Constructing Korea's Won Buddhism as a New Religion: Self-differentiation and Inter-religious Dialogue (original) (raw)
Related papers
Won Buddhism: Is it a New Religion?
I examine and weigh the Buddhist and the non-Buddhist elements in Won Buddhism to determine whether it should be called a new religion or is just a new denomination of traditional Buddhism. I conclude that it is a new Buddhist religion and discuss the various ways Won Buddhism has established its identity as a separate and distinct religion.
Won Buddhism, Christianity, and Interreligious Dialogue
Journal of Korean Religions, 2014
This paper examines the influence of Christianity in the formation of new Buddhism and the reformation agenda of traditional Buddhism during the first half of the twentieth century in Korea. By new Buddhism, I am specifically referring to Wŏn Buddhism (圓佛敎), established by Sot’aesan Pak Chungbin 少太山朴重彬(1891–1943) in 1916. Since its foundation, Wŏn Buddhism has grown into one of the four major religious groups in South Korea, along with traditional Buddhism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. The paper begins by reviewing some of major issues in the Buddhist reform movements and Wŏn Buddhism. It then goes on to detail the formalistic similarities between Wŏn Buddhism and Christianity. The next section examines the visible influences of traditional East Asian religions in Wŏn Buddhism. In its final part, the paper considers Sot’aesan’s approaches to different religious traditions and the eclectic nature of Wŏn Buddhism as a possible model for an interreligious dialogue, to include Buddhist-Christian dialogue. Keywords: Wŏn Buddhism, Christianity, new Buddhism, Buddhist reform movements, ecumenism
3 BUDDHIST-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS IN KOREA: AN OVERVIEW
This is a paper presented at a conference on Buddhist-Christian relations held in Germany in 2015. I was asked to survey Buddhist-Christian relations in Korea. There isn't much to talk about before the 20th century. Even now there is little interaction between those two communities. What interaction there is has mostly come from the Christian side reaching out to engage in dialogue with Buddhists. Religious toleration in Korea is not complemented by much interaction across religious boundaries.
Buddhism and Modernity in Korea
Buddhist encounters with modernity in Korean can be described with three characteristics: (1) Buddhist reform movements; (2) revival of Zen Buddhism; (3) Buddhist encounter with intellectualism. An introduction to the edited volume, Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism, this article offers a contours of Korean Buddhism when it encounters the West and modernity from the late nineteenth to the mid twentieth centuries.
Standardizing Lay Buddhist Affiliation in Contemporary Korea
The Journal of Korean Studies, 2017
This paper discusses the new system of lay Buddhist education revolutionizing the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism in the twenty-first century. Already involving over a half a million Buddhist laypeople and five hundred monasteries throughout the country, this system is now the hallmark of the Chogye Order's propagation agenda, and it has transformed lay Buddhist activities in contemporary Korea. It is grounded upon a novel lay registration network which requires attending a basic Buddhism course at a designated temple in order to receive an official Lay ID. It now involves a lay ranking structure based on educational achievements, and culminates in the yearly Lay Propagator Exam. Besides delineating the historical construction of this system, this paper will investigate lay attitudes and motivations for joining the programs, analyze official textbook agendas, and provide ethnographic snippets from classroom rituals, in an overall attempt to paint a picture of the new Korean Buddhist lay orthodoxy the Chogye Order is currently in the process of creating.
Religions
The revival of Buddhism in Korea began in the 20th century as the nation suffered a downfall from the colonization of the Japanese Imperialists. In this chaotic time of social turmoil, transformation into a modern nation resulted not from a natural flow of events but rather from an articulation through a series of discourses on Korean identity. The modernization process in Korea was precipitated by the Japanese colonialism, thereby adding to the complexity during the time of social transformation. In this paper, we have reviewed the three major discourses of Korean Buddhism in the wake of modernization. The following discourses were attempts to deal with the problems faced by the Buddhist community during modernization: the discourse on secularity and social participation, the discourse on modernity centering on the issue of modifying precepts, and the discourse on identity contemplating the originality of Korean Buddhism. The fact that the old controversies concerning precepts cont...
Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism (2010)
2010
The first book in English devoted exclusively to modern Korean Buddhism, this work provides a comprehensive exploration for scholars, students, and serious readers. Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism focuses on three key areas: Buddhist reform, Zen revival, and the interrelationship of religion, history, and politics. In Korea, the modern period in Buddhism begins in earnest in the late nineteenth century, during the closing years of the Choson dynasty, which was characterized by a repressive brand of neo-Confucianism. Buddhist reformers arose to seek change in both Buddhism and Korean society at large. The work begins with a look at five of these reformers and their thought and work. The Zen revival that began at the end of the nineteenth century is covered from that period to contemporary times through an exploration of the life and thought of important Zen masters. The influence of Japanese Buddhist missionaries, the emergence of Korean engaged Buddhism, known as Minjung Buddhism, and the formation of modern Buddhist scholarship in Korea are discussed as well.
Buddhists in the Two Koreas: North-South Interactions
Journal of Korean Religions, 2013
Northern Buddhists are often described as the ''most active and powerful'' North Korean religious organization. Moreover, many Korean Buddhists see their tradition as an indigenous one, unlike Christianity, which they deem ''imported.'' Accordingly, Buddhist representatives from both sides of the DMZ believe that a merger of North and South Korean Buddhism is an essential key to the peninsula's reunification. However, that vision comes up against a number of obstacles. Firstly, no matter how dynamic it is, the Chobulyŏn 朝佛聯, which is the North Korea's sole Buddhist body, has remained subordinate to the Chuch'e sasang 主體 思想 (or Juche, Self-Reliance ideology) since its birth in 1972. Secondly, many Southern Christian groups, untroubled by their ''imported nature'', compete fiercely with Buddhists for the religious conquest of the North. Thirdly, two other factors have hampered the efforts made by Southern Buddhists to get closer to their Northern counterparts: the lack of continuity characterizing the reunification policies of the last four Southern presidential administrations; and the Chogyejong's 曹溪宗 lack of autonomy regarding those policies. Despite these obstacles, Venerable P'ŏpt'a 法舵 (b. 1945), alias the Bodhisattva of Reunification, maintains that it is imperative to keep engaging North Korean Buddhists as they are, and to keep providing material help to Northerners-especially food-through Buddhist channels. Doing otherwise would not only be counter to the spirit of universal compassion which typifies Mahāyāna Buddhism, but also leave Southern Buddhists unprepared in the case of unexpected political changes in P'yŏngyang.