Religions Of Old Korea

This book, first published in 1932, was written by a Western expert on Korea, and was the first to thoroughly investigate and document the old religious practices of Korea. No book like this could be written again from original sources, for all of the data has passed away, and archival records are not necessarily complete. It is a key text in the study of Korean religion.

Korea has one of the most diverse religious cultures in the world today, with a range and breadth of religious practice virtually unrivaled by any other country. This volume in the Princeton Readings in Religions series is the first anthology in any language, including Korean, to bring together a comprehensive set of original sources covering the whole gamut of religious practice in both premodern and contemporary Korea. The book's thirty-two chapters help redress the dearth of source materials on Korean religions in Western languages. Coverage includes shamanic rituals for the dead and songs to quiet fussy newborns; Buddhist meditative practices and exorcisms; Confucian geomancy and ancestor rites; contemporary Catholic liturgy; Protestant devotional practices; internal alchemy training in new Korean religions; and North Korean Juche ("self-reliance") ideology, an amalgam of Marxism and Neo-Confucian filial piety focused on worship of the "father," Kim Il Sung. Religions of Korea in Practice provides substantial coverage of contemporary Korean religious practice, especially the various Christian denominations and new indigenous religions. Each chapter includes an extensive translation of original sources on Korean religious practice, accompanied by an introduction that frames the significance of the selections and offers suggestions for further reading. This book will help any reader gain a better appreciation of the rich complexity of Korea's religious culture.

This is an historical survey of all the religious traditions of Korea in relation to the socio-cultural trends of seven different periods of Korean history. The book includes a discussion of the history of the study of religion in Korea, a chronological description of Korean folk religion including shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, Islam, and Korean New Religions, and some final observations about the unique characteristics of religious beliefs and practices in Korea.

During the unified Silla dynasty period (669-935AD) that followed the Three Kingdom period, Buddhism was being assimilated into the Korean culture and taking on certain aspects not borrowed from China. Buddhist specialists will be interested in the ways in which the various schools were being adapted in this time period.

Korea has one of the most dynamic and diverse religious cultures of any nation on earth. Koreans are highly religious, yet no single religious community enjoys dominance. Buddhists share the Korean religious landscape with both Protestant and Catholic Christians as well as with shamans, Confucians, and practitioners of numerous new religions. As a result, Korea is a fruitful site for the exploration of the various manifestations of spirituality in the modern world. At the same time, however, the complexity of the country’s religious topography can overwhelm the novice explorer. Emphasizing the attitudes and aspirations of the Korean people rather than ideology, Don Baker has written an accessible aid to navigating the highways and byways of Korean spirituality. He adopts a broad approach that distinguishes the different roles that folk religion, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, and indigenous new religions have played in Korea in the past and continue to play in the present while identifying commonalities behind that diversity to illuminate the distinctive nature of spirituality on the Korean peninsula.

Korea is a remarkable case study in religious coexistence. Even though only about half the country identifies as religious, the half that does displays a remarkable diversity of both indigenous and imported faiths, including Buddhism and Christianity (of both the Catholic and Protestant varieties). Korean religious pluralism is no recent phenomenon. Koreans have respected religious diversity since ancient times. Indeed, if there is one overriding religious tendency in the Korean population, it is a preference for syncretism, of finding essential and common truths amidst diverse and often competing doctrines. Current Korean leaders have continued making efforts to further inter-faith understanding. This book surveys the rich religious and spiritual tapestry that is contemporary Korea. We begin with the earliest of Korean faiths—the shamanism that prehistoric Koreans brought with them as they migrated to the peninsula from Central Asia—and continue on to today's most prominent faiths: Buddhism, Christianity, andConfucianism. Korea has given birth to a large number of indigenous faiths, and we will take a look at some of these, too.