• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.35
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• pp.181-216
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• 2020

The incarnation of Jesus and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being are important theological theories in their respective religions, Christianity and Daesoon Jinrihoe. Both theories are the doctrinal devices necessary for the religious description of each religion. However, this kind of study is likely to result in a theological study that generates religious apologia or explanations. Therefore, it is impossible and meaningless to define the theory of another religion as meta-discourse in terms of one's own religious viewpoint. From a traditional theological point of view, the incarnation is an exceptionalist case wherein God descended as a human being named Jesus to save humanity from original sin. In the case of Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being, its religious features appear in various forms, so the attempt to unify these two is not an objective method of religious studies. However, this paper aims to find the religious significance of Jesus' incarnation and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being by understanding them from a third-person terminology or third-person religious viewpoint rather than from a specific theological position. To this end, this paper will use Kim Jong-seo's position that the concept of Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being was borrowed from the concept of the incarnation of Jesus as the premise of the research generated in this paper. Therefore, this paper avoids the quest for "Total Christ" or "Total Jeungsan" that integrates and views the divine and human elements of Jesus and Jeungsan. This is because such a research method becomes a theological study. Instead, it excludes transcendental elements or metaphysical aspects that discuss the divine pre-existences of Jesus and Jeungsan and clarifies the significance of the incarnation and Jeungsan's descending to earth as a human being at the physical level in terms which are objective and verifiable. According to this research methodology, this paper develops a discussion after presupposing the hypothetical names of "incarnationist religion" and "divine descent in human avatar religion." However, the two presuppositions mentioned above contain elements of criticism that they are materialistic interpretations that completely eliminate connotations of divinity and religious significance. Nevertheless, it can be said that the two presuppositions have academic significance due to the way in which they avoid the current entanglement of transcendence and instead aim for modernistic relevance.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.494-504
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• 2014

This is a study of Hick's self-described Christological 'Copernican revolution.' Since Hick as a former Christian theologian did not want to reject one of the core Christian doctrines(incarnation), he presented his copernican revolution in terms of Agape Christology, an inspiration Christology and myth Christology through his Christological reinterpretation. Thus Hick's Christologies that are developed gradually are discussed and evaluated chronologically. First, agape Christology understands that the incarnation is taking place all the time in different degrees everywhere. As a result agape Christology makes Jesus as a mere human being. Second, an paradox of grace or inspiration Christology views the incarnation as the Spirit of God enabling people to fulfill the will of God by their free responses. This Christology assumes that divine incarnation can occur anywhere and anytime in any person. Thus, according to this, Jesus is not literally God incarnate as Christian claims. Third, myth Christology views that the incarnation is not literal but mythological. Though he prefers to use metaphor in his later writings because it has a more positive connotation than myth, myth and metaphor have one thing in common: they are neither literal nor historical. Hick's mythological Christology implies the denial of Jesus Christ as God incarnate. Accordingly, the researcher must conclude that Hick's Christology as copernican revolution cannot said to be a perfect solution for today's religious situation, even though it was a sincere try to communicate with pluralistic world.

• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.61-87
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• 2022

