Catholic church.

24
Protestant Christianity

• Missionaries arrived in 1884. They soon
  introduced modern schools and medical facilities.
• Protestant Koreans played an important role in
  the modernization movement before 1910, and in
  the anti-Japanese movement between 1910 and 1945.
  
• The Protestant community, mostly Presbyterian and
  Methodist, promoted a participatory form of
  worship (hymns, communal praying, etc) and also
  offered titles (such as elder and bible woman) to
  lay believers.

25
Comparative Growth Rates

• Catholics Protestants
• 1885 14,039
• 1900 42,411 20,914
• 1905 64,070 37,407
• 1907 63,340 72,968
• 1910 73,517 144,242.
• 1920 89,333 167,435
• 1930 110,728. 260,534
• 1940 113, 401 382,718

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Post-War Growth

• Catholics
  Protestants
• 1960 451, 808 623,072
  
• 1970 788,082 3,192,621
• 1985 1,865,397 6,489,282
• 1995 2, 950,730 8,760,336
• 2005 5,146, 147 8,616,438.

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Christianity and Buddhism
28
Views of Protestantism
29
The worlds largest church
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Reasons for the rise and decline of Protestantism

• Reasons for rapid growth
• participatory rituals, titles (and status) for
  lay believers, created a sense of community in a
  rapidly urbanizing society, is identified with
  modernity and nationalism, engaged in zealous
  proselytizing
• Reasons for the recent slow-down
• urbanization is complete competition within
  denominations demands a lot of money and time
  there are now more competitors with participatory
  rituals, status symbols, and links with
  modernity.

31
New Religions in Korea

• Buddhist --Won Buddhism
• Christian ----Unification Church
• Mixed origins ------Tonghak/ Chondogyo
• Taejonggyo
• Dahn World
• Jeungsando and Daesoon Jinrihoe

32
Won Buddhism

• A new religion with Buddhist roots

33
Buddhist elements

• Won Buddhism accepts the mainstream Buddhist
  notions of karma and reincarnation.
• Won Buddhism, like meditative Buddhism, is
  anthropocentric, teaching that we can save
  ourselves through our own efforts and dont need
  to rely on supernatural assistance. (It also
  promotes meditation.)
• Won Buddhism, like mainstream Buddhism, teaches
  that suffering arises from the way we use our
  minds, and that if we change the way we think, we
  can eliminate our suffering.

34
Unique features

• Founder, often referred to as Sotaesan, was a
  Korean who was active in Korea in the first half
  of 20th century.
• Won Buddhism doesnt worship him or any other
  personality, human or divine.
• Won Buddhism has its own scriptures, its own
  rituals, and its own clerical costumes and
  clerical discipline. It also has a distinctive
  object of its spiritual gaze--- a circle
  (Ilwonsang)
• It calls itself a new religion for a new age. Yet
  it also says many of its teachings are the same
  as those of Buddhism.

35
A Won Buddhist sunday service
36
Won Buddhist temples

• Won Buddhist temples look more like churches than
  temples. They have pews, for example. Moreover,
  they dont have any of the statues normally found
  in Buddhist temples. Instead, on the wall, at the
  front of the temple, there is a simple circle,
  called the Irwonsang (One Circle Symbol).
• Won Buddhist temples are primarily urban temples,
  and are quite different from the mountain temples
  of mainstream Buddhism. Moreover, those temples
  are run by both men (often married clerics) and
  nuns (who are celibate, though celibacy is not
  mandatory)
• Regular Sunday services include sermons and
  congregational singing of hymns.
• Regular meditation is not as important as
  timeless meditation and placeless meditation,
  in other words, we should maintain a calm,
  meditative mind as we go about our everyday
  affairs.

37
Unification Church

• Founded by Moon Sun Myung, who was born in what
  is now North Korea in 1920. Studied engineering
  at Waseda University before 1945.
• Claims Jesus appeared to him and told him that
  God had selected him for a special mission (to
  be the messiah who, through marriage to a pure
  woman, would restore human beings to God).
• 1954--founded the Holy Spirit Association for the
  Unification of World Christianity
• 1960. Married Hak Ja Han, 23 years younger than
  he is.
• 1974 settled in the United States
• 1994 Expanded the Unification Church into the
  Family Federation for World Peace and
  Unification.

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the true parents
39
Moon as Messiah

• Moon is not God (that is why it is incorrect to
  call Unificationists Moonies. They dont
  worship him.)
• However, they believe that he is a messiah, in
  that, through his marriage to Hak Ja Han, he has
  broken Satans grip. Not only are his children
  True Children, because they are free of original
  sin, but all those whose marriages are blessed by
  Moon (or those he has empowered to do so) will
  also produce sinless children.
• Moon is not the only messiah. Anyone who can
  bless marriages, and therefore break Satans
  grip, is a messiah.

