State and Religion
State and Religion
Secularization and Pluralism
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.
Keywords: religious history, secularization, pluralism, Confucianism, Korean Christianity, Korean Buddhism, pseudo-religion, church and state relations, theocracy, civic religion
California Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
