Korean Religions Research Articles

Critical Review of the North Korean Policy of Religions and the Inter-communication between South and North Korean Religions

Critical Review of the North Korean Policy of Religions and the Inter-communication between South and North Korean Religions

Is There a Korean Contribution to U.S. Pastoral Theology?

South Korea is a unique convergence of eastern and western religious traditions: 30% of South Koreans call themselves Christian, 30% Buddhist, and everyone is strongly influenced by the active traditions of Confucianism and Shamanism. Based on 8 months of research in South Korea, this paper explores three perspectives on the relationship of Christianity to traditional Asian religions: 1) Is Christianity saving Korean spirituality from the failures of Confucianism, Buddhism and Shamanism? 2) Is Christianity destroying Korean spirituality because of its connections with modernism and its rejection of historic Korean religions? 3) Is a deeper Korean spirituality transforming both Christianity and Asian religions into something that will help the world heal from the contradictions of modernism?

Korean Religions in Contemporary North Eastern China

Korean Religions in Contemporary North Eastern China

The Great Revival of 1907 as a Phenomenon in Korean Religions

Among Protestant Koreans, the Great Revival of 1907 in Pyongyang is often viewed as a foundational event in the life of the Church. Previous accounts of this revival have traced its origins to Presbyterian and Methodist missionaries working in Korea at the time. This article argues that besides missionary activity, indigenous Korean religious traditions significantly shaped and formed this event. Specifically, the religious behaviors exhibited during the revival can be traced to what we know of northern Korean shamanistic practices. Korean Christians unselfconsciously drew on such indigenous practices in response to the particular social and political context of their time.

Korean religions in Japan: The Present and Future

Korean religions in Japan: The Present and Future

Pilgrims and Progress: The Production of Religious Experience in a Korean Religion

Since its inception, Chondogyo has self-consciously maintained an identity as a "new" and "modern" Korean religion. These claims have seen ongoing efforts to rationalize religious practice and theology and purge the movement of "anti-modern," "superstitious" elements. This article explores the differing receptions of pilgrimage and ecstatic trance within the organization: the two major forms of embodied religious experience in Chondogyo. While the former has been actively promoted as a "legitimate" (and modern) form of religious experience, the latter is treated with ambivalence and is often connected with backward superstition. Through a comparison of these practices, I explore the ways in which they intersect with, bolster and challenge conceptions of Korean modernity.

Properties of the Original Korean Religions and Daesoon Philosophy

Properties of the Original Korean Religions and Daesoon Philosophy

A Comparative Study of the Structure and Thoughts in the Rituals of Passage among the New Korean Religions - Chondogyo, Chungsangyo, Won-Buddhism-

A Comparative Study of the Structure and Thoughts in the Rituals of Passage among the New Korean Religions - Chondogyo, Chungsangyo, Won-Buddhism-

Containing Tan'gun : Japanese Academic Intervention in Korean Religion(Section 9)

Containing Tan'gun : Japanese Academic Intervention in Korean Religion(Section 9)

