Religious studies in Korea, more often than not, categorize Korean religions through a general rubric of indigenous religion, foreign-born religions, and Korean people's religions. Indigenous religion refers to shamanism, which is believed to have existed from the beginning of the Korean people, going back to the legendary founder Tan'gun. Foreign-born religions refer to those that have origins outside of Korea, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Christianity. During the late nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, a number of new religions emerged in Korea, which are now grouped under the title “Korean people's religions.”
This array of religions in Korea demonstrates the complexity that Don Baker had to deal with in Korean Spirituality, in which he discusses all of the religions mentioned here in an admirably succinct manner, and does so without sacrificing serious discussions of core issues that are relevant to each tradition. In addition, Baker offers an insightful analysis of Korean spirituality by discussing what these diverse religions of Korea, with their origins in India, China, and the West, as well as in Korea, share in common to constitute Korean spirituality, and also how similar religious goals and phenomena have found different modes of manifestations in Korean spirituality.
The seven chapters in the book can be divided into two groups: in four chapters (chapters 2–5), Baker offers detailed discussions of the major doctrines of individual religious traditions, and in three chapters (chapters 1, 6, and 7), he identifies various characteristics of Korean spirituality.
“Folk Religion and Animism” (chapter 2) mainly discusses shamanism, the oldest religion in Korea, in which the relation between humans and spirits is understood as analogous to that among humans. With the introduction of what are called “China's Three Teachings” (chapter 3)—Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism—shamanism gave way to these more sophisticated religious phenomena. These religions offered “the aid of supernatural beings” that are more powerful than the “local deities” worshipped in shamanism, and through that power, Baker explains, Koreans wished to have a “more effective way to gain control over their lives.”
As Christianity (chapter 4) entered into Koreans’ religious world, a “faith-based community,” a new religious phenomenon that, according to the author, did not exist in Korea, emerged. Catholicism made its entrance during the mid-eighteenth century and went through a period of severe persecution, and about a hundred years later, the first Protestant missionary arrived in Korea. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as Korea opened its doors to the West and Western religions arrived in Korea, new religions began to emerge. These religions are called the Korean people's religions (chapter 5) because, among other reasons, they were founded by Korean people with an emphasis on Korean identity. Among the well-known new religions are Eastern Learning, or Tonghak (which later developed into Ch'ŏndogyo), Chŭngsan'gyo, Won Buddhism, and Daesun Jinri-hoe.
Having described the characteristics of individual religious traditions, Baker deals with some of major issues of religious studies in the context of Korean religions. Among the themes he covers are the concept of evil, human frailty and the way to correct such a limitation, the idea of salvation, and different conceptions of divine power. For this purpose, the author introduces several conceptual frames, among which are the anthropocentric/anthropomorphic pair and the expression “spiritual gaze.” Put in its simplest form, anthropocentric spirituality is human centered, whereas anthropomorphic spirituality believes in the existence of supernatural personality. By employing this paradigm, the author explains how different religions in Korea complement one another and thus meet the different needs of religious practitioners. For example, in shamanism, deities exist, but they do not issue commandments. Buddhism and Confucianism are anthropocentric religions that emphasize the individual's self-cultivation instead of praying to deities. However, in devotional Buddhism, practitioners ask for help from various deistic figures in Buddhist traditions. Christianity is an anthropomorphic monotheism in which the divine being stands at the center of religious life, receiving prayers and issuing commandments.
One of the most insightful observations of the book occurs when the author characterizes the Korean “spiritual gaze”—where one looks at, for, and with spirituality—in the context of ethics, morality, and theology. The author explains that in the spiritual gaze of Korean religion, morality and ethics are separate, and so are morality and theology. That is, in the religious world of the Korean people, shared ethical assumptions (how one should behave) do not lead to a shared belief regarding good and evil. By the same token, because Koreans separate morality and theology, they are free to imagine the universe in their own way without being bound by theological assumptions related to it.
As the title Korean Spirituality promises, the book offers the reader thought-provoking discussions and insightful observations on diverse religious phenomena in Korea. Korean Spirituality has accomplished the long-awaited mission of generating a single-volume textbook on Korean religions, and it is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the religions of Korea.
