• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
• /
• v.18
• /
• pp.149-164
• /
• 2004

Various social surveys conducted by mass media and government agencies in recent years in Japan suggest that the percentage of those who believe in religion are between twenty and thirty percent. However, more than seventy percent of Japanese visit Shinto shrines or Buddhist temples during the New year period. Although there are varying interpretations on whether Japanese people are religious or not, detailed research shows the existence of certain religious tendencies among Japanese. I base my estimates on research surveys of college students covering a period of almost ten years. It is helpful for understanding the religiosity of the Japanese to differentiate between "clear-cut religion" and "peripheral religious phenomena." The exact boundary between these two categories, however, is difficult to clearly demarcate. "Clear-cut religion" refers here phenomena which are directly related to established religious organizations such as shrine Shinto, Buddhist sects, or Christianity. "Peripheral religious phenomena" covers such phenomena as fortune telling, mystical phenomena, religious customs and similar matters. It is often said that the younger generations are less concerned with religion. Our seven surveys questioning several thousand college students, conducted between 1995 and 2001, show that only between six and seven percent of the students state that they believe in religion. Additionally, the extent of negative attitudes toward religion quite remarkable. On the other hand, students who take part in conventional ritual such as a New year's visit to a shrine or temple and visiting the graves of ancestors amount to about fifty percentage. In spite of the prevailing negative attitude toward religious groups, these students have apparently kept a certain level of interest in religious customs. Moreover, they show a relatively strong interest in fortune telling, mystical phenomena, or supernatural phenomena. The exact degree of a positive attitude toward peripheral religious phenomena differs according to the level of being informed on these matters. As a whole, they largely rely on information gained from their families and local communities. Therefore, we can conclude that there is a degree of transmission of religious culture among younger generations.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.189-208
• /
• 2011

The psychology of Carl G. Jung is often called an "ancilla religionis"(servant of religion, James Heisig), by which Jung's understanding of the unconsciousness of human being as the religious one is well expressed. According to Jung the dichotomy between the consciousness and the unconsciousness of men is reconciled in the various religious symbols of the world religions. He also asserted that the religious symbols must be understood and interpreted by a symbolical way. When the religious symbols are understood literally and dogmatically, they lost their dynamic power to bring salvation to men. In this paper I try to understand the essence of the symbolical and intuitional understanding of the exclusiveness of Jesus Christ. The confession of the Christianity that only Christ, once for all, could bring the salvation to the whole humankind is to be interpreted by a symbolical and intuitional way. That means, Christ is to be understood as a always new being at every time when he is confessed as a salvator. Christ as a symbol could never be a historical past. I mentioned about the understanding of Buddha by Muneyoshi Yanagi, a Japanese Shinto Buddhist, in order to show how such a symbolical and intuitional understanding of the Christ could be possible.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
• /
• no.25
• /
• pp.77-122
• /
• 2014

A Japanese director Sion Sono(園子溫, born in 1961), who is not so familiar to us yet, has been depicting the world of violence and sexuality filled with poetic and philosophical messages through the shockingly impressive works such as Strange Circus(2005), Love Exposure(2008), Cold Fish(2010), Guilty of Romance(2011), and so forth after the great success of Suicide Circle(2001) and its second film Noriko's Dinner Table(2005). In addition to these, he has also presented a kind of realistic visions in much more direct ways by Himizu(2011) or Land of Hope(2013) after 3 11 disaster. The purpose of this paper is to try a psychoanalytic interpretation of Sion Sono's film, centering on his Guilty of Romance(愛のむきだし), in terms of the concepts of Jacques Lacan(1901-1981), for example, gaze, objet petit a, fantasy, desire, the imaginary-the symbolic-the real, jouissance, etc. In so doing, this paper will pay special attention to the discourse of love on one hand, exploring the way how to show any new perspective to the religious studies by reading film and religion in association with Lacan on the other hand.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.1091-1100
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate by questionnaire method the guardian's mental attitudes and self-esteem toward their children with muscular dystrophy according to the sex, the age, the academic background, the family budget monthly income, the children's grade, the body ability, the muscular dystrophy recognition lapse, and religion. The guardian's mental attitudes toward their children with muscular dystrophy regarding the consultation hope, the basic recognition, the child custody, the personnel relationship and the childcare, the view of the future are very closely connected with each category and they are various from the whole categories.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.71-78
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of good death recognition, self-esteem, attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatmenton the consciousness of biomedical ethics in nursing students. Data were collected from 154 nursing students in B city and analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regression using SPSS/WIN 22.0. The degree of consciousness of biomedical ethics in nursing students was 2.87±0.26. There were significant differences in consciousness of biomedical ethics with respect to religion(t=-2.90, p=.004). There was positive correlation between consciousness of biomedical ethics and good death recognition(r=.27, p=.001), self-esteem(r=.36, p<.001), negative correlation between consciousness of biomedical ethics and attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment(r=-.29, p<.001). The factors affecting consciousness of biomedical ethics of the study subjects were good death recognition(β=.26, p<.001), self-esteem(β=.29, p<.001), attitude toward withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment(β=-.30, p<.001), religion(β=-.20, p=.004), with an explanatory power of 28.7%. Through this research requires the fellow study to determine the factors affecting consciousness of biomedical ethics of nursing students.

