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Guest Editor’s Introduction

Guest Editor’s Introduction One mark of the modern world is the growing separation of religion and the state. Though such separation is not yet universal, it is increasingly considered behind the times for a government to tell those it governs what sorts of harm- less religious activities they should or should not engage in. That was not the case in pre-modern Korea. During Korea’s long Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910), Confucianism dominated the thinking, and decisions, of government officials. In trying to determine how to act in the present, they often looked to the dis- tant past, particularly China’s distant past, for guidance. There they found a clear statement that government had not only the authority but also the obliga- tion to oversee, and interfere in, the ritual activities of those under its rule. In a revered Confucian Classic written over two millennia ago, they could read the phrase ‘‘the great affairs of state are sacrifice and war.’’ This succinct statement of two fundamental tools of governance became an essential element of the political culture of pre-modern Korea, giving ‘‘sacrifice’’ (ritual) a politi- cal importance it did not have in the West. In the modern West, as Max Weber pointed out, a state has http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Korean Religions University of Hawai'I Press

Guest Editor’s Introduction

Baker, Don -- (Donald L.)
Journal of Korean Religions , Volume 5 (2) – Dec 19, 2014
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Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © Institute for the Study of Religion, Sogang University, Korea
ISSN
2093-7288
eISSN
2167-2040

Abstract

One mark of the modern world is the growing separation of religion and the state. Though such separation is not yet universal, it is increasingly considered behind the times for a government to tell those it governs what sorts of harm- less religious activities they should or should not engage in. That was not the case in pre-modern Korea. During Korea’s long Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910), Confucianism dominated the thinking, and decisions, of government officials. In trying to determine how to act in the present, they often looked to the dis- tant past, particularly China’s distant past, for guidance. There they found a clear statement that government had not only the authority but also the obliga- tion to oversee, and interfere in, the ritual activities of those under its rule. In a revered Confucian Classic written over two millennia ago, they could read the phrase ‘‘the great affairs of state are sacrifice and war.’’ This succinct statement of two fundamental tools of governance became an essential element of the political culture of pre-modern Korea, giving ‘‘sacrifice’’ (ritual) a politi- cal importance it did not have in the West. In the modern West, as Max Weber pointed out, a state has

Journal

Journal of Korean Religions – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Dec 19, 2014

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