• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.37
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• pp.141-190
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• 2021

In early modern Korea, the founders of three main-stream indigenous new religions, Choi Je-woo (崔濟愚), Kang Il-sun (姜一淳), and Park Jungbin (朴重彬), were all ruined yangban, who could no longer maintain the social dignity of yangban. Prior to their regular religious activities, they earned livings as rural teachers, peasants, merchants, and fortune-tellers. They were marginalized for having declined from upper-class nobles to lower-class people. Due to their subalternal status, they religiously represented the inexpressible aspirations and resentments held by various subalterns. The millennial movements of marginal religions in the late Joseon Dynasty exposed and deviated from the fetters of the established order, but they did not propose a new alternative order to replace it. Unlike these millennial movements, Choi Je-woo, Kang Il-sun, and Park Jungbin all proposed utopian visions of post-subalternal alternative religions that systematically presented and practiced new alternative worldviews characterized by the "Great Opening of the Later World (後天開闢)." The world they longed for was one wherein anti-subalternal social regulation were overthrown, the oppression of various subalterns end, and the established social order was replaced. In this article, I have argued that three main-stream indigenous Korean new religions, Donghak (Eastern Learning), the Jeungsan-inspired religious movements, and Wonbulgyo (Won Buddhism) are utopian alternative religions. I made this argument by analyzing some aspects by which they represented subalterns and offered subalterns a new religio-social status.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.33
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• pp.179-218
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• 2019

This article examines some important issues in films about new religious movements (NRMs) that express and represent NRMs in sensationalistic ways and criticize them as immoral and antisocial cults. I presented a typology to analyze films about NRMs from the perspective of marginalized religions separated from established religions and also as alternative religions that replace the established religions. In recent times, films about NRMs have changed from being social criticisms that represents NRMs as perpetrators of brainwashing and the need for deprogramming to that of faithful participation and empathetic reflection. Films about NRMs that utilize empathetic reflection, including Wild Wild Country (2018), go beyond the normative, single-perspective formula to enable insiders to conduct self-reflection and outsiders to empathize through openness, varied perspectives with multi-faceted composition and polyphony. In contrast, films about NRMs that adopt the perspective of faithful participation, including The Road to Peace (1984), present a new visual way to unravel the voices of silenced subalterns with alternative religious visions and those who needed relief from the marginalization due to alienation or exclusion from established religions. In the Korean context, these visions are expressed as 'the great transformation into the creation of a paradise of the Later World (後天開闢)' or as 'the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence (解冤相生).'

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.456-466
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• 2014

This is a study of George Lindbeck's postliberalism that views religion as a cultural-linguistic approach. Knowing that the conceptual-propositional approach of the traditional Christian theology and the experiential-expressive approach of liberalism cannot be a solution for the post-modem religious phenomenon, George Lindbeck proposes an alternative. He proposes a cultural-linguistic approach to overcome the previous approaches. The first insight of Lindbeck's postliberalism is to understand religion as culture or language, because human beings become acquainted with a religion as they learn a language. The second insight comes out of the first, to understand doctrine as grammar. If we understand religion and doctrine this way the troubles and conflicts among religions will be resolved naturally, because each religion can be interpreted in its own system just as a language cannot be said to be good or bad, right or wrong. This approach makes several contributions as follows: it promotes a dialogue among religions, it emphasizes practice; and it preserves the Bible as an authoritative theological text. However it also brings many limitations as follows: it emphasizes the church's interpretation rather than the text's own interpretation; it views the truth simply as coherence; it promotes radical relativism and elitism; and through theological eschatology he makes his theory return to a propositionalism. Accordingly, the researcher concludes that Lindbeck's cultural-linguistic theory of religion is not an alternative that overcomes the limitations of theological conservativism and liberalism.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.33
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• pp.1-30
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• 2019

There have been three trends in the study of the view of humanity in Daesoon Thought: insider theology, outsider theology, and religious studies. This article is intended to interpret the view of humanity in Daesoon Thought from the perspective of Mircea Eliade's New Humanism. We find similarities between Daesoon Thought and Eliade's New Humanism. Daesoon Thought deals with the complexities of life as being labyrinth-like and puts Jeungsan's view of humanity at the center of a Daesoon worldview. Jeungsan examines the existential problems which humans face in the Former World, and gives the religious remedies of Haewonsangsaeng (the resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence) and Boeunsangsaeng (the grateful reciprocation of favors for mutual beneficence) to transform humanity's worldview for usage in the Later World. Jeungsan suggests a way of peace instead of the revolution of Donghak. Through the Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth, Jeungsan changes the mutual contention of the Former World into the mutual beneficence of the Later World. The cosmology of Daesoon Thought recovers the relationship between divine beings and human beings in the three realms, and proposes a system of ethics that promotes virtue and reproves vices and human-centericism. In conclusion, the view of humanity in Daesoon Thought is an unapologetic view of homo-religiosus from within a new humanism.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2019.05a
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• pp.467-468
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• 2019

