Syncretism

The Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea

David Chung
eISBN-13: 9780791490839

eBook Features

Rent or Buy from $ 34.95 USD
Note: We do not guarantee supplemental material with textbooks (e.g. CD's, Music, DVD's, Access Code, or Lab Manuals)

Additional Book Details

This book explains the explosive growth of Christianity since its introduction into Korea in the eighteenth century. In no other Asian country has Christianity taken root so strongly.

Author David Chung argues that it was the syncretic tendency of Korean religious culture that provided the context for the successful acceptance of Christianity. Working from the perspective of comparative religions, he explores how Korean society accommodated and assimilated religions of foreign origin, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity through crude equation and subtle identification of these religions with Korean indigenous beliefs. Fundamentally shamanistic, Korean society received and grafted these religions onto its own and made a remarkable tapestry of beliefs, rites, and values into a comprehensive pattern. Syncretism finds this "religious tapestry" or internal chemistry working between Korean and Christian worldviews.

ISBNs 0791490831, 9780791490839, 9780791449417
Language English