• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.73
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• pp.55-72
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• 2023

Recently, religious communities have devised multiple practical training programs for spiritual formation and direction. In this study, we define Christian spiritual formation as a lifelong journey of growing, progressing, increasing and strengthening toward wholeness in the image of Christ. In dialogue with J. Edwards' theology of spiritual sense, this essay suggests three major points of holistic spiritual formation in depth: first, spiritual Formation is a process; second, spiritual formation should attend to the balance between God's Initiative and Human Agency; third, holistic spiritual formation is a process to seek God-self. Spiritual formation is not a static status acquired by several techniques, methods or programs. It is a formative process through which one prepares to comprehend divine love and purpose. Spiritual formation is a dynamic process to respond to the One who shapes our life path with increasing faithfulness. Holistic comprehension of Christian spiritual formation will assist postmodern people to find meaning, value, purpose, and identity through deeper experiences with God in the midst of the fragmented and troubled world, so that they could restore wholeness in the image of God.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.66
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• pp.243-272
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• 2021

Corona 19 brought about a major shift in the Korean church's pastoral style. Contact and non-contact ministry styles using the Internet and media devices are being held together. The elderly, who have been classified as digital vulnerable, need to see whether they are properly adapting to these changes and they have any difficulties in their religious lives. This study is to organize the current status of Corona 19 related to Korean churches, look at the current state of church programs for Christian elderly people, look at how important the religious life is to their lives, and to suggest educational pastoral methods for their religious lives based on the theory of Maria Harris' educational ministry. First, in terms of Koinonia, it was suggested that the heritage, beliefs, values and ways of life held by the Christian elderly be shared with people inside and outside the church in order to entertain and embrace everyone without alienation. Second, from the perspective of Leiturgia, educational ministry was proposed to expand prayer life from a personal area to a public area to become a life of practicing prayer and justice by providing public prayer content with media that can be used by the elderly to perform spirituality. Third, it was suggested that in terms of Didache, it should be required that the elderly should be educated to be familiar with the changing technologies, that teaching environment should be extended from church to online, and that the educational content of tradition and new forms should be dealt with extensively. Fourth, from the perspective of Kerigma, Christian elderly people who have suffered in various life environments, both personally and socially, should listen to the words again and gain the power to overcome the corona crisis through the God's words, so that they can be melted into the curriculum of koinonia, leiturgia, didache, and diakonia. Fifth, it was suggested that senior citizens should switch their consciousness to become subjects of service, not objects of service, and that digital literacy education should be provided individually at eye level to narrow the digital gap for Diakonia curriculum.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.67
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• pp.301-337
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• 2021

The researcher looked at the differences in views and various controversies surrounding Korean youth sexuality education in the wake of the Nth Room incident, which had a great impact on modern Korean society. Sex education for adolescents in Korea can be divided into public sex education through school sex education and the Youth Sexuality Center, and conservative/traditional Protestant sex education. Public sex education is partly influenced by feminist sexual ethics and comprehensive sex education abroad. Based on gender sensitivity and the right to sexual self-determination, four major projects are prevention of sexual harassment, prostitution, sexual violence, and domestic violence. However, the school sex education standard was criticized for stereotypes of gender roles and gender-discriminatory content, reinforced distorted myths about sexual violence, and exclusion of sexual diversity and various family types. Conservative/traditional Protestantism is based on the normal family ideology such as bisexual marriage, premarital chastity, and sexual ethics recognized only within marital relationships. It is a form of confrontation with public sex education while strongly opposing it. The researcher first analyzed the characteristics of public sex education, conservative/traditional Protestant sexual ethics and sex education, feminist sex ethics and sex education, and overseas youth sex education, respectively, while composing the curriculum for Korean youth sexuality education. And as a more fundamental solution to youth sexuality education, I pointed out that there are limits to asceticism, premarital chastity, gender sensitivity and sexual self-determination education, and found an alternative to the concept of body and sex in feminist theology. The researcher pointed out that it is necessary to reconceptualize the body and sex under the recognition that the most fundamental cause of distorted sexual culture is dualistic sex and understanding the body, centering on the research of various feminist theologians. And this was conceptualized into three concepts: holistic sexuality, mutual solidarity understood in relationships with others, and sexuality as a spirituality that extends to the global community. And with each curriculum, 1) Holistic Sexuality: Breathing, Narrative, Making the Shape of One's Body and Mind 2) mutual solidarity : Feeling the Breath of Others, Media Literacy through Conscientization, Sending a Good Wind 3) Sexuality as a spirituality that extends to global concern: It was proposed to pay attention to nature and to co-cultivate it, to listen to the earth's moans and create a new way of life, and to write a prayer with the earth and fellow living beings.

• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.32
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• pp.245-278
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• 2008

The purpose of this paper is to create an inter-religious dialogue between the Western Christian concept of the spirit and Eastern ch'i philosophy within the category of panentheism. The Hebrew term ruah means 'moving air' and 'wind' which derive from the particular experience of the ancient Hebrew people living in the desert. The Greek pnuema also means 'life' and 'wind' which denote the natural power. Both ruah and pneuma consist of the main idea of the spirit exploring the symbol of relationality of the divine in Western tradition. Eastern ch'i philosophy indicates a vital force for keeping the body and soul alive, which is unconscious and spontaneous. Ch'i as a vital force constitutes cosmogony and cosmology with the constant movement of yin and yang. Yin and Yang as representing earth and heaven are dynamic breaths, blending harmoniously to become all existence. The ethical implication of the inter-religious dialogue between the spirit and ch'i would be the integration and interconnection of heaven, earth, and human beings. The dialogue suggests becoming one body with nature and human community through embodying the non-dualistic spirit of life. The inter-relationality means that since all modalities of existence are made of the cosmic life, human beings are part of the divine cosmic process. This is related to degree of spirituality in the entire chain of being: rocks, trees, animals, humans, and goods represent different levels of spirituality based on the varying composition of the spirit and ch'i. All beings that internally embody with the spirit and ch'i are organically inter-connected, and they are integral part of a continuous process of transformation of life towards holistic liberation of human and nature community.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.71
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• pp.121-154
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• 2022

This study is to summarize the relationship between youth in terms of developmental psychology, university education, faith, and spirituality in order to form and improve relationships, which are major developmental tasks of youth, and to suggest Christian youth education by the elements of education. Relationships are formed when you are connected to another person and community, feel interested in each other, feel a sense of bond and belonging, and maintain a stable and satisfactory relationship. This is not skill or technology, but is related to life attitude and value, and continuous learning and training are required. Various developmental tasks in youth have something in common with relationships. Relationships positively affect the lives of young people, such as satisfaction with college life in the early stages of youth, adaptation to college life, personality, and career decision. Relationships are also very important in faith because human existence and faith are defined and formed through relationships. The relationship between the community and others plays an important role in spiritual development for the meaning of life and inner growth. In the aspects of learners and educational environment, it was suggested to understand learners with desire for relationships, the generation they live in, and the educational environment in which the relationship between young people occurs. In terms of teachers, teachers have to try to change their roles such as facilitators, guides, managers, and mentors. For the educational purpose and content, it was suggested that relationships should be the ultimate purpose and the educational content for this was presented in three different types of relationships and each main contents to be dealt with. In terms of educational method, it was proposed to select a learner-centered group learning method that induces communication and active participation of learners to cause interaction by considering other elements of education according to the content of the relationship in the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions. In the aspects of educational results and evaluation, it was proposed to confirm that what was considered during the educational planning stage was effectively carried out in actual education, to evaluate various evaluation methods, various aspects, and to summarize the evaluation results for the specific application.

• Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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• v.74
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• pp.189-208
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• 2023

Spiritual direction is not a product created and developed by an individual, but a historical product that includes the church, believers, society, and the contexts of the times. Among the social changes related to spiritual direction, this study pays attention to monasticism and the Reformation. Focusing on these two social changes, this study analyzes the social dimension of spiritual direction indicated by the occurrence and change of spiritual direction and discusses its meaning. Around the time Christianity was officially recognized by the Roman Empire, monasticism began its long history, and Athanasius spread his ideal of monastic life and at the same time pursued the unity of the church and the monastic movement. Through this process, spiritual disciplines and educational models interacted and changed. During the Reformation period, Protestantism began to form new spiritual education and training. The Catholic Church pursued renewal through new concepts and practices of spiritual direction. Spiritual direction is being formed and recognized as a means of helping the spiritual life of individual Christians. The origin and change of spiritual direction mean that spiritual direction can be understood and applied differently reflecting the contexts and situations due to social interaction. Also, it should not be overlooked that spiritual direction can act as a cause of integration or division of the Korean Protestant churches.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.151-166
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• 2004

Background: Spirituality has been an important part of Transpersonal Psychology and is believed to have a large effect on the mental health because it has been systematized. The aim of this study was to determine the level of spiritual disposition on human beings along with its effects on one's mental health. Materials and Methods: The study targeted 400 women residing in Youn-Gil city of JiLin Prov., which is a district of the Cho-Sun tribe in China. Their spiritual well-being was studied using the Spiritual Well-being Scale-Korean Version. The spiritual well-being scale consists of 2 sub-scales of religious well-being and existential well-being. The study was evaluated using a lie scale, psychotic trend, and a combined anxiety-depression scale. The results were considered to be factors of one's mental health. The correlation between the spiritual well-being and each tendency was analyzed by regression analysis. Results: The total score of the Cho-Sun tribal women according to the spiritual well-being scale was 68.29 which was much less than the 100.65 of Korean Christian women. There was no significant correlation between the spiritual well-being and the Lie trend. However, it was found that 86%(344) of Cho-Sun tribal women scored above 70 in the Lie trend with a mean score of 74.57 which is higher than normal populations. Regarding the correlation between the spiritual well-being and psychotic trend, the psychotic trend became significantly higher when the religious well-being was at a high level. On the other hand, the psychotic trend became significantly lower when the existential well-being was at a high level. Regarding the correlation between the spiritual well-being and anxiety, the anxiety was significantly higher when the religious well-being was at a high level. However, the anxiety level was significantly low when the existential well-being was at a high level. Regarding the correlation between the spiritual well-being and depression, the depression level was somewhat significantly high when the religious well-being was at a high level. However, the depression level was significantly low when the existential well-being was at a high level. Conclusion: This study evaluated the effects of spiritual well-being on a person's mental health among Cho-Sun tribal women in Youn-Gil city of JiLIn Prov., P.R. of China. The results found that the religious well-being, which is a sub-scale of spiritual well-being, had negative effects while the existential well-being had positive effects on the mental health. These results proved that a person's religious disposition had negative effects on their mental health in a communitarian society.