Korean Spirituality / Edition 1

by Don Baker

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780824832575
Publisher:	University of Hawaii Press, The
Publication date:	04/01/2008
Series:	Dimensions of Asian Spirituality , #5
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Don Baker is professor of Korean civilization in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface     vii
Acknowledgments     xiii
Korean Spirituality: A Multiplicity of Approaches to Transcending the Human Condition     1
Folk Religion and Animism     18
China's Three Teachings in Korea     30
Korean Christianity     58
The New Religions of Korea     78
The Spiritual Gaze in Korea     94
The Spiritual Practices of Koreans     122
Spirituality in North Korea     145
Further Reading     153
Index     157