Korea’s Pluralistic Religious Culture Don Baker University of British Columbia
Animism • Village guardian pair a mountain god
Animism and shamanism • Animism assumes that various non-human entities have personalities and can be interacted with. They can be rivers, mountains, trees, rocks, tigers, etc. • Shamanism assumes that certain human beings can communicate with spiritual beings through ritual or trance. • Animism and shamanism are analytically distinct. In Korea, shamans are normally not possessed by animistic spirits. Instead, they are possessed by imaginary or dead human beings. However, sometimes they interact with non-human spirits such as disease-causing spirits, a house roof-beam god, or, recently, an engine-block god.
types of shamans • charismatic--are possessed by spirits • hereditary---are not possessed but have inherited the ability to perform rituals that influence the supernatural realm. • diviners--may go into a trance but are not possessed. • The vast majority of shamans are women • Saju (“Four Pillar”) fortune tellers are not shamans • Shamans are not the only ones who can make lucky charms. Some monks make them, too.
types of kut (굿) Initiation kut to honor a shaman’s guardian deity kut for the dead, either to send them off or to interact with them. kut for good luck --- -health and wealth, or a son A kut for a new beginning (new home or business) kut for healing (through exorcism) village kut for rain kut for telling the future kut for household gods (a kosa can be held without a shaman)
spirits and gods shamans interact with Deities of nature (wind, rain, mountains, heaven, the Big Dipper, grain gods, etc) tutelary deities dead humans who have become gods or spirits (heroes, generals, officials, ancestors, hungry ghosts, and great shamans from the past) Some are fictional. deities dealing with birth and death deities of disease Buddhist deities Daoist deities
Shaman “gods” No supreme being (No Hananim/Hanŭnim) Even the Jade Emperor is not like a God of monotheism. Nor is the heavenly spirit. not arranged in a tidy hierarchy. Usually don’t serve as models of moral behavior. (They can be bribed or flattered. ) Have specific rather than unlimited powers and responsibilities. Interaction is more like bargaining than worshipping.
A shaman ritual
Shamanism in Korea today • There may be 100, 000 active shamans in South Korea today. • Shamanism is not considered by the government to be a religion. There is no nation-wide clerical hierarchy of shamans. • Moreover, the clients of shamans don’t call themselves “shamanists. ” Instead, they are likely to say that they are Buddhists. Shaman shrines take many different forms. They may look like a Buddhist temple, or they may be a home with an identifying flagpole. Some have signs says “such-and-such a bodhisattva lives here” or “philosophy research center. ”
Confucian spirituality • The term “Confucianism” refers to: • an ethical philosophy • certain rituals and music • a philosophy for organizing a government and society • an approach to writing history • an overall approach to culture (including art and literature) • a philosophy, also known as Neo-Confucianism, that aspires to explain everything that is and everything that happens.
Honoring Royal Ancestors
Confucian ethics • Confucian ethics is primarily an ethics of interpersonal interaction and, secondly, an ethics of personal moral cultivation. • The five fundamental moral relationships of Confucianism are ruler/subject; parent/child; husband/wife; elder/younger; and friend/friend. All have reciprocal obligations. • Harmony is valued over equality • The patriarchy was considered natural and therefore moral • Sincerity/integrity, reverence/mindfulness, and benevolence/humanity are key virtues.
Confucian etiquette • Participation in Confucian rituals is believed to stimulate cooperation with your community. • An individual is defined in terms of his or her roles in society and his or her relationships. There is no “I’ apart from those roles and relationships. • Proper etiquette is necessary to ensure a harmonious society, with everyone playing their assigned role. • This is probably the feature of Confucianism modern Koreans find most irritating, yet they still abide by much of it.
Ancestor “worship”
Neo-Confucian practices • reading texts aloud over and over again. • quiet sitting (they refuse to call it meditation) • engaging in appropriate rituals of interactions with ancestors, spirits, and other human beings. • Aligning mind and behavior with li (the patterns of appropriate interactions) and disciplining ourselves so that ki (C. Qi), the matter-energy that makes us individuals, doesn’t lead us to act more like an individual than like a member of a family or community. The goal is to determine our proper place in various networks of relationships and behave according to our proper place in those networks.
Confucianism in Korea today • Survives in the continued performance of ancestor rites by the majority of the population. Even Christians have Christian ancestor rites. • Survives in the ethical rhetoric of Koreans. Ethics classes are required in school, and most of the ethics taught have Confucian roots (filial piety, respect for elders, playing our assigned roles, etc. ) • The patriarchy is still strong. • Yet few Koreans would all themselves Confucians.
Daoism • In China, the term Daoism is used for an anti-Confucian philosophy, for a popular polytheistic religion with revealed scriptures and rituals, for longevity practices, for certain types of fortune-telling, etc. • In Korea, little institutional presence, either in the past or today. • However, some gods of Daoism, such as the Jade Emperor, are included in some shaman pantheons. • Internal alchemy (longevity-enhancing techniques) has been important at various times in Korean history, including today. However, it was often seen as more medical than religious.
