• 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.

• Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.13-39
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• 2022

The author examines three new religious movements in South Korea: Jehovah's Witnesses, the Unification Church, and the Daesoon Jinrihoe, and aims to identify the factors that are conducive to the growth of each. All three organisations believe in a coming paradise, and the article explores their respective attempts to interest the populace in their appeal. Discussion is given to membership statistics and the problems of measuring allegiance and moves on to consider methods of propagation. Most obviously, evangelisation strategy is important: Jehovah's Witnesses and Unificationists have tended to engage the interest of strangers, while followers of Daesoon Jinrihoe are more inclined to evangelise family and friends. Additionally, there are other factors that determine an organisation's progress: cultural appropriateness, engagement in social and educational work, and attitudes to conflict and peace, the latter being particularly important in a society that has experienced war and occupation. Reference is made to the ways in which these three organisations finance themselves, and it is argued that financial resources merit greater attention in the scholarly study of religion, since monetary assets are needed to secure a spiritual movement's existence. Of the three organisations under discussion, the Daesoon Jinrihoe has been the most successful, being South Korea's largest new religion, while Jehovah's Witnesses are in steady state, and the Unification movement is experiencing slight decline.

• 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.34
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• pp.171-202
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• 2020

The nations of East Asia have similar historical backgrounds in terms of going through modernization during the nineteenth century. All of them commonly experienced socio-political hardships. Three of the most prosperous East Asian new religions, Yiguandao, Tenrikyo, and Daesoon Jinrihoe, all emerged under similar socio-political circumstances during the nineteenth century. There was no mutual interchange, but the cosmological perspectives share some analogous ideology. All of them were types of nativist millennialism. The ultimate goal in all three is redeeming lost elements by magical means-the sudden disappearance of invading forces, the return of mystical heroes or messiahs, and an altered landscape. As Stark said, although it is impossible to calculate the actual rate of success, probably no more than one religious movement out of 1,000 will attract more than 100,000 followers and last for as long as a century. By this standard, these three groups are certainly worthy of being studied. This paper will examine and compare these three groups through four dimensions: the Messiah's eschatology, the re-interpretation of that eschatology after the Messiah's death, the rational transformations of millennial dreams, and the institutionalization of those millennial dreams. Analytically, I could demonstrate the differences among these groups through two dimensions: (1) The dimension of time, which can be conceptualized in terms of this-worldly or other-worldly; and (2) Collective vision, which can be conceptualized in terms of utopia or reform. The cross-classification of these two dimensions is suggestive of the general avenues of Millennialism. Through these comparisons and observations, light will be shed on the essence and dynamics of East Asian Millennialist Thought by exploring deeper cultural implications.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.27
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• pp.245-282
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• 2016

