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This chapter reviews the events leading up to the formation of the Ilchinhoe and attempts to analyze what may have motivated the people and organizations involved in these events. At around the same time a mass organization called the Chinbohoe (Progress Society) was formed under Tonghak sponsorship in September 1904 under the leadership of Son's chief deputy in Korea, Yi Yong-gu, the Japanese had sponsored an organization called the Ilchinhoe (Advancement Society). It had a similar agenda to the Chinbohoe but was more overtly pro-Japanese and enjoyed Japanese military protection for its activities. Both organizations entered into negotiations and united in December 1904 with the purpose of forming a nationwide reformist organization that enjoyed Japanese military protection; however, a rupture would soon emerge between Son and Yi Yong-gu, leading to a change of name from Tonghak to Ch'ŏndogyo in December 1905, mainly to disassociate Tonghak from the Ilchinhoe.

This chapter contends that Tonghak's transition to Ch'ŏndogyo is an example of the challenges and opportunities faced by a religion attempting to maintain and increase its hold on modern society. Ch'ŏndogyo reformed its doctrine and ritual to better mesh with changing trends brought forth by modernity. These reforms needed a firm guiding hand, however, to maintain effective cohesion. Government persecution, Son Pyŏng-hŭi's exile, and the growth of his deputy Yi Yong-gu's power as a result of his leadership of the Ilchinhoe had increasingly frayed organizational unity. Further developments, however, brought new organizational opportunities for Ch'ŏndogyo, among them Son's return from Japan and his pursuance a policy of centralization and bureaucratization to recapture full leadership of his nascent movement and lead it to greater independence from politics.

This chapter shows how a process similar to Theravada Buddhism's response to modernity and Christianity in Sri Lanka occurred within Ch'ŏndogyo in Korea. The reforms in doctrine, ritual, and social action, coupled with administrative and structural consolidation, all led to a greater cohesion in organization and ideas. This strengthened Ch'ŏndogyo's image as a native religion that drew from the best of tradition but also positively engaged with the modern world. In this way, it aimed to strengthen its appeal as a Korean alternative to Christianity to those Koreans who wanted a spiritual and ethical basis compatible with an openness to new trends, while remaining faithful to native values.

This chapter recounts Ch'ŏndogyo's activities from before Korea's annexation. During this time of national trial, Ch'ŏndogyo maintained a generally low profile, but its religious doctrine and organization were further consolidated and church membership grew. Although no longer the official head of the religion, Son Pyŏng-hŭi effectively controlled its spiritual affairs and made highly publicized preaching tours throughout the country. Socially and culturally, Ch'ŏndogyo's gradual financial recovery permitted it to again engage in some educational endeavors, and it also led to the foundation of a monthly magazine, the Ch'ŏndogyohoe wŏlbo (Ch'ŏndogyo monthly). Politically, although Ch'ŏndogyo continued its official position of keeping its religious and political activities separate, individual Ch'ŏndogyo leaders, mainly from the ranks of the reformist converts, did become involved on an individual basis in the Taehan hyŏphoe (Korea Association), which they and former members of the by then defunct Taehan chaganghoe (Korea Self-Strengthening Society) founded in late 1907.

This concluding chapter remarks on Ch'ŏndogyo's activities after the annexation, and offers some concluding thoughts on the organization's ability to adapt in Korea's turbulent modern history. Ch'ŏndogyo was a crucial player in the creation of a modern Korean nation, evolving through the often painful process of reconstruction and consolidation that happened before the annexation. Ch'ŏndogyo had its basis in the Tonghak movement that had been defeated in the 1894 rebellion, but because of the changed social and political conditions just a few years later, it was in many ways a different organization from its parent movement. By going through a transition comparable to that occurring in the rest of Korean society, the religion founded by Ch'oe Che-u was able to remain relevant to the changed conditions of twentieth-century Korea and become a significant contributor to the creation of a modern nation-state.

This chapter examines the aftermath of 1894 through the case of Son Pyŏnghŭi (1861–1922), the third leader of Tonghak and the founder of Ch'ŏndogyo, to demonstrate how followers struggled to control the public perception of the community. With the demise of China as Korea's symbolic and cultural touchstone, the Neo-Confucian concept of stability lost its viability. Japanese imperialism took China's place, and Korean elites began to search for new ways to shore up Korea's eroding national sovereignty. Tonghak followers were involved in this debate about national identity. The failure of the Tonghak uprising and the increasing foreign involvement in Korea between 1894 and 1905 led Son and others to reframe the Tonghak religious message by constructing a bureaucratized institution in Seoul that rejected certain elements of the Tonghak past while embracing Ch'oe Cheu and his doctrine. This shift succeeded in popularizing a newly revamped Tonghak teaching; it also laid the foundation for Ch'ŏndogyo's participation in religious nationalist projects during the colonial era (1910–1945).

Chapter 3 shows how the changed reality due to capitalism and developments such as new colonial policies and antireligious movements led Yi Ton-hwa, Hong P’yŏng- sŏn, and Pae Min- su to reconceptualize ideas of time, space, and religious experience in order to help people negotiate modernity. Their reinterpretation of religious experience as being rooted in the present and everyday life and calls for religious institutions to build “heavenly kingdoms” furnished new ideas of agency and community and provided the rationale for the YMCA, Presbyterian, and Ch’ŏndogyo rural movements.