• Journal of Ethics
• /
• no.80
• /
• pp.1-30
• /
• 2011

Confucianism and Buddhism were compatible in the period of Goryeo Dynasty. And then, the rulers worshiped Confucianism and repressed the religious activity of the Buddhist monk in the early years of the Joseon Dynasty. But King Sejong planed to bring reconciliation between Confucianism and Buddhism. Especially on the ceremonies of mourning and sacrificial rituals, he always performed the two religious style. The reason of sticking to his amicable consciousness is as follows. Firstly, he thinks that both the theory of Confucianism and the religious spirit of Buddhism are very important for the building up the foundation of his Dynasty. Secondly, his mind has been of a same faith cure on the incurable disease. Therefor, when the Royal family is taken ill he must pray to Buddha for recovery from the first stage. Thirdly, he regards social conditions to be the most important and respect for man's life and dignity for the purpose of beneficent administration. But Joseon's government line was the anti-Buddhist policy. So, the policy came in the wake of a debate among King Sejong and Confucian government officials. However his harmonious mind was unchanged between Confucianism and Buddhism. After all, in the last phase of his life he was deeply religious on Buddhism. I think that King Sejong's amicable consciousness could make a contribution to overcome religious conflicts and to create a new political cultural form in the modern society

• Management & Information Systems Review
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.363-376
• /
• 2012

In Korea, religious bodies are being given tax benefits like tax exemption and reduction in accordance with the Local Tax Law. By the way, there's no difference between tax benefits given to religious bodies and other kinds of non-profit corporations. In other words, tax exemption and reduction for religious bodies are being made without considering the very nature of the bodies. This is causing lots of problems. Currently, tax supports to religious bodies are mostly focusing on tax items related to their property, considerably diverting from the ultimate purpose and objectives of tax exemption and reduction for religious organizations. This is not also weakening local finance, but also diverting from the basic intent of so-called the induction system that if necessary, tax supports are given, but they have to be minimized. To solve these problems, comprehensive actions need to be taken, for example, reducing tax benefits given to religious bodies' property and motivating the bodies to make a variety of donations like in developed countries. Now, religious bodies should change their consciousness of tax liability that is imposed by the Local Tax Law. And the government should be more systematic in the collection and management of data that are necessary to levy taxes on religious bodies. If required, the government show the data to religious bodies, convincing them to positively fulfil their tax liability without complaint. This study discusses the current state and problems of existing local tax systems in relation to religious bodies and then propose how to improve the systems. If the systems of tax exemption and reduction for religious bodies under the Local Tax Law can be improved, it would contribute to improve the finance of local autonomous bodies.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
• /
• v.29
• /
• pp.241-278
• /
• 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.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.14 no.10
• /
• pp.776-787
• /
• 2014

When a urban religious cluster is transformed into a religious cultural town, it will help restore the urban community spirit and boost the social, cultural competence of a city. It can be achieved through the desirable values associated with love, service, reconciliation, and communication of each religion combined together. Also, it can facilitate urban regeneration and local revitalization. This study has established measures to stimulate Mokseong-dong in Andong City, an area with lots of religious, cultural facilities, by transforming it into a religious cultural town. The purpose is to play a key role in leading the regional education and culture and stimulating the area. To establish an identity of the religious, cultural town with multiple religions, a development concept was created under the theme of reconciliation, communication, and service. Specifically, a measure to reorganize the area into a space for reconciliation, communication, and service was created with an operation and stimulation program, focusing on the religious facilities. In addition, in order to transform the religious town into a hub of urban regeneration, measures to achieve the following were created: growing together with the surrounding area; establishing a cooperation system involving local residents; establishing an administrative, financial support system. If the religious, cultural town is revitalized, it can boost the quality of local residents and stimulate the local economy.

• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2008

Perpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of death between Korean and Chinese nursing students. And it will help develop curriculum for preparing death, the quality of hospice care, as well as nursing education and practice. Methods: Data was collected from 492 nursing students participated(248 Korean and 244 Chinese) by questionnaire designed for examining Death Orientation (Thorson & Powell, 1988). They were analyzed using Cronbach's Alpha coefficients, factor analysis, t-test, ANOVA and regression analysis (SPSS; win 12.0 version) Results: More than half of the Korean nursing students followed a religion (58.5%) while the majority of Chinese nursing students did not follow a religion (93.9%). In the view of the afterlife, nursing students in China had two views. 'I really don't know what happens after a person dies (30.3%)' and ‘There is no afterlife and death is the end (29.5%)’. On the other hand the Korean nursing students’ answer were, 'After dying, a person goes to heaven or hell (27.3%)' and 'I really don't know what happens after a person dies. (22.9%)' The study also found that the average of 25 items in Death Orientation is 2.36points of nursing students in Korea and 2.50points of nursing students in China. This means that the concern, anxiety and fear were of the middle level for the Chinese Students and were higher than Korean students (t=3.51, p=.000). In the low factor of death orientation, those in Korea had higher 'anxiety of burden to family' than those in China (t=-3.50, p=.001). The nursing students in China had higher 'anxiety of the unknown (t=4.96, p=.000)', 'fear of suffering (t=6.88, p=.000), 'fear of extinction body and life (t=5.20, p=.000), 'fear of lost self-control(t=2.12, p=.034)', and 'anxiety of future existence and nonexistence (t=2.33, p=.020)' than those in Korea. There was no statistically significant difference for the 'concern of body and fear of identity lost' category. The death orientation of Korean nursing students had statistically significant differences according to age (t=3.20, p=.002), religion (t=2.56, p=.011), and afterlife (F=4.64, p=.000). The contribution of Death Orientation had a statistically significant difference, the afterlife variable (0.735, p=0.001). The death orientation of Chinese nursing students did not have any statistically significant differences. Conclusion: In conclusion, there were differences in death orientation between Korean and Chinese nursing students. In particular, those who believed in afterlife showed acceptance of death. The results of this study suggest that nursing curricula should include education program on death and spiritual nursing. Additional studies are needed to establish death education in China with careful considerations on Chinese policies, cultures and social systems.