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The Blessing
41
Divine Principle

• The Divine Principle is a book containing Moons
  revelations that claims to teach how the Bible
  should really be understood.
• A key principle is that God has both male and
  female characteristics (linked together like yin
  and yang)
• God wants his human creatures to marry and create
  Ideal Families, just like the family of the True
  Parents (Rev. and Mrs. Moon).
• We are now in the Age of the Completed Testament,
  since the Lord of the Second Advent is among us.
• The Unification Church no longer calls itself a
  Christian Church, since it doesnt teach that
  Jesus is God.

42
Tonghak--Chondogyo
43
Tonghak

• Founder was a Confucian scholar named Choe Cheu
  (1824-1864)
• Tonghak means Eastern Learning. He wanted to
  contrast it with Western Learning
  (Catholicism).
• It is Koreas first indigenous organized
  religion. Worshipped one God, though that God
  resembles the impersonal energy that animates the
  universe and is found within the heart/ mind of
  every human being.
• He believed Kaebyok (the Great Transformation)
  would happen soon.

44
The Incantation

• "Ultimate Energy being all around me, I pray that
  I feel that Energy within me here and now.
  Recognizing that the Lord of Heaven is within me,
  I will be transformed. Constantly aware of that
  divine presence within, I will become attuned to
  all that is going on around me."
• The notions of Kaebyok and of a spark of the
  divine within every human being were among the
  inspirations for the largest peasant rebellion in
  Korean history, the Tonghak rebellion of 1894-95.
• In 1905, Tonghak became Chondogyo.

45
Chondogyo Today
46
Chungsan family of religions

• Kang Chungsan ( 1871-1909) is believed to be the
  human incarnation of Sangjenim, the Lord on High
  (the Supreme God)
• It is said that he came down to earth to prepare
  human beings for Kaebyok by teaching his ritual
  for the Re-construction of Heaven and Earth.
• Taught that we need to move from the current era
  of mutual competition to a new era of mutual
  cooperation.
• Two major religious organizations that worship
  Kang as Sangjenim are Daesoon Jinri-hoe and
  Jeung San Do.

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Worshipping Sangjenim
48
Daesun Jinri-hoe

• The Four Essential Practices compose your mind
  calm your body maintain an attitude of reverence
  for God above and cultivate a moral character
• the Four Goals, to be realized after the Great
  Transformation
• Yin and Yang combine forces
• gods and humans cooperate harmoniously
• grievances are resolved and wrongs righted,
• a world of mutual aid and cooperation instead of
  constant struggle is created, and the Way
  pervades all as a true paradise is created on
  this earth.

49
Taejonggyo Worship of the legendary first Korean
king, Tangun
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Dahnhak

• 1985--Former martial arts teacher begins teaching
  internal alchemy techniques he says he recovered
  in a vision while in mediation on a mountain.
  Bundled them with study of Taejonggyo texts.
• 1990s--began expanding abroad, often calling its
  practices Dahn Yogo. Also teaches its own martial
  art. Cinnabar-field breathing has been renamed
  Brain respiration. Enlightenment is now the
  goal.
• Focus on Tangun has been joined by a focus on an
  even more ancient figure, Mago, the queen of the
  first castle in which humans lived (somewhere on
  the Korean peninsula).

51
Dahnhak
52
DahnYoga
53
The rise in religious affiliation

• 1916 530,000 out of 15-17 million 3
• 1940 1 million out of 23.5 million 4
• 1965 3.5 million out of 28.2 mil. 12
• 1985 17.2 million out of 41 mil. 42
• Achieving a majority religious population
• 1995 22.5 million out of 44.5 mil. 50.7
• 2004 Gallup Poll 53.5
• 2005 25 million out of 47 million 53.1

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No one religion dominant

• According to the government, in 2005,
• 22.8 of South Koreans were Buddhist, 18.3
  were Protestant, 10.9 were Catholic, 0.2 called
  themselves Confucians,
• 0.3 called themselves Won Buddhists, and 0.5
  had another religious affiliation.
• This is a change from the 1995 census
• 23.2 Buddhist,
• 19.7 Protestant, 6.6 Catholic,
• 0.5 Confucian, 0.2 Won Buddhists, and 0.6
  other religions.
• Catholicism and Won Buddhism were the only ones
  to show significant growth.