Peace, Poetry, and Negation

Peace, Poetry, and Negation‡ Robert Pinsky (bio) A Buddhist foundation in Korea invited poets from around the world to gather for a conference on peace in the summer of 2005. The undertaking seemed less quixotic and more practical after I learned a little about the figure from whom the Manhae Foundation takes its name. In Manhae (born Han Yong-un), Koreans can celebrate a great modernist poet who is also a central figure in Korean religion, culture, and politics. An American poet reads with some astonishment that Manhae, a monk and religious reformer who profoundly influenced Buddhist thought and practice, was also a co-author of the Korean Declaration of Independence. Accomplishments comparable to those of Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, achieved by someone born in 1879 (the same year as the American businessman-poet Wallace Stevens). This unusual, comprehensive centrality of Manhae may tempt even Western poets to feel some tiny glint of reflected glory. It also intimidates us: what can one offer in the context of such an imposing model? At that gathering in Seoul, where poets from around the world were invited to think about the somewhat vague ideal of peace, the challenge was perhaps the more poignant for [End Page 395] those of us representing languages that have had no Manhae, no single figure who so thoroughly included the worlds of art and practical politics. That occasion, and the writing of Manhae, inspired the questions I will try to consider here. On a grand scale, what is the place of poetry in the needy world, where a deficiency of peace for much of the population means hunger, violence, and disease? On an immediate, personal scale, what might be the social or religious or political place of the next poem one writes, in relation to the formidable accomplishment of Manhae in a language and culture we can only begin to understand? In the context of such questions, and the diffidence they inspire, it is a great relief to turn toward Manhae's poems. These poems present not the political rhetoric of triumph, but intricacies of doubt; and not the religious rhetoric of peace achieved, but peace as the goal of struggle; not salvation, but longing. Far from separating individual psychology from politics or religion, the poems seem determined to blur, or even wipe away, any such distinctions. And it appears to be a poetry that attacks its own means, that sometimes creates an image or a metaphor only to tear at the creation. Here is Francisca Cho's translation of the poem "Cuckoo": The cuckoo cries its heart out.It cries and when it can cry no more,It cries blood.The bitterness of parting is not yours alone.I cannot cry even though I want to.I'm not a cuckoo, and that bitterness can't be helped either.The heartless cuckoo:I have nowhere to return, and yet it cries,"Better turn back, better turn back." Regret, exile, discomfort: these feelings, whether they are understood as personal, erotic, historical, or all of the above, here dramatize themselves by how the poem expels its own notions: [End Page 396] "I'm not a cuckoo," "I have nowhere to return," "I cannot cry." These negatives are like the legend of the bird that grieves till it emits not a voice, but blood. "I haven't seen your heart," says the refrain of a poem called "Your Heart." "Don't," says the refrain of "First Kiss." "It's not for nothing that I love you," says "Love's Reasons." Even a poem of devotion has the refrain "Don't Doubt": "If you doubt me, then your error of doubt / and my fault of sorrow will cancel each other." There are negatives, too, in a poem called "Don't Go": "That's not the light of compassion from Buddha's brow; it's the flash from a demon's eyes / That's not the goddess of love who binds body and mind, and tosses herself into love's ocean, caring nothing for crowns, glory or death; / It's the smile of the knife." The refrain of "Don't Go" is "Turn around-don't go to...

Representation of Korean Religions and the Perspective of the Scholar : In Response to Niwa Izumi's Model(The Study of Religion in Korea)

Representation of Korean Religions and the Perspective of the Scholar : In Response to Niwa Izumi's Model(The Study of Religion in Korea)

Korean Women and God: Experiencing God in a Multireligious Colonial Context (review)

Reviewed by: Korean Women and God: Experiencing God in a Multi-religious Colonial Context Amy Mormino Choi, Hee An . 2005. Korean Women and God: Experiencing God in a Multi-religious Colonial Context. Maryknoll: Orbis, pp. xiii + 190. Korean Women and God, part of an ongoing Orbis series called Women from the Margins, begins with Choi Hee An recollecting how she once forgot her own face. Told by her mother that this happened to everyone, she was surprised to learn later that this was not universally true. Choi uses this anecdote to express her belief that Korean women have forgotten their identities in the face of a patriarchal culture that demands service to others above individual needs. Her work seeks to demonstrate how Korean women's 'understandings of God's attributes can damage, embrace, or recreate Korean women and their self-images' (p. 2). Choi includes an abundance of information about the social and spiritual lives of Korean women. The first part examines how the different religions of Korea, including Shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity, have impacted women. The book then looks at the social roles Korean women play as daughters, mothers, wives and citizens. While the continual themes of patriarchal and colonial oppression can become exhausting, Choi includes much evidence from Korean history and culture, as well as her own interviews, to support her ideas. The third and fourth sections offer hope for building a more positive and dynamic faith among Korean women. Part Three considers the transformation of han, a difficult word to translate into English that can mean 'a fundamental feeling of defeat' (p. 4). This transformation of han can take place through Korean women seeing God in new ways, such as a friend or liberator. The final part gives some welcome practical suggestions on ways for Korean churches to hear women better. While Choi generally does a good job of handling these topics within [End Page 188] the book's 190 pages, there were areas that could have benefited from further depth. As it is written from a Christian feminist viewpoint, a further analysis of Korean Christian issues would have been welcome, especially concerning the role of the Bible. In light of the valid points the book makes about the role of women within Korea, it is a shame that it is likely too controversial for the mostly conservative Korean churches. For instance, Choi writes in the final section of Korean women's desire to 'replace the oppressive God with a God of their own design' (p. 158). Such a thought may not be welcome in a church climate that stresses fixed Christian revelation. Western readers may also find her conclusions regarding Western oppression of Korea to be provocative, like when she comes close to equating Korean prostitutes working among the American military with the forced sexual service of the comfort women during the Japanese occupation of Korea (pp. 90-1). But those who are open to a lively Korean feminist overview of Korean religion and culture will find much to appreciate in Choi's work. Amy Mormino University of Edinburgh Copyright © 2006 Edinburgh University Press

