• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.25
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• pp.195-241
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• 2014

When the objective of a modern state focuses on securing basic human right of an individual and realizing public good in a state community, the direction of policy on religion of a state can not deviate far away from such objective. Meanwhile, the policy on religion of modern states today mostly takes the church and state separation principle as its basis. The states secure religious freedom and enforce the separation of church and state by differentiating religion and the mundane world and establishing the relation between the two. This study examined the church and state separation principle, which is an important system device of recent age nation-states, and explored the possibility of more active policy on religion. First, the relationship among religion, state and politics was examined from more structural and functional viewpoint. Next, how the separation of church and state principle has become recent age political principle and what was the settlement process of church and state separation in other countries are summarized. At last, the actual situation of church and state separation in Korea, the structural limitation of it and the direction of policy on religion are examined. The application experience of church and state separation principle is quite short in Korean society. In addition, when there is a religious issue, there is the trend of evading the issue unconditionally or responding to it passively. However, the religious culture in Korean society is one of the biggest cultural resources and social assets. Since it has big potential as driving force for the advance of state, it is regretful to leave religion alone as it is. Therefore, this study explored the original limitations of church and state separation principle which are limiting the religious policy of of state and searched for a theoretical basis for the utilization of resources in religious culture as driving force of state by overcoming the limitations. This study examined the situation in Korea by paying attention to how differently the church and state separation principle is being applied in other states, The separation of church and state, which is the basis of policy on religion in Korea, belongs to 'similar separation type' like in Japan; therefore, there is a trend of doctrinaire interpretation or arbitrary interpretation. This study suggests that it is required to overcome this limping state and settle down the church and state separation principle, which fits to Korean society, as a social and cultural practice. It is also suggested that more active policy on religion would be enforced by wider interpretation of church and state separation.

• CONCEPT AND COMMUNICATION
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• no.23
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• pp.237-272
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• 2019

This paper reexamines the prevailing understanding of the Meiji Enlightenment in terms of the discourse on civilization and enlightenment conducted by Meirokusha in the early Meiji period. Specifically, it extends the discourse on civilization and enlightenment beyond the confines of Meirokusha to also include the discourses of those advocating the unity of church and state and the establishment of a state religion. Such discourses gave rise to various forms of enlightenment in the late Meiji period, of which this paper explores the critical appropriation of modern western enlightenment that occurred in the process of formation of Kokutai (national polity) theory, hence the enlightenment of Kokutai. There is a particular focus on the division and reorganization of the concept of 敎 (teaching / religion), since it was the key concept in Kokutai theory and enlightenment was only relevant to Kokutai theory in this context. This analysis shows that when the adherents of Kokutai understood it as a religion, and 敎 (teaching / religion) was seen in ideological terms, then enlightenment appeared in a distorted form as a discipline required by divine authority. Another finding is that when rational judgment and criticism of the Kokutai religion were not allowed, this suppressed the formation of the individual subject of enlightenment.