• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.67
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• pp.11-44
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• 2021

In the early 21st century, the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has arisen during the development of the technological science of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, has been a great challenge in all fields including politics, economy, industry, education and religion in Korean society. To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Korean government announced 'social distancing guidelines,' focused on the 'prohibition of three conditions'(crowd, closeness, airtight) for safety reasons. These quarantine guidelines made it more difficult for Korean churches and Sunday schools to operate. In general, looking at the statistical data of the major denominations of the Korean Church in the second half of the 20th century, shows that the Church has entered a period of stagnant or declining growth. Data also show that the number of students attending Sunday School is decreasing. The researcher identified four causes of the crisis faced by the Korean church and Korean Sunday school entering the 21st century. These trends are influenced by the tendencies of postmodernism, the deconstruction of modern universalism, the certainty and objectivity of knowledge, and the grand narrative and worldview of diffusion. Moreover, it is a phenomenon in which the young population decreases in contrast to the increasing elderly population in the age of population cliff in Korean society. Sunday Schools are also facing a crisis, as the youth population, who will become the future heroes of the Korean church, is declining. Finally, constraints of Church and Sunday school education activities are due to COVID-19 Pandemic. As analysis shows the loss of the Church's educational vision and a decrease in the passion for education. Accordingly, the researcher suggests four new strategies for the next generation of Korean Sunday schools, whose ranges from 200 members or less; this range covers the majority of Sunday School program run by churches in Korea. First, in the age of postmodernism, a time of uncertainty and relativism, Christian Societies requires teachers who are certain of absolute Christian truth and faith. Second, in an era of declining population cliffs for younger generations, a shift to a home-friendly Sunday school paradigm is needed. Third, during the COVID-19 pandemic, educational activities must appropriately utilize face-to-face and non-face-to-face communication. Finally, even in difficult times, Korean Sunday school should nevertheless remember the Lord's great commandment(Matthew 28:18-20) and restore the vision and passion of education to announce and teach the gospel. The researcher hopes that this study will provide small, positive steps in rebuilding Korean Sunday school educational activities for future generations in difficult times.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.51-117
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• 2019

On 15th November 2017, the coastal city of Pohang, located in the Southeastern part of South Korea was shaken by a magnitude 5.4 earthquake. The earthquake displaced more than 1,700 residents and caused more than $ 300 million dollars of economic loss. It was the second most damaging earthquake in the history of Korea. Soon after the earthquake, a group of scientists raised a possible link between the first Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) project and the earthquake. At the same time, another group of scientists put forward a different hypothesis of the causation of the earthquake claiming that it was caused by the geological movements that were initiated by the Great Tohoku Earthquake in 2011. Since then, there were scientific debates between the two different groups of scientists. The scientific debate on the causation of the earthquake has been concluded temporarily by the Research Investigatory Committee on the Pohang Earthquake in 2019. The research committee concluded that the earthquake was caused by the Pohang EGS system: this means that the earthquake can be defined not as a natural earthquake, but as an artificially triggered earthquake. This article is to examine the Pohang earthquake can be defined as an Anthropocenic event. The newly suggested concept, the Anthropocene is a relatively novel term to classify the earthly strata and their relationship to geological time. The current geological period should be defined by human activities and man-made earthly environment. Although the term is basically related to geological classification, the Anthropocene has been widely debated amongst humanist and social science scholars. The current disastrous situation of our planet also implies with the Anthropocene. This paper is to discuss how to understand anthropogenic events. In particular, the paper pays attention to two different scholarly positions on the Anthropocene: Isabelle Stenger's Gaia theory and Barbara Herrnstein Smith's relativist theory. The former focuses on the earthly inevitable catastrophe of Anthropocene while the latter suggests to situate and contextualise anthropogenic events. On the basis of the theoretical positions, the article is to analyse how the Pohang earthquake can be located and situated.

• 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.