Currently, the whole world is being swept away by spiritual movements seeking divinity in oneself. Yet there are terror attacks, religious disputes and other conflicts continuously taking place on larger and larger scales as well as expanding further and further throughout the world. Interreligious harmony seems like a distant ideal. What is the ultimate cause of religious conflicts? Is interreligious communication truly that difficult? Even among different cultures, said cultures' varieties of ritual expressions, and various religious doctrines, there are points of general common to be appreciated if a deep perspective is adopted. When we find the common ground and understand each other's difference, it will be easier to communicate since everyone will be learning from each other. What could serve as common ground for different religions? Many scholars speak about the state of 'oneness' that is claimed by mysticism throughout a large array of religions. This state of oneness is typically not achieved overnight, but it serves as a prospective state which is pluralistically inclusive. This "religion of enlightenment" emphasizes the process of reaching comprehensive interreligious agreement would be characterized by a deep religious perspective. If superficial religious perspectives focuses only on faith to attain blessings and engage in blind belief, then, by contrast, deep religious perspectives emphasize inner divinity, the true self, orthe higher self. The words, 'superficial religious perspective' and 'deep religious perspective' were defined for personal convenience by O Gang-nam, a scholar of comparative religion. Consequently, this classification is a relative binary concept lacking hard and fast rules with regards to distinctions. But the concept of superficial religious perspectives and deep religious perspectives has its advantage in allowing clearer and easier discussion about religions because it could embrace all aspects of religious life and the development of various religious sentiment. In this way, the terms surface religious perspectives and deep religious perspectives will be used in limited framework. I both borrow this concept and reconsider it by referring to other scholars' methods of classification. From that point, I explore and these views in relation to religious experience. How does religiosity develop, maturity of religious faith take place, deep awareness of truth reveal itself, or an attitude of open-mindedness arise? After these states are realized, is interreligious agreement possible? Most religious studies scholars point out 'religious experience.' They say people could develop their faith from superficial religious beliefs into a more mature and deeper faith through religious experience while continuously aspiring towards enlightenment and practicing their religion in daily life. This study will try to examine aspects of superficial religious perspectives and deep religious perspectives represented in each religion and also explore criticism of each religion. With this view of superficial religious perspectives and deep religious perspectives, some cases documenting the religious experience of Daesoonjinrihoe disciples will be analyzed to see how their religiosity develops from superficial religious perspectives into deep religious perspectives through certain religious experiences. The characteristics of those experiences will also be investigated.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.34
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• pp.75-105
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• 2020

Previous scholars have studied Daesoon Jinrihoe mainly through its scriptures and doctrines; however, in this essay I have combined data from a questionnaire with interviews I conducted to observe women's religious engagement from their own perspectives. I conducted my fieldwork from October 23 to 26 at Yeoju Headquarters in Korea and received 81 questionnaire replies. This ongoing project will shed light on the niche for women in Korean new religious movements. This essay is divided into three parts. First, I reviewed 5 articles on general attitudes towards women within Daesoon Jinrihoe to serve as a doctrinal introduction. Second, I used the Ladies Club, the Women's Assembly of the Department of Social Welfare, and female students from the Inter- national Volunteers Association to better understand women's participation and education in Daesoon Jinrihoe on an institutional level. Third, I issued a questionnaire in order to learn respondents' sex, age, educational background, and birth place and used those data points determine patterns in how the above influence religious participation and positions in Daesoon Jinrihoe. My investigation showed that both the self-expectation and division of labor among the followers at Yeoju Headquarter were affected by and corresponded to social gender roles. Moreover, the emphasis on missionary work rather than centralized hierarchy contributed to a reduction in the influence of gender-segregation and led to relative coherence in terms of gender relations within Daesoon Jinrihoe.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.23-51
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• 2018

This paper focuses on historical instances of iconoclasm after the Reformation to reveal how iconoclasm had greatly contributed to the formation of the Protestant mindset in the early modern times. During the English civil war, when iconoclastic campaigns and movements were in full tide, the paper argues that the notions of novelty and progress were more positively accepted among radical religious groups. To put it in another way, the paper suggests a different way of looking the formation of Protestant habitus by giving accounts of how iconoclastic impulses spurred diverse religious groups during the civil war to break the mold of conservative thinking and to revolutionize the print culture hitherto based on patronage and served as a buttress for status-quo. From this analysis, then, we are ledto the different portrait of the protestant in the seventeenth century, whose mindset was not quite as solitary and guilt ridden as Max Weber would have us believe.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.37
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• pp.141-190
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• 2021

