• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.48
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• pp.239-268
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• 2024

Video content is often used as a means of education due to the characteristics of the medium: representation, information delivery, immersion, and experience. In particular, religious films are being used more often in public schools and religious communities to promote understanding and inspiration. The purpose of this study is to examine how Daesoon Jinrihoe utilizes video content via the film, The Road to Peace and Harmony, and the videos that were made for the Museum of Daesoon Jinrihoe Museum. The study will also make suggestions regarding the future use of such contents. In Section 2 of this study, the status of the video contents as currently used by Daesoon Jinrihoe will be examined and analyzed in terms of how the film, The Road to Peace and Harmony, and the videos produced for the Museum of Daesoon Jinrihoe are being utilized. In Section 3, the limitations of Daesoon Jinrihoe's video contents will be considered in that these materials in terms of how these videos are only used within the religious order. There is the potential that such materials could be used in broader society. Lastly, in Section 4, it is proposed that video materials produced by Daesoon Jinrihoe could be used within multicultural religious education in a public setting beyond mere in-group religious education. Through this, it is hoped that Daesoon Jinrihoe will be able to expand as a world religion in a more timely manner than what would otherwise be achieved.

• 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).'

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.23
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• pp.109-152
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• 2014

This paper deals with the artistic expression of religious thought in terms of the uniqueness of different images and creativity. The relationship between religion and art is complicated but popular in modern society. Film becomes the icon of modern culture to enhance the knowledge of religious traditions. Among many Korean religious films, Kang Daejin's work, The Way of Peace (1984) contains the life and thought of Kang Jeungsan(1871-1909), the highest god of Daesoonjinrihoe. First, the film, The Way of Peace, pays attention to the legitimacy of succession from Kang Jeungsan to Cho Jeongsan(1895-1958). Korea was beset with trouble both at home and abroad. China, Japan, Russia, and the US had the colonial desire to conquer the lands of Korea and to explore natural resources. Though the people of Eastern Learning(東學) protested government and Japanese colonialists, Jeungsan applied the principle of non-violence to the world. In order to save all the living beings of the world, he reordered the universe and renewed the harmonic relationship of human beings and their spirit. Second, The Way of Peace proposed the soteriology of peace and change to audience regardless of seekers(道人) or not. Jeungsan transformed the closed society to the open society, changed divided religions to the transcendent truth(道). He empowered the marginalized people such as women, the lowly, the elderly, and the sick, who were oppressed in the Confucian society. And he redeemed the people from the disease by healing all diseases and correcting disorders. In conclusion, The Way of Peace is a good resource of religious education by which we can overcome the religious illiteracy. The knowledge of new religious movements and Daesoonjinrihoe is necessary for us to understand the diversity of human nature. In the near future, the new images of Jeungsan should be created through multi-media and cultural contents for the new generation.