A Collection of Essays on
Modernization and Religion in South Korea
Since the late nineteenth century, when the Japanese broke down the Confucian institution in Korea in order to facilitate their colonization of the country, patriotism and nationalism have fuelled the religious activities of Koreans. The Japanese made great efforts to force-feed Shintoism and to revitalize Buddhism, but these proved largely ineffective and served mainly to kindle the fire of those religions that they hoped would lose popular support. After the liberation, Protestantism and Confucianism surfaced as major forces. The former has continued to grow steadily, sometimes managing to depend on filial piety, commonly considered a Confucian concept, to gain members. Meanwhile, Confucianism, perhaps primarily a set of traditional values rather than a spiritual religion, has adopted hybrid forms and could, arguably, count the surviving business conglomerates, 'chaeb(breve)ol', among its temples of worship. The fact that these institutions also serve as icons of capitalism to the almost exclusively middle-class urbanites, a significant proportion of which is Protestant, shows how, to some extent, Confucianism and Protestantism have come to be interdependent.
By ROALD MALIANGKAY
At present, the symbiosis is the popular subject of debate. Protestantism, for example, should theoretically be more applicable to recent trends of globalization and growing individualism than Confucianism. Yet, the reality appears to attest that it is still Confucian values that often form the pillars of their organization, and subsequently leave the behavioural scope of church members to be defined by both Confucian values and the bible, and thus seemingly with little contradiction. Moreover, as the in case of the other two major religions in Korea, shamanism and Buddhism, followers often show both a great sense of nationalist pride and a growing interest in missionary activities and commercialism. The reasons being what they may, the success of Korea's religions obviously does not lie in their homogeneity vis-à-vis each other. Korean religions remain composites, rather than opposites.The monograph Modernisierung und Religion in Südkorea: Studien zur Multireligiosität in einer ostasiatischen Gesellschaft includes papers from a myriad of disciplines. They all address the complexity of South Korean religious life at present and show how the religions are adapting to the quickly changing social and religious climate. The volume is the result of a series of field trips performed in 1996 and 1997 aimed at studying the relationship between religion and modernization in contemporary Korea. The large number of papers seventeen in total is categorized into five chapters, the first and largest of which is 'Religion and Modernization in South Korea'. This chapter is perhaps the most valuable part of the collection as it deals with the development of value systems and socio-political factors in Korea from a clearly defined, predominantly Euro-centric viewpoint. The authors apply the theoretical frameworks of Marx and Engels, Weber and Durkheim to the social and religious developments in Korea and eschews too many conclusive judgements or predictions regarding Korean society. Unfortunately, however, in the opening article, authors Jens Jetzkowitz and Matthias König are clearly bound to the limited number of sources on the history of Korean religion in English. This is somewhat of a let-down in what is otherwise a very interesting summary of where theory and practice meet in terms of social and religious developments in twentieth-century Korea.
The second chapter, 'Shamanism and Folk Religion', mainly deals with shamanism. After a brief summary of the main characteristics of the different folk religions by Lee Joung-Jae, Gritt Maria Klinkhammer looks at the practice of shamanism in contemporary Korea. She finds that the status of the predominantly female shamans remains low, despite their great presence in the city (p.128). Based, in part, on her own experiences in Seoul and Taegu, she concludes that the great interest in shamanism in recent years lies in a need to deal with the 'rational skepticism' of Korea's highly industrialized society (p.130). Cha Ok, on the other hand, looks at why women are such a major force in religion in Korea. The primary merit of her paper lies in her account of how some shamans explain specific rituals. Her own narrative, however, contains many unsubstantiated judgements, and most of the answers she promises in her introduction are not given.
Buddhism and Confucianism
In the third chapter, 'Present Developments in Buddhism and Confucianism', Karl-Fritz Daiber provides an interesting insight into the organization of Buddhism at present. Without using the word evangelism (p.152), Daiber argues that organization behind Buddhist activities is strong and that increasingly more encouragement is being given to promotional activities. In comparing the structure of Buddhism and Confucianism only here it is noted that the concept of Confucianism as a religion is debatable (p.158) he finds that the activities of both religions reflect a need to counter the growing competition from the Christian church (pp. 159-160). Choe Chong-Sok further examines the process of modernization within Buddhism. He places the beginning of the modernization of Buddhism in 1895, when the Japanese reformed the Choso(breve)n law that forbade monks to enter the city. Choe believes that the renaissance of Buddhism in Korea would not have taken place without the enormous influence of Japan (p.171) since it was they who forced Korea to open its doors to the West and broke down the Confucian institution. He notes, however, that the ensuing Christian missionary activities were also an important source of inspiration. In the final paper of this chapter, Michael Pye examines the development and organizational structure of Wo(breve)n Buddhism, a religious movement that began in the early twentieth century and has since grown rapidly to become one of Korean Buddhism's main institutions.
