[Buddha-l] Perhaps the Buddhists in Korea have finally had it?

[jkirk]

Thanks for the update--I can't go--if you'll be there, how about
a report for the list on this panel?
That would be a timely bunch of reflectoins.
Right now Hindu violence on Christians (mostly adivasis/dalits)
in Orissa is on another list (risa-l).
I'm probably in error here, but my gut feeling says that a lot of
it is in response to the perceived aggressiveness of Christian
recruiting, backed by lots of money. At least that is an often
used excuse.
The Christian "reaction" (as it seems to me) in Korea must have
something to do with the formerly heavy social approval of, and
expectations of, punctiliously observed Confucian mores, that
perhaps young western-educated people finally decided they didn't
want to swallow any more? Tossing out the Confucian super-ego? 
Also, wondering what role, if any, Korean Buddhism played in the
Confucian context there.

Joanna
---------------------
 Behalf Of Dan Lusthaus
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 3:58 PM


Curt, Joanna, et al.

The upcoming AAR in Chicago (Nov.1-3) includes a panel devoted to
the question of violence and religion in Korea. Details below.
The current problems are not on the agenda but I suspect they
will become part of the discussion.

Dan

Korean Religions Group

Theme: Violence and the State in Korean Religions

Monday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
CHT-Conference Room 4D

Miriam Levering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Presiding

Theme: Violence and the State in Korean Religions

The session explores the theme of religion and violence in Korean
Shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity, and North Korean Juche
thought.


Jonathan Best, Wesleyan University
The Raising of the Temple of Maitreya: A Buddhist Faith-based
Initiative for Conquest in Early Korea

The reign of King Mu, Paekche's "Martial Monarch" (r. 600-41), is
especially notable for the dramatic improvement in the kingdom's
military fortunes in its conflict with neighboring Silla, and for
the burgeoning of royal patronage of Buddhism. Mu's intention to
identify royal authority with the cosmic power of Buddhism was
impressively articulated through his construction of the
Mirük-sa, or "Temple of Maitreya." The Samguk yusa reports-and
archaeology has verified-that the Mirük-sa encompassed three
separate 'Halls of Maitreya's Grand Assemblies,' each with its
own pagoda and courtyard. Yet the monumental scale of this temple
is less telling than its symbolic implications. According to the
sutras, Maitreya's three Dharma assemblies would occur outside
the capital of a cakravartin, a devout all-conquering ruler. In
the pious hope of causing Paekche to be the land where Maitreya
would preach and a cakravartin would reign, King Mu had the
Mirük-sa built.


Marcie Middlebrooks, Cornell University
Torturous Enlightenment: Public Secrets and Spiritual Progress in
a Korean Buddhist Narrative

Talal Asad has argued that with the rise of modern "secular"
values and the international universalizing discourse of human
rights, torture becomes a surreptitious activity. This secrecy
attempts to ward off accusations of "uncivilized" practices and
creates a dynamic of "exposure" when state activities "come to
light." With military dictatorships, torture often becomes,
through widespread repression, a "public secret" whose force is
targeted at the populace. This paper considers the more "public"
dynamics of torture during Korea's period of military
dictatorships to provide insight into how the "experience of
detainment/torture" has been narrated by a South Korean Buddhist
nun arrested on suspicion of being a communist. I will consider
how this "religious" incident has been reinterpreted and examine
how it has been remembered as a story of spiritual-cultivation.
In closing, I will explore the ways in which the concept of
Buddhist enlightenment functions as a "public secret" in
contemporary Korea.


Michael Pettid, State University of New York, Binghamton Shamanic
Supermen and Superwomen: Creating Alternative Spaces for the
Oppressed [no abstract]


David Kim, Columbia University
Korean Shamanism, the Accident, and Material History: A Ritual of
Unraveling and Redemption for Military "Comfort Women"

On July 13, 1990, the restless ghosts of Japanese military
"comfort women"
paid a visit to a group of Korean shamans. Their demands for
justice lead to a promise, which would take the form of an
innovative shamanic ritual, referred to as the 'Jinhon-gut.' The
dead speak through the mediums of the living, and it is only the
living who can appease the dead--the structure of which is a
debt/gift and cannot be settled cheaply. Likewise, the
performance body is intersected by forces--political, historical,
and technological, to name a few. This paper will examine
shamanic ritual as potential site for Walter Benjamin's concept
of 'historical materialism,'
which reveals itself in flashes; often occurring during gaps,
uncanny disjunctures, or unexpected moments of danger. Through
this materialization of history, the scars of colonial violence
are given representation and brought to the surface, creating
spaces for discourse, memory, and healing.


Chang Han Kim, University of Calgary
Christian Sects, Cults, and Anti-Cults Movements in Contemporary
Korea

While new religious groups tend to defend themselves against
outside attacks to reinforce internal solidarity, Christian
anti-cult movements are a way of countering new religious groups
that have different belief systems and worldviews. Due to the
high degree of tension that exists among Christian groups, each
seeks to deconstruct the other. Through this process a group's
plausibility structures are maintained and even renovated.
Tension helps to reinvigorate group identity and solidarity, and
nowhere is this more apparent than in Korea. Although the
religious landscape in Korea is sizeable, and includes the broad
spectrum of church, sect, and cult, it is Protestantism that has
shown the highest degree of tension with its social environment.
Given the fact that discriminating other groups from one's own
remains an important way of maintaining belief, it can be
anticipated that Korean Protestantism will continue to create far
more conflicts and tensions than other religious traditions.


Kyuhoon Cho, University of Ottawa
Religious Dimension of a Socialist Society: Juche Civil Religion
and Religions in North Korea's Socialist Modernization in Global
Society

This essay delves into the religious dimension of the process to
build a modern socialist state in North Korea. By applying Robert
N. Bellah's conceptual framework of American civil religion, I
discuss how North Korean civil religion is constructed in
contemporary global society, referring it as 'Juche civil
religion' based on 'Juche idea', the state ideology of Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Juche civil religion, in which
nationalist and neo-Confucian elements are deeply embedded, has
situated both North Koreans and their religions in a religiously
fermented political system whose set of symbols, faiths, and
rituals organically works toward imagining DPRK as a great
familial community, called 'socio-political organism'
(sahoejeongchijeok saengmyeongche) aiming at an 'eternal life'.
Once criticized as past remains to be cleansed before, religions
have since the 1980s been increasingly viewed as considerable
institutions for ultimate completion of Juche socialist
revolution in the insecure post-modern global context.

Responding:

    Don Baker, University of British Columbia

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