‘In their madness they chase the wind’: The Catholic Church and the Afterlife in Late Chosŏn Korea
Following its introduction to Korea in 1784, the Catholic Church grew and developed within a rich and varied religious milieu. An indigenous tradition of popular religion, characterized in part by shamanistic practices, existed alongside two imported traditions: Confucianism and Mahāyāna Buddhism. T...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2009
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| In: |
Studies in church history
Year: 2009, Volume: 45, Pages: 336-348 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Following its introduction to Korea in 1784, the Catholic Church grew and developed within a rich and varied religious milieu. An indigenous tradition of popular religion, characterized in part by shamanistic practices, existed alongside two imported traditions: Confucianism and Mahāyāna Buddhism. The latter had enjoyed state patronage in the Koryŏ period (918/935-1392) but, with the establishment of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1911), it was supplanted by Chu-Hsi Neo-Confucianism (Chuja-hak). This became central to a policy of social reformation and was elevated to the position of state orthodoxy. Neo-Confucianism thereby became the dominant social, political and metaphysical system, and, during the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, its influence spread to all levels of Korean society. Buddhism was increasingly discriminated against, while popular religion was disparaged as superstitious and potentially subversive. Buddhist monks and nuns, together with shamans (mudang), were classed among the ch’ŏnmin, the ‘base people’, the very bottom of society whose members included butchers as well as slaves. |
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| ISSN: | 2059-0644 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studies in church history
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0424208400002618 |
