From the publisher’s website: For the first time, Kenneth Bae tells the full story surrounding his arrest and imprisonment in North Korea. Not Forgotten is a modern story of intrigue, suspense, and heart. Driven by his passion to help the people of North Korea, Bae moves to neighboring China to lead guided tours into the secretive … [Read More]
Booklist: Religion and ideas (page 5)
Routledge Handbook of Modern Korean History
From the publisher’s website: Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century when Korea became entangled in the world of modern imperialism and the old social, economic and political order began to change; this handbook brings together cutting edge scholarship on major themes in Korean History. Contributions by experts in the field cover the Late Choson and Colonial … [Read More]
Philosophy of the Nest
In Philosophy of the Nest, eminent Korean philosopher and poet Park Ynhui encapsulates decades of scholarship as he traces the world history of philosophy from his original perspective. The author, previously published in the West as Park Yee-mun, a nom de plume, follows an overarching vein in the history of philosophy and introduces readers to the meanings … [Read More]
A Korean Confucian Way of Life and Thought: The Chasŏngnok (Record of Self-Reflection) by Yi Hwang (T’oegye)
From the publisher’s website: Yi Hwang (1501–1570)—best known by his literary name, T’oegye—is one of the most eminent thinkers in the history of East Asian philosophy and religion. His Chasŏngnok (Record of self-reflection) is a superb Korean Neo-Confucian text: an eloquent collection of twenty-two scholarly letters and four essays written to his close disciples and junior colleagues. … [Read More]
Under the Ancestors’ Eyes: Kinship, Status, and Locality in Premodern Korea
From the publisher’s website: Under the Ancestors’ Eyes presents a new approach to Korean social history by focusing on the origin and development of the indigenous descent group. Martina Deuchler maintains that the surprising continuity of the descent-group model gave the ruling elite cohesion and stability and enabled it to retain power from the early Silla (fifth century) … [Read More]
A Postcolonial Self: Korean Immigrant Theology and Church
From the publisher’s website: A theologically informed look at the postcolonial self that forms as Korean immigrants confront life in the United States. Theologian Choi Hee An explores how Korean immigrants create a new, postcolonial identity in response to life in the United States. A Postcolonial Self begins with a discussion of a Korean ethnic self (“Woori” or … [Read More]
Korea’s Great Buddhist-Confucian Debate: The Treatises of Chŏng Tojŏn (Sambong) and Hamhŏ Tŭkt’ong (Kihwa)
This volume makes available in English the seminal treatises in Korea’s greatest interreligious debate of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. On Mind, Material Force, and Principle and An Array of Critiques of Buddhism by Confucian statesman Chŏng Tojŏn (1342–1398) and Exposition of Orthodoxy by Sŏn monk Kihwa (1376–1433) are presented here with extensive annotation. A substantial introduction provides a summary and … [Read More]
A Handbook of Korean Zen Practice: A Mirror on the Sŏn School of Buddhism
From the publisher’s website: Sŏn (Japanese Zen) has been the dominant form of Buddhism in Korea from medieval times to the present. A Handbook of Korean Zen Practice: A Mirror on the Sŏn School of Buddhism (Sŏn’ga kwigam) was the most popular guide for Sŏn practice and life ever published in Korea and helped restore Buddhism to … [Read More]
The Spirit Moves West: Korean Missionaries in America
From the publisher’s website: With the extraordinary growth of Christianity in the global south has come the rise of “reverse missions,” in which countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America send missionaries to re-evangelize the West. In The Spirit Moves West, Rebecca Kim focuses on South Korea as a case study of how non-Western missionaries evangelize Americans, … [Read More]
Building a Heaven on Earth: Religion, Activism, and Protest in Japanese Occupied Korea
From the publisher’s website: Why and how did Korean religious groups respond to growing rural poverty, social dislocation, and the corrosion of culture caused by forces of modernization under strict Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945)? Questions about religion’s relationship and response to capitalism, industrialization, urbanization, and secularization lie at the heart of understanding the intersection between … [Read More]
Critical Readings on Christianity in Korea (4 Vol. Set)
From the publisher’s website: Until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, there were no Christians in Korea. Today Korea is one of the most Christian countries in Asia, with over 30% of South Koreans claiming Christianity as their religious affiliation. The articles in these volumes trace the history of Christianity in Korea from its … [Read More]
Eastern Learning and the Heavenly Way: The Tonghak and Chondogyo Movements and the Twilight of Korean Independence
From the publisher’s website: Tonghak, or Eastern Learning, was the first major new religion in modern Korean history. Founded in 1860, it combined aspects of a variety of Korean religious traditions. Because of its appeal to the poor and marginalized, it became best known for its prominent role in the largest peasant rebellion in Korean … [Read More]
Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun
From the publisher’s website: The life and work of Kim Iryŏp (1896–1971) bear witness to Korea’s encounter with modernity. A prolific writer, Iryŏp reflected on identity and existential loneliness in her poems, short stories, and autobiographical essays. As a pioneering feminist intellectual, she dedicated herself to gender issues and understanding the changing role of women … [Read More]
An Encyclopedia of Korean Buddhism
Extract from the authors’ Preface: When it comes to the composition of this encyclopedia, nearly all parts relevant to Buddhism are contained: history, tradition, temples, architecture, paintings, sculptures, crafts, music, dance, tea, rituals, practice, Buddhist cultural terms, and so forth. It is not easy for about 560 items to accommodate the various kinds of Korean … [Read More]
Key Papers on Korea: Essays Celebrating 25 Years of the Centre of Korean Studies, SOAS, University of London
Key Papers on Korea is a commemorative collection of papers celebrating 25 years of the Centre of Korean Studies (CKS), SOAS, University of London that have been written by senior academics and emerging scholars. The subjects covered in this collection reflect the different research interests and different strengths of the CKS and include historical perceptions of … [Read More]
Songs of Seoul: An Ethnography of Voice and Voicing in Christian South Korea
From the publisher’s website: Songs of Seoul is an ethnographic study of voice in South Korea, where the performance of Western opera, art songs, and choral music is an overwhelmingly Evangelical Christian enterprise. Drawing on fieldwork in churches, concert halls, and schools of music, Harkness argues that the European-style classical voice has become a specifically … [Read More]