Pilgrims and Progress The Production of Religious Experience in a Korean Religion

TY - JOUR

T1 - Pilgrims and Progress The Production of Religious Experience in a Korean Religion

AU - Bell, Kirsten

PY - 2008/8

Y1 - 2008/8

N2 - Since its inception, Chondogyo has self-consciously maintained an identity as a “new” and “modern” Korean religion. These claims have seen ongoing efforts to rationalize religious practice and theology and purge the movement of “anti-modern,” “superstitious” elements. This article explores the differing receptions of pilgrimage and ecstatic trance within the organization: the two major forms of embodied religious experience in Chondogyo. While the former has been actively promoted as a “legitimate” (and modern) form of religious experience, the latter is treated with ambivalence and is often connected with backward superstition. Through a comparison of these practices, I explore the ways in which they intersect with, bolster and challenge conceptions of Korean modernity.

AB - Since its inception, Chondogyo has self-consciously maintained an identity as a “new” and “modern” Korean religion. These claims have seen ongoing efforts to rationalize religious practice and theology and purge the movement of “anti-modern,” “superstitious” elements. This article explores the differing receptions of pilgrimage and ecstatic trance within the organization: the two major forms of embodied religious experience in Chondogyo. While the former has been actively promoted as a “legitimate” (and modern) form of religious experience, the latter is treated with ambivalence and is often connected with backward superstition. Through a comparison of these practices, I explore the ways in which they intersect with, bolster and challenge conceptions of Korean modernity.

U2 - 10.1525/nr.2008.12.1.83

DO - 10.1525/nr.2008.12.1.83

M3 - Article

SN - 1092-6690

VL - 12

SP - 83

EP - 102

JO - Nova Religio

JF - Nova Religio

IS - 1

ER -