A New Challenge to Korean American Religious Identity: Cultural Crisis in Korean American Christianity

This paper explores the relationship between Korean immigrants to the United States and their religious identity from the cultural point of view. Most scholarly studies on Korean immigrants in the United States have been dominated by sociological approach and ethnic studies in examining the social dimension of the Korean immigrant communities while neglecting issues concerning their religious identity and cultural heritage. Most Korean immigrants to America attend Korean churches regardless their religious affiliation before they came to America. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the fact that Korean church has provided a necessary social service for the newly arrived immigrants. Korean churches have been able to play a key role in the life of Korean immigrants. Korean immigrants, however, have shown a unique aspect regarding their religious identity compared to other immigrants communities in the United States. America is a nation of immigrants, coming from different parts of the world. Each immigrant community has brought their unique cultural heritage and religious persuasion. Asian immigrants, for example, brought their own traditional religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism. People from the Middle Eastern countries brought Islamic faith while European Jews brought the Jewish tradition. In these immigrant communities, religious identity and cultural heritage were homo genously harmonized. Jewish people built synagogue and taught Hebrew, Jewish history, culture, and faith. In this case, synagogue was not only the house of worship for Jews but also the center for learning Jewish history, culture, faith, and language. In short, Jewish cultural history was intimately related to Jewish religious history; for Jewish immigrants, learning their social and political history was indeed identical with leaning of their religious history. The same can be said about the relationship between Indian community and Hinduism. Hindu temples serve as the center of Indian immigrantsin providing the social, cultural, and spiritual functions. Buddhist temples, for that matter, serve the same function to the people from the Asian countries. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, and Thais have brought their respective Buddhist traditions to America and practice and maintain both their religious faith and cultural heritage. Middle Eastern people, for example, have brought Islamic faith to the United States, and Mosques have become the center for learning their language, practicing their faith, and maintaining their cultural heritage. Korean immigrants, unlike any other immigrant group, have brought Christianity, which is not a Korean traditional religion but a Western religion they received in 18th and 19th centuries from the West and America, back to the United States, and church has become the center of their lives in America. In this context, Koreans and Korean-Americans have a unique situation in which they practice Christianity as their religion but try to maintain their non-Christian cultural heritage. For the Korean immigrants, their religious identity and cultural identity are not the same. Although Korean church so far has provides the social and religious functions to fill the need of Korean immigrants, but it may not be able to become the most effective institution to provide and maintain Korean cultural heritage. In this respect, Korean churches must be able to open to traditional Korean religions or the religions of Korean origin to cultivate and nurture Korean cultural heritage.

植民地期朝鮮における朝鮮佛敎觀 - 高橋亨を中心に

TAKAHASHI Toru (1878-1967) was one of the most significant Koreanologists in Japanese academic field. He was a professor of Kyeongseong Imperial University in the prewar period and Tenri University (department of Korean studies) in the postwar period. He was majored in Korean intellectual history and literature. His achievements, especially on Korean Confucianism and Buddhism, are still referred and influential. He wrote two pamphlets published by department of education of the Government-General of Korea in 1920. This year was a year after of 3.1 Independent Demonstration. This riot might have demanded Japanese governors to survey about Korean mentality and characteristics. One of outcomes was Chousenjin (Korean People). The pamphlet tried to explain the Korean character in the perspective of a essentialism in Korean race. The other was a simple outline about history of Korean religions entitled Chousen shukyoushi ni arawaretaru sinkou no tokushoku (The characteristics of faith in the history of Korean religions) . He explained that Korean religions, especially its Buddhism, were easily influenced by political condition. These pamphlets seemed to be typically colonialistic, since such negative characteristics of Korean made Japanese colonial rule legitimated as the Mission of civilization and enlightenment. His discourses synchronized with the desire of Japanese Imperialism. This article attempted to analyze his discourses in the perspective of postcolonial critics and sociology of knowledge.