The influence of Protestantism on other religions is the primary topic of the fourth chapter, 'Protestantism between Enculturation and Acculturation'. The two main papers study the affinity between Protestantism and shamanism, but the two unusual terms of the chapter's title seem only to apply to the first article. Chi In-Gyw and Jens Jetzkowitz first concentrate on the similarities between the two religions' theoretical and spiritual aspects. They then look at the importance of the populist Minjung movement that became a force in the 1980s. This movement has both Protestant and shaman influences, yet seems to embrace not only individualism but also humanism. I was hoping to find some words on the role of Confucianism but, unfortunately, the authors chose not to address this issue. Daiber compares the services of the Protestant retreats known as kidowo(breve)n with those of Korean shamans. Partly based on a number of field studies, his conclusion finds that the experiences of women there reveal a need for a service that provides an escape from everyday life, not only in terms of salvation, but also in terms of the emotional and spiritual outlet it can give them.
United religions
In the final chapter, 'Traditions of Multi-Religiousness and of a Dialogue between Religions', Woo Hai-Ran tries to find reasons behind Korea's multi-religious society from a theoretical viewpoint. She examines Korean plans for a united religions organization, arguing that the position of the state is considered vital in determining the course of the relationship between religions in Korea (p.268). The interest in opening a dialogue between religions is epitomized by the activities of the Korean Christian Academy. Christoph Elsas examines the possible reasons behind these. He believes that the Academy's 1965 decision to organize a series of conferences for this purpose may have come from the Christian concern with all aspects of human life (pp. 274-275).
The sheer number of topics dealt with in this volume makes for a highly useful bundle of ideas and discussion topics. Of course, not all topics related to religion in contemporary Korea can be covered in one volume, but I was surprised to find that the issues of nationalism and modernity are practically ignored, and that the Minjung movement and its relationship with shamanism and other folk religions is given little or no attention. Although the issues have already been explored extensively in other publications, their importance cannot be denied and have had an irrefutable effect on the perception and experience of religions in twentieth-century Korea. Although the volume's wide scope may interest scholars from a wide range of fields, the absence of issues such as these leaves too many questions left unanswered. In the introduction, the reader is warned that the primary aim is to bring up issues for discussion (p.12), but the many weaknesses may lead to frustration rather than debate. It is obvious that any comprehensive study of religious life in contemporary Korea requires a proper definition of terms and scope, but the compilers (I refrain from using the word 'editors') have decided to let the papers speak for themselves, with varying degrees of success.
Dubious quality
An example of the dubious quality of some of the writing (and editing) is the unsubstantiated passage 'it cannot be denied that there are differences between man and female temperaments and, in particular, that due to their particular bodily experiences women are more open to religious experiences than men' (p.133). Other examples are the lack of a clear chronological line (pp. 51-57) and the use of pretentious titles to insignificant sub-chapters (pp. 77-86). Another disadvantage of having no clear style sheet is that the different romanizations lose much of their value and become a tedious puzzle. References are too often omitted and, when they are given, names are sometimes misspelled (see [Kim Yo(breve)lgyu] Kim Vel-Kyu, p.146) or given the wrong translation (Cho(breve)ngshin munhwa yo(breve)n'guwo(breve)n [commonly known as Academy of Korean Studies] becomes 'Korean Mental Research Institute', p.146). Lee Joung-Jae's bibliography (p.122) certainly should not have been printed unchecked. Not only are the names of publishers missing, but Lee also manages to mix-up many romanization types in the same line. Meanwhile, the two Walravens referred to in his list are in fact one person.
I believe that because of the lack of discussion on specific issues and the absence of proper editing, the value of the volume is somewhat relative to each paper, leaving its high price unjustified. It is unlikely that either Marx or Engels, Weber or Durkheim ever visited Korea, but the theoretical approach of some of the papers adds a unique perspective to many important current issues within South Korea's religious life. The volume hence comprises a number of invaluable additions to the study of Korea and of multi-religious societies in general, once more emphasizing that studies from a non-orientalist viewpoint can contribute greatly to the understanding of contemporary Korean society. *
Sigfried Keil, Jens Jetzkowitz and Matthias König
MODERNISIERUNG UND RELIGION IN SÜDKOREA: STUDIEN ZUR MULTIRELIGIOSITÄT IN EINER OSTASIATISCHEN GESELLSCHAFT.
Bonn: Weltforum Verlagsgesellshaft für Politik und Auslandskunde mbH, 1998. ISBN 3-8039-0715-2, 299 pp.
Dr Roald Maliangkay is a researcher at the Centre of Korean Studies, Leiden.
E-mail: r.h.maliangkay@let.leidenuniv.nl