Building the Nation

The Success and Crisis of Korean Civil Religion

Bibliographic Data

ID3549554
AuthorsAndrew Eungi Kim (Korea University), David Connolly (0000-0002-2357-2680, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume12
Issue2
Pages66
Publication date2021-01-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel12020066
OpenAlexW3123399168
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited53

Civil religion refers to a country's beliefs, symbols, and rituals that bolster national unity and strengthen its citizens' sense of identity and belonging. However, the literature on civil religion is divided between those who attribute it to bottom-up cultural spontaneity and those who see it as an ideological top-down construction. Moreover, there has been a relative lack of scholarly attention to Korean civil religion. This paper addresses both issues by arguing that a strong civil religion indeed exists in the country and that it has been an important part of the "nation-building" process since the founding of the Republic of Korea in 1948. The paper highlights how a succession of authoritarian regimes (1948-1987) successfully mobilized a strong civil religion for political purposes. The resulting civil religion targeted economic growth as the national goal to overcome all social ills, focused on the country's ethnic and cultural homogeneity to boost national confidence and pride, exalted its traditional religions, especially Confucianism, as repositories of Korean traditional culture, and rendered sacred meanings to national symbols such as the flag and national anthem. Even after democratization, Korean civil religion remains largely ideological, as the Korean government is heavily involved in framing, planning, sponsoring, and promoting the country's civil religion. Nevertheless, the paper concludes by observing that this civil religion is entering a period of crisis due to political fragmentation among Korean elites and deeply rooted cultural and societal change

Authoritarianism · Civil Religion · Civil society · Democracy · Democratization · Fundamentalism · Ideology · Nation-building · National identity · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Chinese history and philosophy · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law