Religions of Korea in Practice

Book

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. (Source: Princeton University Press)

Citation	Buswell, Robert E., ed. Religions of Korea in Practice. Princeton Readings in Religions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Princeton Readings in Religionsv
Contents by Themeix
Contents by Chronology xi
Prefacexiii
Major Periods in Korean Historyxv
Note on Transliterations and Conventionsxvii
Contributorsxix

Introduction ⋅ Don Baker1

Buddhism 1. King Mu and the Making and Meanings of Miru˘ksa ⋅ Jonathan W. Best 35 2. Wo˘n’gwang and Chajang in the Formation of Early Silla Buddhism ⋅ Pankaj N. Mohan 51 3. A Miraculous Tale of Buddhist Practice during the Unified Silla ⋅ Richard D. McBride II 65 4. Buddhism as a Cure for the Land ⋅ Sem Vermeersch 76 5. The P’algwanhoe: From Buddhist Penance to Religious Festival ⋅ Sem Vermeersch 86 6. Hell and Other Karmic Consequences: A Buddhist Vernacular Song ⋅ Younghee Lee 100 7. A Buddhist Rite of Exorcism ⋅ Patrick R. Uhlmann 112 8. “A Crazy Drunken Monk”: Kyo˘ngho˘ and Modern Buddhist Meditation Practice ⋅ Jin Y. Park 130 9. Educating Unborn Children: A So˘n Master’s Teachings on T’aegyo ⋅ Chong Go Su˘nim 144 Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism 10. A Party for the Spirits: Ritual Practice in Confucianism ⋅ Hongkyung Kim 163 11. The Great Confucian-Buddhist Debate ⋅ Charles Muller 177 12. Confucianism and the Practice of Geomancy ⋅ Hong-key Yoon 205 13. Voices of Female Confucians in Late Choso˘n Korea ⋅ Youngmin Kim 223

Shamanism 14. Yi Kyubo’s “Lay of the Old Shaman” ⋅ Richard D. McBride II 233 15. The Creation of the World and Human Suffering ⋅ Boudewijn Walraven 244 16. Sending Away the Smallpox Gods ⋅ Antonetta Lucia Bruno 259 17. Village Deities of Cheju Island ⋅ Boudewijn Walraven 284 18. Shamans, the Family, and Women ⋅ Boudewijn Walraven 306 19. A Shamanic Ritual for Sending On the Dead ⋅ Antonetta Lucia Bruno 325 Christianity 20. Martyrdom and Social Activism: The Korean Practice of Catholicism ⋅ Inshil Choe Yoon 355 21. Catholic Rites and Liturgy ⋅ Franklin Rausch and Don Baker 376 22. Conversion Narratives in Korean Evangelicalism ⋅ Timothy S. Lee 393 23. A New Moral Order: Gender Equality in Korean Christianity ⋅ Hyaeweol Choi 409 24. Indigenized Devotional Practices in Korean Evangelicalism ⋅ Timothy S. Lee 421 25. The Grieving Rite: A Protestant Response to Confucian Ancestral Rituals ⋅ James Huntley Grayson 434 New Religions 26. The Great Transformation: Religious Practice in Ch’o˘ndogyo ⋅ Don Baker 449 27. The Korean God Is Not the Christian God: Taejonggyo’s Challenge to Foreign Religions ⋅ Don Baker 464 28. The Wo˘n Buddhist Practice of the Buddha-Nature ⋅ Jin Y. Park 476 29. Renewing Heaven and Earth: Spiritual Discipline in Chu˘ngsan’gyo ⋅ Don Baker 487 30. Rites of Passage in the Unification Church ⋅ Don Baker 497 31. Internal Alchemy in the Dahn World School ⋅ Don Baker 508 North Korea 32. The Sociopolitical Organism: The Religious Dimensions of Juche Philosophy ⋅ Eun Hee Shin 517 Index 535