Kyung Moon Hwang
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520288317
- eISBN:
- 9780520963276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520288317.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
In tackling the relationship between state and religion, chapter 5 examines state secularization, which, in Korea, championed religious pluralism as the overarching principle. This chapter argues ...
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In tackling the relationship between state and religion, chapter 5 examines state secularization, which, in Korea, championed religious pluralism as the overarching principle. This chapter argues that state secularization was complicated by the comprehensive influence of Confucianism in the Joseon dynastic state as both a statecraft and a religion. The modernizing state sloughed off Confucianism into the newly conceived sphere of religion, which came under increasing regulatory control through the erection of a firm wall between the realms of the state and religion. The secularizing, civilizing state granted recognition, through classification, to certain religious entities, which gave the appearance of pluralism, while proclaiming less institutionalized religious expressions as socially destabilizing “pseudo-religions.” This state rationalization was eventually overwhelmed by the demands of intensive assimilation during wartime, as the state became increasingly theocratic.Less
In tackling the relationship between state and religion, chapter 5 examines state secularization, which, in Korea, championed religious pluralism as the overarching principle. This chapter argues that state secularization was complicated by the comprehensive influence of Confucianism in the Joseon dynastic state as both a statecraft and a religion. The modernizing state sloughed off Confucianism into the newly conceived sphere of religion, which came under increasing regulatory control through the erection of a firm wall between the realms of the state and religion. The secularizing, civilizing state granted recognition, through classification, to certain religious entities, which gave the appearance of pluralism, while proclaiming less institutionalized religious expressions as socially destabilizing “pseudo-religions.” This state rationalization was eventually overwhelmed by the demands of intensive assimilation during wartime, as the state became increasingly theocratic.
