Globalization, Nationalism, and Korean Religion. (original) (raw)
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Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14 (2):223-240, 2013
In an increasingly globalised world, matters of national identity are no longer confined solely to domestic politics. This paper proposes that Christianity in South Korea is engaged in a mutually reinforcing relationship with the construction of Korean national identity, particularly concerning historical dynamics of both Westernisation and the formation of nationalism. In positioning the role of religion in the creation of a national image, the conflicts and contestations between religious groups will become politically effective. As actors in the political and religious field attempt to reflexively create an image of Korea that transcends national borders and anticipates to overcome domestic and ethnic divides, religion becomes more than an article of faith through its entanglement with national politics. By recognising the impact of Westernisation and its historical implications for this process, it becomes possible to approach the formation of Korean identity from a new angle by accounting for the efficacy of the self-reflexive image.
The Cultural Anatomy of Korean Nationalism: from imperative to anachronism
InContext: Studies in Translation and Multiculturalism, 2021
Most foreign observers are struck by the highly palpable nature of Korean nationalist sentiment, especially during times of friction with Japan or during major international sporting events such as the Olympic Games, the Asian Games, or the World Cup. However, if these observers spend any significant time in Korea they often become aware that South Korean society is a highly fractious landscape characterized by conflicting ideologies, regional antagonisms, segregation by class, and a number of other societal fault lines. The natural question is what role, if any, this very visible nationalism plays in uniting South Korean society in the absence of any external stimulus and, if it does not, what the reason is. This essay argues that constructing Korean nationalism based largely on a common blood lineage has rendered it ineffectual in ameliorating intra-Korean conflict. In fact, Kang Jeongin and Jeong Sunghyeon have proposed the concept of the "overdetermination of other theories by nationalism." This is the idea that minjokjuui, or ethnic nationalism, by virtue of its near religious status, is used to bestow authenticity, genuineness, or authority on disparate ideologies. The radical left and right attack each other from the position of being the bastion of "real" or " true" Korean-ness representing the minjok. This is also the method used by the governments of both Koreas to demonstrate their legitimacy as the rightful representative of the Korean people. This essay, after discussing the process of the formation of Korean nationalism, first problematizes the sacred and tribal characteristics of modern Korean ethnic nationalisms and posits that the unique process of its formation has resulted in a doctrinaire-like ideology that actually contributes to division, then it poses a number of questions as to nationalism's current function in society.
Cultural Anatomy of Korean Nationalism
INContext: Studies in Translation and Interculturalism
ABSTRACT: Most foreign observers are struck by the highly palpable nature of Korean nationalist sentiment, especially during times of friction with Japan or during major international sporting events such as the Olympic Games or the World Cup. However, if these observers spend any significant time in Korea, they often become aware that South Korean society is a highly fractious landscape characterized by conflicting ideologies, regional antagonisms, segregation by class, and a number of other societal fault lines. The natural question is what role, if any, this very visible nationalism plays in uniting South Korean society in the absence of any external stimulus and, if it does not, what the reason is. This essay argues that constructing Korean nationalism based largely on a common blood lineage has rendered it ineffectual in ameliorating intra-Korean conflict. In fact, Kang Jung In and Jung Seung Hyun have proposed the concept of the “overdetermination of other theories by national...
History and political science often co-mingle in studies of nationalism. While historians are more concerned with how the past events turned countries into nation-states, political scientists look at how the growth of a nation has affected their nationalism and how this influences their country and its citizens in the contemporary world. The ongoing conflict of divided Korea and the increasing economic disparity between the North and South made books on the topic of Korean nationalism much more important. It is through this complex and unusual creation of the two Korean states that has prompted such a need to understand their history and nationalism. Political history of Korea within this scope of Korean nationalism is the main idea of the authors presented within this review essay.
Building the Nation: The Success and Crisis of Korean Civil Religion
Religions, 2021
Civil religion refers to a country’s beliefs, symbols, and rituals that bolster national unity and strengthen its citizens’ sense of identity and belonging. However, the literature on civil religion is divided between those who attribute it to bottom-up cultural spontaneity and those who see it as an ideological top-down construction. Moreover, there has been a relative lack of scholarly attention to Korean civil religion. This paper addresses both issues by arguing that a strong civil religion indeed exists in the country and that it has been an important part of the “nation-building” process since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. The paper highlights how a succession of authoritarian regimes (1948–1987) successfully mobilized a strong civil religion for political purposes. The resulting civil religion targeted economic growth as the national goal to overcome all social ills, focused on the country’s ethnic and cultural homogeneity to boost national confidence and pri...
Noting the significance of the newly imagining, defining and writing Korean modernity and world history (Shome, 2014), this chapter examines Korean modern history as conditions that have been lived by ordinary Korean people and have significantly contributed to the shaping of the conventional understanding and imaginaries about modernity and Korean Protestantism and Buddhism. In other words, in order to look into social imaginaries on Korean Protestantism and Buddhism and their interwoven relationships with those on modernity, this chapter explores the question of which politico-economic events and forces have conditioned the formation of social imaginaries on Korean Protestantism and Buddhism in Korean modern history. Thus, it explores the interwoven relationships between some critical politico-economic conditions in Korean modern history and the two religions, while taking the risks of more or less selectively simplifying the complexities, dynamics and ambivalences of Korean modern history and of temporally identifying Korean modern history with the historical time which Korean people, in general, consider as their modern times: from 1876, when Japan began its project of colonial domination in Korea by opening up Korean ports, to the present.