교양대학 데이비드 (David William Kim) 교수가 지난 5.5년간 연구한 근대한국과 동아시아의 식민지적 사회종교문화적 변화에 대한 프로젝트 (Daesoon Jinrihoe in Modern Korea: The Emergence, Transformation and Transmission of a New Religion)이 유럽과 미국의 인문.사회과학분야 학자들로부터 그 우수성을 인정받아 영국 캠브리지대학 교수출판사 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing)에서 출판되었고 지난 2월에는 런던학술비평회 (Critical Book Launch)에서 캐나다, 영국, 오스트레일리아, 이탈리아의 전문가들부터 호평을 받기도 했다. 아래는 그 개척자적 연구내용에 관한 원문이다.

 

 Project: Daesoon Jinrihoe in Modern Korea: The Emergence, Transformation and Transmission of a New Religion.

Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, United Kingdom

 

                               
     Asso. Prof. David William Kim
         College of General Education, Kookmin University in Seoul
 

When the global boom of European imperialism and the expansion of Christianity reached the Asian continent, local communities experienced confusion and transformation. The traditional ways of education, medicine and thought conflicted with western social principles. For the European colonists, their action was that of global pioneers, but the introduction of new ideas and commercial trade brought threats and uncertainty to the indigenous people who felt that being invaded contributed to the loss of their identity and historical customs. East Asian nations share a similar historical background of modernisation in the nineteenth century. None had been colonised under Western imperialism, but all of them commonly became subjected to Western powers, whether directly or indirectly. 

 

   This research argues that the change in the Asian political landscape challenged religious beliefs in the modern period. Social insecurity became the main concern for the followers of traditional religions. When people started to realise the powerlessness of their old faiths, they sought new teachings or founders of new religions. Many new religious movements (NRMs) emerged to satisfy the spiritual needs of local people in overcoming the hardship of transition. When Christianity was introduced as a new religion, new indigenous religious movements arose in each nation of China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. This book as a case study demonstrates the view that the transformation of local Korean religions was not exempt from colonial encounters but caused the emergence of NRMs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Methodologies in religious studies are the interpretive models on which the analysis of religious phenomena and resources can be discussed. The approach provides a lens through which one is able to understand the perspective of a (new) religion. Within the critical view, there are three common methodologies: the philosophy of religion (Phenomenology), the study of religious communities (Functionalism), and the study of all aspects of the beliefs, practices and experiences of the followers of a particular religion (Lived Religion). Based on such an approach, this book explores the Daesoon movement in the context of functionalism in modern Korean society even though the perspectives of religious philosophy and personal experiences are regarded to consider the relationship that the local ethnic community has with the other religious movements of the Korean peninsula. Daesoon Jinrihoe in Modern Korea: The Emergence, Transformation and Transmission of a New Religion is the first English manuscript to theoretically to reflect the new Korean religious movement for non-Korean readers since there are as yet few English sources on their socio-religious identity.
     
          

 

     (Virtual Book Launch in London)

 

This new research in the Modern History of Korea and Ideological Culture that was a pioneering work of research field, has been given high stand evaluations by global experts of the field, and the result of the outcome has been recently published ($99.95) by Cambridge Scholars Publishing in the United Kingdom: 
https://cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-5275-5448-1