Christianity Arrives
Persecution and Catholicism • Catholicism reached Korea through books rather than missionaries. • In 1784, one young Confucian scholar was baptized in Beijing as Peter Lee. When he returned to Korea, he converted many of his friends. • In 1791 two Catholics were killed for refusing to use a spirit tablet in a mourning ritual. • In 1795 a Chinese priest was smuggled into Korea. • In 1801 a major persecution broke out. 100 s were killed.
A century of Persecution • Paul Yun and James Kwon 103 martyrs of Korea
A church in hiding • After it survived a century-long persecution, the Korean Catholic church continued to keep a low profile, opening few schools or major medical facilities. That changed only after the Korean War. • The Catholic Church opened its first major medical center in 1936. It opened its first university in 1956. • Korean priests began to greatly outnumber foreign priests in the 1960 s. • Now the Catholic Church is the fastest growing major religious community in South
Growth since 1949
why this spurt in growth? • Korean priests now greatly outnumber foreign priests. • Catholic rituals are now in English. • In the 1970 s and 1980 s many Catholic priests and even a bishop were active in the democratization struggle. • No scandals in the Korean Catholic church.
Protestant Christianity • Missionaries arrived in 1884. They soon introduced modern schools and medical facilities. • Protestant Koreans played an important role in the modernization movement before 1910, and in the anti -Japanese movement between 1910 and 1945. • The Protestant community, mostly Presbyterian and Methodist, promoted a participatory form of worship (hymns, communal praying, etc) and also offered titles (such as elder and bible woman) to lay believers.
Comparative Growth Rates • Catholics Protestants • 1885 • 1900 • 1905 64, 070 • 1907 63, 340 • 1910 73, 517 144, 242. • 1920 89, 333 167, 435 • 1930 110, 728. • 1940 113, 401 14, 039 42, 411 20, 914 37, 407 72, 968 260, 534 382, 718
Post-War Growth • Catholics • 1960 451, 808 Protestants 623, 072 • 1970 788, 082 3, 192, 621 • 1, 865, 397 6, 489, 282 • 1995 2, 950, 730 8, 760, 336 • 2005 5, 146, 147 8, 616, 438. 1985
Christianity and Buddhism
Views of Protestantism
The world’s largest church
Reasons for the rise and decline of Protestantism • Reasons for rapid growth: • participatory rituals, titles (and status) for lay believers, created a sense of community in a rapidly urbanizing society, is identified with modernity and nationalism, engaged in zealous proselytizing • Reasons for the recent slow-down: • urbanization is complete; competition within denominations; demands a lot of money and time; there are now more competitors with participatory rituals, status symbols, and links with modernity.
New Religions in Korea • Buddhist --Won Buddhism • Christian ----Unification Church • Mixed origins ------Tonghak/ Ch’ŏndogyo • Taejonggyo • Dahn World • Jeungsando and Daesoon Jinrihoe
Won Buddhism • A new religion with Buddhist roots
Buddhist elements • Won Buddhism accepts the mainstream Buddhist notions of karma and reincarnation. • Won Buddhism, like meditative Buddhism, is anthropocentric, teaching that we can save ourselves through our own efforts and don’t need to rely on supernatural assistance. (It also promotes meditation. ) • Won Buddhism, like mainstream Buddhism, teaches that suffering arises from the way we use our minds, and that if we change the way we think, we can eliminate our suffering.
Unique features • Founder, often referred to as Sot’aesan, was a Korean who was active in Korea in the first half of 20 th century. • Won Buddhism doesn’t worship him or any other personality, human or divine. • Won Buddhism has its own scriptures, its own rituals, and its own clerical costumes and clerical discipline. It also has a distinctive object of its spiritual gaze--- a circle (Ilwonsang) • It calls itself a new religion for a new age. Yet it also says many of its teachings are the same as those of Buddhism.
A Won Buddhist sunday service
Won Buddhist temples • Won Buddhist temples look more like churches than temples. They have pews, for example. Moreover, they don’t have any of the statues normally found in Buddhist temples. Instead, on the wall, at the front of the temple, there is a simple circle, called the Irwŏnsang (One Circle Symbol). • Won Buddhist temples are primarily urban temples, and are quite different from the mountain temples of mainstream Buddhism. Moreover, those temples are run by both men (often married clerics) and nuns (who are celibate, though celibacy is not mandatory) • Regular Sunday services include sermons and congregational singing of hymns. • Regular meditation is not as important as “timeless meditation and placeless meditation, ” in other words, we should maintain a calm, meditative mind as we go about our everyday affairs.