Alcoholics Anonymous(AA)/Narcotic Anonymous(NA)의 12 단계 중독 회복 프로그램과 선배 회복자의 지지는 중독 치료 모델에서 성공적인 회복에 기여하는 주요한 역할을 한다. 12단계 중독회복 프로그램의 특징은 특정 종교를 기반으로 하지 않지만 자신의 무력감과 영적 존재에 대한 인정을 바탕으로 한다. 어떤 이들에게는 성공의 요인으로 작용하는 이 특징이 일부 참여자에게 거부하게 하는 요인으로 작용한다. 또한 AA/NA의 오프라인 모임에서 발생하는 다양한 부작용으로 인해 사회적 지지가 필요하지만 사회적 지지를 포기하는 이탈이 발생하여 참석자의 회복에 지장을 주기도 한다. 이에 서구 여러 나라에서 AA/NA와 유사하지만 오프라인뿐만 아니라 온라인 모임이 가능하고, 외부의 존재에 대한 의존이 아닌 중독자 스스로가 중독을 극복하게 도와주며 다양한 형태의 중독의 문제를 다루도록 돕는 SMART(Self Management and Recovery Training) Recovery가 대안으로 부상하였다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 중독회복에 상호자조집단의 도움이 필요하지만 12단계 프로그램이나 오프라인 모임 외에 다른 대안이 없는 국내 상황에 대한 새로운 대안으로 SMART Recovery에 대한 정보와 접근방법들을 심도 있게 탐색하고자 한다.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.556-570
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to see the characteristics of oral media, which is orality and literacy combined, in order to analyze its effect on the age of Reformation and today, and to draw applicable points on the present Christian mission. The electronic age is an age of secondary orality, the orality of telephones, radio, and television, which depends on writing and print for its existence. Historically, it is a well-known fact that the shift from orality to literacy and on to electronic processing has engaged in social, economic, political, religious and other structures. With this perspective, the study was divided into two parts. In the first part, researchers dealt with the characteristics of primary oral culture, examined how it combined with media literacy and became oral media, and witnessed how reformers in the sixteenth century utilized it timely along with what the ending result was. In the second part, researcher observed the characteristics of electronic media based on literacy and orality, and presented several applicable points to the present state of the Christianity.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.70
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• pp.221-245
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• 2015

This research defines Pope Francis's visit to Korea in August 2014 and the reactions from journalism to it as a case to show the discursive potential of mediated religion for social change. It analyzes the editorials and the columns on the Pope in five daily newspapers including the Chosunilbo, the Dong-A Ilbo, the Joongang Daily, the Hankyoreh, and the Kyunghyang Shinmun. Since the Pope receives positive evaluations for his remarks and behaviors during the visit from most of those articles, this research categorizes the values identified with the Pope and those with the "anti-Pope" into a form of binary oppositions, and interpret the meanings of the rhetorical strategies. The findings suggest that a consistent narrative is constructed by journalism regarding the harsh reality of Korea and the ways to overcome its structural problems. Based on the findings, I argue that mediated religion in this case is expected by the secular society to do its role for social change by being a provider of progressive and alternative values.

• (The)Korea Educational Review
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.169-192
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relations between religious socialism and education of Martin Buber(1878~1965), a theistic existentialist. Buber suggested religious socialism as an alternative to modern capitalist society which has many problems. Buber's religious socialism is based on the communitarianism of Hasidism. Buber considered 'true' socialism must be based on decentralized associations, not based on centralized state apparatuses. For establishing this kind of socialism, human will and mind are the most important. Thus, education takes a very important role in the process of social transformation. According to Buber, education and pedagogy should contribute to overcoming modern society's problems by pursuing the construction of community(true socialist society). For Buber, education for individuals' character and education for building community are not separated but combined. That is, although education takes a main role in the social transformation, it should not be considered just as an instrument for the social transformation. This is the main distinction between Buber's thought and other key socialists' thoughts on social transformation and education, because many of socialists who stress the role of education in the process of social transformation, tend to regard education as an instrument for the social transformation. According to Buber, education can contribute to social transformation without being an instrument for the social transformation. These ideas of Buber on religious socialism and education have important implications for educators and educationalists who hope education contributes to solving problems of modern society.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.40
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• pp.115-153
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• 2022

Korea has rapidly become an aging society, and this phenomenon is found not only in common population but also in many religious circles. In this context, interest in the welfare of retired clergy members is increasing, and some religious organizations are trying to devise and perform rules and/or policies that ensure a secure post-retirement life for their clergy. However, the welfare benefits differ from one religion to another according to the characteristics of the given religion's organizational structure. For instance, denominations with a centralized hierarchy such as Catholicism or Won Buddhism implement a relatively stable welfare system for their elderly clergy members whereas autonomous denominations like many Buddhist or Christian orders are often found to have somewhat insecure welfare systems. Clergy welfare in Daesoon Jinrihoe, one of the representative new religions in Korea, is emerging as an important issue as Daesoon Jinrihoe is also affected by the problems of Korea's aging society. However, since the order has a mixed system of a centralized hierarchy and autonomous local branches, the welfare for their elderly clergy lacks clear lines of accountability. Consequently, there have been talks to devise a proper welfare system; however, these talks have come to a standstill. In this regard, this study aims to look into and analyze how various structures and welfare systems within Korean religious organizations impact elderly clergy. Lastly, this research will provide suggestions on practical alternatives for Daesoon Jinrihoe which could resolve the problems within their welfare system that negatively impact elderly clergy members at present.