This article compares the concepts of divine incarnation as expounded in Daesoon Thought and in Christianity and questions the essence of the divinity in both traditions. In Daesoon Thought, The Supreme God, Sangje, saw major disorganization leading to extreme violence and doom and decided to incarnate on earth under the human form of Kang Jeungsan (1871-1909). Then the living God taught the solution to human suffering through the revelations he sent in 1917 to Jo Cheol-Je, or Jo Jeongsan (1895-1958) and the revelations were passed on to Dojeon Park Wudang who in 1969 founded Daesoon Thought. In Christianity, God incarnated in his son, Jesus Christ, who allowed for the radical transformation of the condition of man through his physical sacrifice. Daesoon differs in that Sangje did not offer himself as sacrifice when he came on earth but reorganized the world and taught how to apply benevolence to establish the Earthly Paradise. The affirmation that Daesoon Jinrihoe is both monotheistic and polytheistic is then analyzed. If the concept of monotheism seems to differ vastly between the two traditions, it appears that biblical monotheism is itself relatively young in the history of world religions so that Christianity has ancient roots germane to those of Daesoon Jinrihoe. The article concludes on the originality of this religion: though it is built on Daoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, it has transformed their vision of the deity and of its message in a most convincing manner.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.34
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• pp.323-351
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to reveal how Christian ideas are indicative of Theocentricity (God-centeredness) whereas Daesoon Jinrihoe ideas are indicative of anthropocentrism (human-centeredness). This task will be accomplished through comparing incarnation theology from the Bible and The Canonical Scripture. Both Christianity and Daesoon Jinrihoe affirm that there is another world above the human world that cannot be touched by human sense organs. And they both acknowledge a supreme deity who exists in that above world. Furthermore, they share the notion that the supreme deity came into the human world after being born from a woman. Where they depart is that in Christianity, this belief refers to Jesus, the one who was born in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago, whereas in Daesoon Jinrihoe, it is instead believed to be Kang Jeungsan (secular name: Kang Il-Sun) who was born in Gaekmang Village in Korea more than 100 years ago. The Christian God came to the human world as an atonement for humanity and died on the cross; The God of Daesoon Jinrihoe came to the human world to help mankind settle all enmities. To this end, he traveled through the realms of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity, to recalibrate the faulty Degree Numbers. The sin mentioned in Christianity means treachery against the supreme deity. It is implied that sin is not tolerated in the world of God. Due to this, the first man, Adam, was driven out of Eden after betraying God, and afterwards, there came to be an infranchissable boundary between the world of God and the world of man. By way of comparison the faulty Degree Numbers, mentioned in Daesoon Jinrihoe, were produced naturally. In other words, the faulty Degree Number existed not only in the human world, but also in the world of divinities, and those two worlds not only interact but also affect each other. Therefore, it can be said that the two worlds of Christianity are worlds in which order and systems are completely different, and that the two worlds of Daesoon Jinrihoe are worlds that operate under the same order and systems. Both explain via this two-part division to emphasize one part as more important than the other. Christianity regards the world of God as the ultimate source and ultimate concern of the human world and emphasizes the absolute faith and worship of God is the highest value in life. But Daesoon Jinrihoe, on the other hand, argues that the human world determines the value of the divine world, and that the co-prosperity of man and his surroundings are the core values of the human era (The Era of Human Nobility). Therefore, the root cause of Christianity's theocentricity is that among the two worlds that are completely cut off from one another, they believe in God's world as the ultimate source and purpose of the human world. The root cause of Daesoon Jinrihoe's anthropocentrism is that among the two worlds that interact and influence each other, they believe the human world determines the meaning of the divine world.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.4
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• pp.639-666
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• 2010

Meditation on Christ's body is peculiar to late medieval female mysticism. The somatic meditation on Christ basically derives from the Incarnation, but the female mystics focused more on the Passion and the Eucharist, i.e., Christ's bleeding and feeding. Then, female body structure and the gender role of nurturing were combined to make facile her imitatio Christi, because the female body was aptly identified with Christ's body. The blood flowing in the side of Christ was often in medieval graphics and texts identified with a mother's milk for a baby to suck. Wound and food, suffering and nourishing, were inseparable in Christ's and the female mystics' body. Thus, in late medieval female mystical practice, it is important to note, first, female mystics' bodily pain was not to be cured but endured; second, that not only did a female mystic eat Christ's body, but her own body was to be "eaten" by poor neighbors, just as Christ gave his own body to be eaten by believers. As Christ's body is punctured, so does the female body have open holes, and as Christ is food, so is the female body. This female meditation on Christ's body developed the notion of "divine motherhood" to be accepted and enjoyed quite literally by the female mystics in late medieval times. Yet, in a sense, the female mystics' meditating on Christ's feminine function of nourishing can be considered as their accepting and interiorizing the socially constructed female gender role and thus lacking in subversive power. Nevertheless, this meditative practice at least functioned to redeem the female body which had typically been labelled inferior and even dirty. Through Christ's feminized body, the female mystics rehabilitated their bodily dimension, presenting it to be shared by male believers. Capitalizing on the gender stereotype of womanhood itself, they converted female weakness to power.