대순사상(大巡思想)의 성립과 전개

Daesoon-thought is considered as the one that offers the new interpretation of the people who live in the modern society and advocates the new worldview based on the history of Korean thought. Basically, Dong-Hak, which was a root of Korean religions, was strongly against formalistic Confucianism that governed the whole society of Chosun dynasty, and showed its characteristics towards anti-neo confucianism. However, the people, who severely suffered from the gap between the ideal and real world with deploring their languishment, longed for the emergence of a new leader, since the sprit of Dong-Hak, which was pervaded up to Gab-o-keong-zang, was collapsed before the sword of Japanese forces. Jeungsan was well aware of people’s thoughts, and provided with them hopes of life in a very active manner. So, his thought showed plebeianism and democratic nature in a certain sense with racialism that tried to recover the collapsed pride of Chosun. Particularly, Cheon-ji-gong-sa, one of his religious thoughts, is clearly distinguished from those advocated by other religious thinkers, and shows the positive will that overcomes the difficulties of the world in the religious way. This paper aims at shedding the light on how Daesoon-thought appeared with the background of late Chosun. For this, the trend appearing in religions and thoughts at the time of late Chosun when Daesoon-thought started, will be examined carefully. Also, based on such a background it will be further investigated how Daesoon-thought has been developed and systemized.

The Gendering of Religious Experience: Ecstatic Trance in Cheondogyo

Cheondogyo is a Korean religion which espouses a central doctrine that has often been labelled ‘radically egalitarian.’ However, although religious ideologies emphasize gender equality, in practice these themes are translated in ways that seem to limit women's access to power. These gender differences are most apparent in ecstatic trance, which occurs reasonably often during religious training sessions. While legitimized by the religion's founder as a key source of spiritual enlightenment, the more boisterous forms of ecstatic trance are viewed with hostility. Because these forms of trance are exclusive to women, this condemnation of ecstatic trance becomes a condemnation of a largely female expression of religiosity. Moreover, ecstatic trance is seen to confirm a female affinity for instinctive spirituality, which deems them unsuitable for the types of leadership positions currently dominated by men.

The Cambridge illustrated history of religions

Introduction: the early history of religions John Bowker 1. Indian religions and the Hindu tradition Gavin Flood 2. Jainism Paul Dundas Sikhism Eleanor Nesbitt 3. Buddhism:Buddhist origins and South East Asia David Gosling 4. Tibetan Buddhism Adrian Abbott 5. Chinese Buddhism Roger Corless 6. Japanese Buddhism Paul Ingram 7. Korean Buddhism Youngsook Pak 8. Chinese religion Yao Xinzhong 9. Korean religions Yee-heum Yoon 10. Japanese religion Jay Sakashita 11. Judaism Jonathan Magonet 12. Zoroaster to Parsis John Bowker 13. Mediterranean religions: Greece and Rome David Bowker 14. Egypt and Mesopotamia John Bowker 15. Christianity David Edwards [including: Norse Religion, David Bowker] 16. Islam Penelope Johnstone Conclusion: religion in the modern world John Bowker.

<i>New God, New Nation: Protestants and Self-Reconstruction Nationalism in Korea, 1896-1937</i> (review)