Unification Church • Founded by Moon Sun Myung, who was born in what is now North Korea in 1920. Studied engineering at Waseda University before 1945. • Claims Jesus appeared to him and told him that God had selected him for a special mission (to be the messiah who, through marriage to a pure woman, would restore human beings to God). • 1954 --founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity • 1960. Married Hak Ja Han, 23 years younger than he is. • 1974 settled in the United States • 1994 Expanded the Unification Church into the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
the “true parents”
Moon as Messiah • Moon is not God (that is why it is incorrect to call Unificationists “Moonies. ” They don’t worship him. ) • However, they believe that he is a messiah, in that, through his marriage to Hak Ja Han, he has broken Satan’s grip. Not only are his children True Children, because they are free of original sin, but all those whose marriages are blessed by Moon (or those he has empowered to do so) will also produce sinless children. • Moon is not the only messiah. Anyone who can bless marriages, and therefore break Satan’s grip, is a messiah.
The Blessing
Divine Principle • The Divine Principle is a book containing Moon’s revelations that claims to teach how the Bible should really be understood. • A key principle is that God has both male and female characteristics (linked together like yin and yang) • God wants his human creatures to marry and create Ideal Families, just like the family of the True Parents (Rev. and Mrs. Moon). • We are now in the Age of the Completed Testament, since the Lord of the Second Advent is among us. • The Unification Church no longer calls itself a Christian
Tonghak--Ch’ŏndogyo
Tonghak • Founder was a Confucian scholar named Ch’oe Cheu (1824 -1864) • Tonghak means “Eastern Learning. ” He wanted to contrast it with “Western Learning” (Catholicism). • It is Korea’s first indigenous organized religion. Worshipped one God, though that God resembles the impersonal energy that animates the universe and is found within the heart/ mind of every human being. • He believed Kaebyŏk (the Great Transformation) would happen soon.
The Incantation • "Ultimate Energy being all around me, I pray that I feel that Energy within me here and now. Recognizing that the Lord of Heaven is within me, I will be transformed. Constantly aware of that divine presence within, I will become attuned to all that is going on around me. " • The notions of Kaebyŏk and of a spark of the divine within every human being were among the inspirations for the largest peasant rebellion in Korean history, the Tonghak rebellion of 1894 -95. • In 1905, Tonghak became Ch’ŏndogyo.
Ch’ŏndogyo Today
Chŭngsan family of religions • Kang Chŭngsan ( 1871 -1909) is believed to be the human incarnation of Sangjenim, the Lord on High (the Supreme God) • It is said that he came down to earth to prepare human beings for Kaebyŏk by teaching his ritual for the Reconstruction of Heaven and Earth. • Taught that we need to move from the current era of mutual competition to a new era of mutual cooperation. • Two major religious organizations that worship Kang as Sangjenim are Daesoon Jinri-hoe and Jeung San Do.
Worshipping Sangjenim
Daesun Jinri-hoe • The Four Essential Practices: compose your mind; calm your body; maintain an attitude of reverence for God above; and cultivate a moral character • the Four Goals, to be realized after the Great Transformation: • Yin and Yang combine forces; • gods and humans cooperate harmoniously; • grievances are resolved and wrongs righted, • a world of mutual aid and cooperation instead of constant struggle is created, and the Way pervades all as a true paradise is created on this earth.
Taejonggyo: Worship of the legendary first Korean king, Tan’gun
Dahnhak • 1985 --Former martial arts teacher begins teaching internal alchemy techniques he says he recovered in a vision while in mediation on a mountain. Bundled them with study of Taejonggyo texts. • 1990 s--began expanding abroad, often calling its practices Dahn Yogo. Also teaches its own martial art. Cinnabar-field breathing has been renamed “Brain respiration. ” Enlightenment is now the goal. • Focus on Tan’gun has been joined by a focus on an even more ancient figure, Mago, the queen of the first castle in which humans lived (somewhere on the Korean peninsula).
Dahnhak
Dahn. Yoga
The rise in religious affiliation • 1916 530, 000 out of 15 -17 million 3% • 1940 1 million out of 23. 5 million 4% • 1965 3. 5 million out of 28. 2 mil. 12% • 1985 17. 2 million out of 41 mil. • Achieving a majority religious population • 1995 22. 5 million out of 44. 5 mil. 50. 7% • 2004 • 2005 25 million out of 47 million Gallup Poll 42% 53. 5% 53. 1%
• No one the government, in 2005, According to religion dominant • 22. 8% of South Koreans were Buddhist, 18. 3% were Protestant, 10. 9% were Catholic, 0. 2% called themselves Confucians, • 0. 3% called themselves Won Buddhists, and 0. 5% had another religious affiliation. • This is a change from the 1995 census • 23. 2% Buddhist, • 19. 7% Protestant, 6. 6% Catholic, • 0. 5% Confucian, 0. 2% Won Buddhists, and 0. 6% other religions. • [Catholicism and Won Buddhism were the only
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