Intro to Korea (7) - Religion in Korea

1. Religion in Korea
UNDERSTANDING MODERN KOREA

2. Religion
Ratio: Christian 29%, Buddhist 15%, Catholic 8%, No religion 56%
Animism: e.g. worship of a sacred tree
Shamanism: Mudang(Korean female shaman), Kut (Korean exorcism)
Confucianism: ancestral memorial service, primogeniture, lineage hierarchy
Daoism: Geomancy-Pungsu(wind & water, Fengshui in Chinese), “mountain in the
back & water in the front,” preference of “south facing”
Buddhism: suppressed by Confucian tradition during Joseon Dynasty, combined wi
th animistic folk religion
Christianity & Catholicism: popularized by Western missionaries in the 20th centur
y, appealing to a young generation and middle class

3. Christianity

4. Christianity(1)
-Ratio: Christian 29%, Buddhist 15%, Catholic 8%, No religion 56%
-The most Christian country in Asia except for the Philippines (85%)
c.f. Japan – 2%, Taiwan – 3%, Vietnam – 8%
-First translation of New Testament in hangul by missionaries in Manchuria (1882)
=> influence in northwest of Korea, among the ordinary people (women & lower classes)
-American Missionaries (Allen & Underwood): established hospital and schools (1890)
=> Ewha Girls School, Yonsei University, Yonsei Severance Hospital
- Pyongyang Great Revival (1907-1910): public repentance, all-night prayer meetings, collective
conversion to Christians
- Resistance against Japanese colonial rule: alternative education, denial of shinto services,
Christian intellectuals became leaders of the resistance activities

5. Christianity(2)
- Rapid increase of conversion: 800,000 (1958) -> 2 mil. (1968) -> 5 mil. (1978) -> 11 mil (today)
- Unification Church founded by Moon Sun-myung (1954) => expanded to USA in 1970s, organizing
international mass weddings & operating business enterprises
- Yoido Full Gospel Church founded by David Yong-gi Cho (1958): the largest protestant church in the
world (800,000 members)
- Mega churches: 17 in Seoul, affluent Kangnam district for political connections & networking for
politicians and business leaders (e.g. former-president Lee Myung-bak volunteer as a parking
attendant), search of a date or spouse for young people
- Political conservatism: anti-communist, collaboration with right-wing governments, anti-gay rights
movement
- Popularity: emphasis on material wealth as the blessing of God, analogy with Jewish nation,
combination with shamanistic elements, imagery of American modernity and capitalist model
- The second-largest exporter of Christian missionaries after USA: abduction or detention of Korean
missionaries in Afghanistan (2007) and in China-N. Korea border areas

6. Shamanism(1)
- Anthropological definition of religion: belief in supernatural beings
=> folk religion: animism, totemism, shamanism, etc.
- Evolutionary theory of religion: magic (superstition) => religion (universal morality) => science
- Shaman: a practitioner who is regarded to have access to the spiritual world and practices
divination and healing
- Korean shaman: origins in Siberia / a female “mudang” performs “gut” – a ritual to pacify
vicious spirits, purify the deceased’s soul, or ask the gods for well-being
- Suppression on Korean shamanism as superstition and practices of lower classe: Confucius
order in Chosun dynasty, Japanese colonial regime’s emphasis on shinto belief, influence of
Christianity => social stigma to shamans

7. Shamanism(2)
- How to become a mudang: by (1) divine possession, (2) inheritance, or (3) training)
- Practical benefit: mental relief from anxiety of future, a well-experienced counsellor
- Cultural influence: geomancy in the location of ancestors’ tombs / astrological belief in a baby’s
name and a couple’s happiness, god worship rituals when you buys a new car, build a new house,
open a new restaurant, and have a new baby / divination for politicians and businessmen
- Still, 300,000 Korean shamans, fortune tellers and geomancers are in practice today, training
young apprentices
-Regional diversity / flexibility without orthodox norms / combination with Buddhist temples
=> individual shamans permeated into everyday lives and endured external suppression