In early modern Korea, the founders of three main-stream indigenous new religions, Choi Je-woo (崔濟愚), Kang Il-sun (姜一淳), and Park Jungbin (朴重彬), were all ruined yangban, who could no longer maintain the social dignity of yangban. Prior to their regular religious activities, they earned livings as rural teachers, peasants, merchants, and fortune-tellers. They were marginalized for having declined from upper-class nobles to lower-class people. Due to their subalternal status, they religiously represented the inexpressible aspirations and resentments held by various subalterns. The millennial movements of marginal religions in the late Joseon Dynasty exposed and deviated from the fetters of the established order, but they did not propose a new alternative order to replace it. Unlike these millennial movements, Choi Je-woo, Kang Il-sun, and Park Jungbin all proposed utopian visions of post-subalternal alternative religions that systematically presented and practiced new alternative worldviews characterized by the "Great Opening of the Later World (後天開闢)." The world they longed for was one wherein anti-subalternal social regulation were overthrown, the oppression of various subalterns end, and the established social order was replaced. In this article, I have argued that three main-stream indigenous Korean new religions, Donghak (Eastern Learning), the Jeungsan-inspired religious movements, and Wonbulgyo (Won Buddhism) are utopian alternative religions. I made this argument by analyzing some aspects by which they represented subalterns and offered subalterns a new religio-social status.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.29
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• pp.134-167
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• 2016

This paper aims at exploring the characteristics and meanings of religious freedom controversy surrounding religious education, with special reference to proselytism, in protestant mission school in recent Korea. Most of protestant mission schools have been providing students compulsory religion class and chapel service in the name of religious education. According to the school authorities, religious education should be provided for the realization of founding philosophy, and they say that mission school has the right to religious education. On the contrary, many non-christian students argue that their religious liberty is seriously violated by required religious education especially compulsory chapel worship. So serious conflicts broke between mission school authorities and students. Supreme Court decided that Soongsil University has the right to maintain compulsory chapel service, ruling that Daegwang High School should not maintain required chapel worship. It seems that Supreme Court gave different decisions to high school and university respectively, considering the differences between high school and university in application for admission to a school, students' critical consciousness, school's autonomous rights, etc. However, these precedents are being challenged by many peoples and groups. There are three agents which are involved in religious freedom controversy in mission school. The first are mission school authorities supported by religious groups, the second government supported by political parties, and the third mission school students guided by NGO. Among them protestant groups are playing the major role in making religious freedom problems in mission school. Protestant groups try to convert mission school students to protestantism by compulsory chapel service and religion class. Such a protestant proselytism becomes a cause of oppressing students' human rights and religious liberty. In this situation government has a responsibility to protect the students' rights to religious freedom. But government seldom impose sanctions on the protestant mission schools' compulsory programs. The reason why government does not restrict mission school's unlawful religious education is because protestant groups have strong influence in voting. Eventually civil movements organizations involved in religious freedom controversy for the sake of students's human rights. In conclusion, the assailment is protestant proselytism, the accessory is government, the victim is students in the religious education in mission school in recent Korea.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.35
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• pp.1-37
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• 2020

In this paper, we investigated the principle of appropriation by which mythology and literature were accepted in the unique religious context of The Canonical Scripture (Jeongyeong 典經). First, we knew that almost all of the gods that appeared in the discourse of Kang Jeungsan (姜甑山) were related to Eastern Yi (東夷) mythology and deeply rooted in folklore. This is because the cultural tendency and historic consciousness of Kang Jeungsan was influenced by Danhakpa (the Danhak School 丹學派). Secondly, when we investigated the acceptance of literature into The Canonical Scripture, we discovered that Tang Poetry (唐詩), Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguoyanyi 三國演義), and Journey to the West (Xiyouji 西遊記) were widely accepted in Kang Jeungsan's discourse. These works were used in diverse ways such as predictions, healing, and meditation. We knew that popular classical work like these were religiously appropriated in the context of The Canonical Scripture. Lastly, we investigated the mechanisms by which mythical and literary imagination was transformed into the Jeungsanist religious movements. Those mechanisms included the magical power of letter and images, sense-cognition of poetry, and the representational ability of mimesis. In conclusion, mythical and literary imagination helped Jeungsanist religious movements gain popularity and spread Kang Jeungsan's soteriology. This is especially true of how it transformed into unique religious techniques which functioned as key elements of the Reordering Works (公事).