210Journal of Korean Studies lucid that a portion of it could be assigned as a course reading. Both Buswell's monograph and Grayson's textbook belong in every serious Korean studies library collection. Thanks to Grayson, we have a more-or-less accurate account in English of what transpired over the course of Korean religious history: who preached what, when. Buswell helps make a small but important part of that history come alive. Both approaches, the overview and the close study, are essential. Serious gaps remain in English-language studies of Korean religion in particular, and of Korean civilization and culture in general. However, at least the gap on the Korean religious studies shelf is slightly smaller today because of the contributions of Grayson and Buswell. They — each in his own fashion — have earned the gratitude of their fellow toilers in the fields of Korean studies. Don Baker University ofBritish Columbia New God, New Nation: Protestants and Self-Reconstruction Nationalism in Korea, 1896-1937. By Kenneth M. Wells. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991. Pp. xi, 176. Notes, bibliography, index. $32.00. Polls on religion in South Korea agree that about a quarter of the people identify themselves as Christians, with three-quarters of these being Protestant. Most observers accept the idea that Christianity is now a "Korean" religion. In New God, New Nation, Ken Wells opens a window on the minds of early Korean Protestant leaders and contributes much to our understanding of how this missionary-borne creed came to be identified with the cause of Korean nationalism in the early twentieth century. We have become familiar with the idea of "cultural nationalism" in modern Korea to explain the thinking of activists who eschewed leftist prescriptions during the Iapanese colonial period as they came up with their own versions of Korean* national consciousness. Koreans of this type ran newspapers, journals, intellectual clubs and Book Reviews211 associations of different kinds, and occupied prominent positions in Korean schools. Many also served as leaders of the Protestant churches, mainly Presbyterian and Methodist, where their dual functions as churchmen and educators coincided in the large network of Christian schools originally founded by missionaries but which had become, by 1919, incubators of nationalist ideas and a home of the Independence Movement. Wells focuses in on these Christian leaders as elements in the emerging Korean nationalism. His first point is that Christianity with its corollary benefits of "modern" education was seen by many as a way to shape a new national identity free from both outmoded tradition and foreign oppression. But this is not a book about revolutionary resistance. The movement Wells describes was much more subtle. Its central idea was that Korean nationhood had to consist of something substantial, and that mere opposition to colonialism was not enough. This was the lesson they drew from the March 1, 1919, Independence Movement: that those agitating to oust the Japanese should agree upon a vision of a new Korean nation and pursue a consensus on how to bring it to pass. Nor should Korean leaders expend their energies in lost causes. In the opinion of Yun Ch'iho, wh.om Wells sees as typical of the "reconstruction nationalists," it was beyond the Koreans' means to win a test of strength against the Iapanese. Better to cultivate social responsibility and modern skills and wait for the chance to act when Iapan was weaker. In the 1920s, Protestant leaders such as Yun Ch'iho, Yi Kwangsu, and Yi Sangjae created organizations that coincided with the better attributes of Christianity, as in the Korean YMCA. They set up alumni associations, youth organizations, "national" associations such as the Tong'uhoe, the movement* for a national university, the overseas Hungsadan, and Cho Mansik's Korean Products Promotion Society, all with a view to upholding Korean "nationhood" even in the absence of a Korean "state." The problem is that to keep their groups in business they had to "cooperate" and even "collaborate" to some extent with the Japanese and were later denounced for playing ball with the colonial authorities. Welis accounts for this as follows: "The debate over collaboration was essentially a question of political versus nonpolitical resistance, and ... it was the...

Bands, Songs and Shamanistic Rituals: Folk Music in Korean Society (review)

124BOOK REVIEWS The ominous undulations of Kim Chi-wön's mysterious "Lullaby" can be contrasted to her insightful character study "A Certain Beginning." While a darkness of physical detail and a suggestion of morbidity run through all three stories by O Chöng-hüi included in this volume, each conjures up its own unique world, shaped by the experiences of very different characters. Other translators of course will want to question some of the Fultons' word choices or solutions to textual problems. Be that as it may, what is notable is that the Fultons do more than get individual words and ideas over into English: they manage to produce literature. While they polish and emend until the language sounds natural, they also keep an eye on the aura and affective impact of the work as a whole. The nature of Korean literature itself has been changing over the last decade and this new generation of writers is now producing a new literature of international value that deserves sensitive, intelligent, and literary translation. The fiction of Kang Sök-kyöng, Kim Ch-wön, and O Chöng-hüi represents such a new literature and the translations of Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton represent the kind of English treatment it deserves. Marshall R. Pihl University of Hawaii Bands, Songs and Shamanistic Rituals: Folk Music in Korean Society , by Keith Howard. Seoul: Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1989. 295 pp. Plates, musical examples. Years ago I was invited by a leading Seoul newspaper to describe my impressions of Korea. I wrote a piece in which I recounted the strong feeling of association with the spirits I had experienced, when alone as shadows lengthened in the remembering courtyards of the Kyöngbok Palace, while resting in secluded shade by the grassy tomb of King Söng-dök in Kyôngju, and by empathetic involvement in emotional scenes at a shaman ceremony in the stony hills outside Seoul. The article was never used and the promised check never arrived, and I have since comforted (deluded?) myself that this was because I had spoken too openly of matters which Koreans did not care to admit to outsiders at that time, especially the continued force of shamanism in a modernizing country. The climate of tolerance has since changed, and although at the time of the research that led to this work (1982-1984), Keith Howard still found Chindo people on the defensive about their association with practices and practitioners traditionally despised— however essential to survival—the study of native Korean religion by generally sympathetic Western social anthropologists has begun to flatter those who once complained of their patronizing attitude. The government in particular recognizes that in the folk arts associated with popular religion it has an authentic source of entertainment and financial income. Shamanism is now admitted to be alive and well and living in Korea (South), but with official, foreign, and impressive interest focused upon it, how much longer can it survive in its ancient forms? BOOK REVIEWS125 Keith Howard is a social anthropologist with a special love of Korean folk music and a strong desire for its appreciation and protection. The purpose of his study was to investigate and record it in the Chindo region while it still retained its peculiar characteristics, and before it became standardized from Seoul as part of the national cultural heritage. Living in their midst for sixteen months, he earned the respect of the Chindo people, who not only rewarded him with their musical skills but just as valuably with their most private views and reminiscences . He has painted them all, with sympathy and understanding, in a picture which like a p'yongsaengdo tableau on a temple wall displays the religious, social, historical, and musical elements that are all essential to the makeup of a traditional Korean community. Closely involved though he became in Korean life and ways, he nevertheless has been able to step back and see it from all angles, and to avoid the commitment to partial viewpoints that weaken the scholarship of many Koreans themselves. The result is a book that I found hard to put down, full of...

