Religion and Culture (Institute of Religious Studies, SNU), Journal of Korean
Religions(Institute of Religious Studies, Sogang University), Journal of Religion
and Culture(Hanshin Institute of Humanities, Hanshin University), and
Human Research(Humanities Research Center, Catholic University).
In accordance with the increase in the number of departments of religious
studies, lectures on religion were added to the curricula of many universities
and colleges as a subject of humanities and general education under various
names, such as ‘Religion and Human Being’, ‘A History of Religion’, ‘World
Religions’, and ‘Religion and Culture’, as well as introductions to individual
religions. The Korean Association for the History of Religions (Hanguk
Jongkyo Hakhoe), a representative society of the study of religions, has
developed as an umbrella organization that includes not only the history,
phenomenology, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and psychology of
religion but also even the ‘theology’ of each religion.
Meanwhile, Korean scholars also organized several associations which pub-
lished journals, including the Korean Association for the History of Religions
(Hanguk Jongkyo sahakhoe, 1972, Journal of the History of Korean
Religions)—the Hanguk Jongkyo Sahakhoe had the same name in English as
the Hanguk Jongkyo Hakhoe; its journals (Jongkyosa Yeongu) were published
three times until 1973; publication resumed in 1996 under the title Hanguk
Jongkyosa Yeongu—the Korean Association for the Study of Religious
Education (1995, Korean Journal of Religious Education), the Association for
Korean New Religions (1999, Studies in New Religion), the Association for
Korean Shamanistic Studies (1998, Korean Shamanism), and the Korean
Society for Literature and Religion (1992, Literature and Religion). Independent
research institutes not attached to universities or colleges were also founded,
such as the Korea Institute for Religion and Culture (2001, formerly the Korea
Society for the Study of Religion [1987]), which publishes The Critical Review
of Religion and Cultureas well as a series of monographs and books.
Since the 1970s translations of the classics in the study of religions by
Friedrich Max Müller, Gerardus van der Leeuw, and others have continu-
ously appeared, including more recent authors such as Mircea Eliade, Wilfred
Cantwell Smith, and currently Jonathan Z. Smith. Today no country is an
island. Sharing agonies and accomplishments, we participate in the global work
of the study of religions.
Affirmation and re-formation. Since the 1980s the study of religions has
matured significantly. Most of all, the late 1980s saw the demise of the
first generation scholars. The following generation concentrated on more
concrete studies rather than on issues of identity or method. The period
can be described as a time of affirmation of self-identity and re-formation of
concerns.
In affirming the self-identity of the study of religions, Korean scholars have
preferred the term ‘religious culture’ (Jongkyo Munhwa) to ‘religion’. This182
HE GUANGHU, CHUNG CHIN-HONG, AND LEE CHANG-YICK