• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.69
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• pp.163-192
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• 2022

In the early 20th century, Korean Protestant Christians began two forms of prayer, Tongsung Kido and Dawn Prayer. The two prayers have been loved and performed by Korean Protestants for over 100 years. Speaking in tongues was introduced in the 1950s and became one of the most popular prayers along with Tongsung Kido and dawn prayer. Korean Protestant churches started Bible meditation in the 1970s through journals like the Daily Bible of the Scripture Union Korea. Now contemplative prayer appears as an unfamiliar and strange style of prayer, given the history of prayer so far in Korean churches. Protestant scholars and pastors have made this into a controversy; contemplative prayer is the first non-protestant prayer that has become controversial. The controversy is mainly about biblical origin, theological relevance, and historical and traditional conformity. This study asks and answers why this controversy is important for Korean Protestant churches. This study introduces the controversy and explores why one group accepts the prayer and others do not. Then, this study recounts the history of Korean Protestant prayers and shows the meanings of the encounter of Korean Protestant prayers and contemplative prayer. This study argues that Korean Protestant Christians, through the controversy, can learn that Korean Protestant churches have the potential to create a new prayer culture and tradition and need spiritual discipline through silence.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.31
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• pp.255-287
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• 2017

This paper analyzes the religious circuit of suicidal concept based on verbal expression and ritual acts, which are found in the suicide discourse of Korean Catholic Church and Protestant Church. In the relationship of suicide and religion, it is easily overlooked the religious circuit and its construction that forms the concept of suicide among the religious laymen. It is assumed that the belief system of traditional religions prohibits suicide and the laymen accordingly construct a perception or concept of suicide along with this belief system. Various studies on this subject have proved it. However, in order to understand the religious way of constructing the concept of suicide on a personal level, it is necessary to pay attention to the religious environment in which the concepts and emotions of suicide circulate. The laymen do not passively and perfectly accept the finely established suicide concept provided by the doctrine or the theology. Rather, the laymen tend to collect the pieces of concept over the suicide that are drifting in the religious environment of his/her daily routine life and to make an concept of suicide in an incomplete form. We can find the unstable and imperfect traits of such a suicide concept through the experience of suicide survivors who have a religious background. For the suicide survivors with religious beliefs, they resist the formal doctrinal and theological provisions to suicide, or try to understand the notion of suicide in their own contexts. In terms of linguistic expressions and ritual acts relating to suicide, the attentions are differently directed in the public and the private domain among the religious groups. Considering on the high rates of suicide in Korean society, the Korean Catholic Churches are increasingly tolerant over the suicide and accept it in the public sphere. It is unlikely when comparing to the negative attitudes of the suicide in the past. However, such tolerance does not go beyond the doctrinal and ethical judgment that defines suicide as a serious sin. The once-committed lay believer's speech and gestures usually contain the various emotions, such as sadness, grief, anxiety, regretfulness, eagerness, and pain in the private spheres. The language and gestures with these emotions have been activated in the religious circuits of suicide, being extended to the religious apparatus for the person who died of suicide. In case of Protestantism, the institutional organizations, such as the particular denominations and the individual-churchism of the Korean Protestant Churches, and their own interpretations of the Bible have in the private sphere strongly effected on the linguistic expressions and the rituals related to the suicide. The religious-ethical judgment of the suicide is varied how the suicide is interpreted by the theologians and the pastors. And the ritual acts for healing the complex feelings and the psychological wounds of the suicide survivors are not actively explored and adopted yet. It makes harder to approach and heal the protestant followers since they emphasize the innermost belief and the salvation assurance faith.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.71
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• pp.277-303
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• 2022

The COVID-19 Pandemic, which began in 2020, has led to many changes in the Korean church. It created a situation in which not only the change and form of worship time, but also the definition, direction, and philosophy of ministry had to be re-established. In the early days of COVID-19 Pandemic, the Korean church recognized this as a crisis, but gradually regarded these as opportunities and tried to produce positive results. The Department of Education has also undergone many changes, especially in its summer ministry, and is expected to have undergone more dramatic changes in form, location and method than in any other church event or service. However, no accurate data on this has been collected. Accordingly, Mirae with Dreams (CEO: Pastor Kim Eun-ho), a corporation established by the Oryun Church for the next generation of ministry, conducted a survey on the summer ministry of the Korean church, which has been registered as a future member with dreams every year since 2020 when the COVID-19 fan dummy began. A similar survey was conducted in 2022 following 2021, and 260 churches responded, and the results are as follows. In 2022, the summer ministry of the Ministry of Education of the Korean Church returned to the form before the COVID-19 Pandemic. Unlike 2021, when many of them were held online, more than 81 percent said they had conducted summer camps offline, and 31 percent also conducted or attended outdoor camps. In terms of the importance of roles, when online was also the main focus, parents and teachers were equally viewed or emphasized, while in this summer's survey, 90 percent of respondents said that the role of teachers in charge or department was important. Summer events were mainly summer Bible schools and retreats, but 25% of all respondents said they conducted missionary work and evangelism at home and abroad. Compared to 2021, participation in summer camps has increased in all departments, including infant and kindergarten, elementary and middle school, and especially in infant and middle school. While preparing for the summer camp, most of the respondents said that the focus was on content and topics, and the main focus was on children's accessibility compared to 2021. As a result of synthesizing the description of the reason for the respondents who could not conduct the summer camp, about 40% said they could not conduct the summer camp due to a lack of volunteers. This is more than 30% who pointed out COVID-19 as the cause, which can be seen as an urgent problem to be solved at the Korean church and denomination level. In addition, this paper also mentioned detailed changes in each question, referring to the changes in summer camps from 2020 to 2022.