Religion and Politics in Korea Under Japanese Rule (review)

82BOOK REVIEWS Religion and Politics in Korea UnderJapanese Rule, by Wi Jo Kang. Studies in Asian Thought and Religion Volume 5. Lewiston, New York. Edwin Mellen Press, 1987. Pp. x, 113, notes and index. No price given. This slim book covers an important aspect of modern Korean history which has not received appropriate consideration in most works which survey either Korean history or Korean religion: the relationship between the Japanese administration in Korea from 1910 to 1945 and the various religions of Korea. The book consists of four chapters plus an introduction and a conclusion. The Introduction provides the historical background to the various religious traditions in Korea. Chapters one through four deal in turn with the relations of the Japanese administration with Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, and the indigenous religions. The author states in his preface that his work will deal principally with the policies of the Japanese government in Korea towards Korean religions and with "the response of the Korean adherents of these religions." This is an important task and this book ought to have made a significant contribution to our knowledge of this period of modern Korean history. Unfortunately this book not only fails to fulfill the task which it sets out to accomplish, but it is filled with historical inaccuracies, has inaccurate transliterations of Korean and Japanese words, and has been inadequately edited and proofread. 1. Problems with the Content and Structure of the Work A. DISCUSSION OF JAPANESE POLICIES TOWARD RELIGION Although the author in his preface clearly states that this book is not to be an essay in political science, the topic which Professor Kang has chosen for discussion requires some mention of Japanese government policies toward religion in general, with a fuller discussion of the attitude or approach to particular religions being given in the chapters which deal with them. The major problem of this book is that it nowhere states specifically the policy of the Government General of Chosen to religion. Furthermore, no indication is given of the differing attitudes held by members of the colonial government or influential Japanese outside of the administration. Nor is there any discussion of the changes in approach which took place throughout the colonial rule of Korea, or an explanation of why these changes occurred. Also it would have been useful to have set this discussion of the official Japanese approach to religion in Korea against a backdrop of the policies toward religion in Japan proper. There is no discussion of any of these issues. In fact there is a surprising, and nearly total, absence of particular Japanese people from the body of the work. The Japanese are dealt with in an abstract manner. Comparatively few Japanese source documents have been consulted, and this fact is reflected in the problems just mentioned. What the author has done in this work is to deal with some of the major conflicts which particular religions had with the Government General of Chosen . Chapter one, which deals with Christianity during the Japanese colonial BOOK REVIEWS83 period, is by far the most complete chapter, and well illustrates the essential problem of this book. It contains many interesting and important tidbits of information , but nonetheless does little more than survey the four major conflicts between Christianity and the Japanese government: the alleged assassination plot against Governor General Terauchi in 1912, the March First Independence Movement of 1919, the conflict over worship at Shinto shrines in the 1930s, and the forced merger of the various Protestant denominations just before the end of the Second World War. We are not given any insight into stated policies, why they were implemented, how or why they were changed, or conflict among the Japanese administrators themselves over policy matters. There is, however, a full discussion of the activities of Korean Christians and foreign missionaries, but this information is readily available in other sources. Also this chapter lacks concluding comments about Christianity during the period of Japanese colonial rule. The problems of this chapter are duplicated in the subsequent chapters dealing with Buddhism, Confucianism, and the indigenous religions. In addition , these later chapters not only lack the depth of coverage given to Christianity , but do not fully cover the...