The Religions Book

318

See also: The battle between good and evil 60–65 ■ Wisdom lies with the

superior man 72–77 ■ Augustine and free will 220–21

T

he Holy Spirit Association

for the Unification of World

Christianity, commonly

known as the Unification Church,

or more pejoratively as the Moonies,

was founded by Sun Myung Moon

in Seoul, South Korea, in 1954.

His family had converted from

Confucianism to Christianity when

he was ten years old, and, as

a teenager, Moon had a vision of

Jesus asking him to complete

his mission of redemption.

To do this, Moon established the

Unification Church, which he saw

as a Christian denomination based

on the Bible and on his own book

the Divine Principle, but offering

a radically different interpretation

of the Christian story of the Fall that

led to original sin: Moon believed

that Eve’s spiritual relationship with

Satan before her sexual one with

Adam led to all of her progeny being

born with defective, sinful natures,

and, crucially, that Jesus came

to rectify this, but was crucified

before he had the opportunity to

marry—and therefore he only

achieved a partial redemption.

Children born without sin

The path to complete redemption

for humankind, Moon maintained,

would begin with his own marriage

to Hak Ja Han in 1960, and be

followed by the mass weddings

and rededications that became

characteristic of the Unification

Church and are its core ceremonies.

Children of these marriages, in

which premarital and extramarital

sex are prohibited, would then be

born without fallen natures,

thus heralding the advent of

a sinless world. ■

FIND A SINLESS

WORLD THROUGH

MARRIAGE

PURGING SIN IN THE UNIFICATION CHURCH

Wedding Blessing ceremonies,

often with hundreds of couples

participating, are not legal marriages,

but are believed to free the couple’s

offspring from original sin.

IN CONTEXT

KEY FIGURE

Sun Myung Moon

WHEN AND WHERE

From 1954, South Korea

BEFORE

1st century St. Paul affirms

that all humankind inherits

sin from the Fall, and also that

marriage is a sacred state.

From 2nd century The early

Christian Fathers formulate

the doctrine of original sin, but

dispute whether Adam or Eve

was more responsible for it.

4th century St. Jerome uses

the example of Jesus to argue

that celibacy is the preferred

state for a truly holy life.

7th century The notion that

Mary, mother of Jesus, was

herself conceived free from

original sin gains ground.

16th century Martin Luther

reasserts that all humans are

born sinful, with the exception

of Mary, mother of Jesus.