종교문화콘텐츠에 대한 또 다른 ‘종교학적’ 접근 -진각종의 문화사업을 사례로-

Abstract

The term ‘cultural contents’ (in the plural) is coined in South Korea and it is said that Korea Culture & Contents Agency used the term first in 2001. The word refers to cultural products with the concept of creating culture as ‘(media/digital) contents’. With the significant support of Korean government the related research projects have increased, in large part based on the common interests between economic policy of the state, and humanities which attempted to expand their research area in the face of ‘crisis of humanities’. Maybe it is time to reconsider what active participation of humanities scholars in those government projects brought about for the sake of humanities in general, and more specifically, religious studies. One major problem seems to be the common premise that religious cultural contents are public goods. As a result, the related researches were dominated by ‘outsiders’, i.e. religious studies scholars, while the latter suggested proposals in terms of the development and the usage of the contents. Even though Korean religions are more active these days in creating their own cultural contents, there is no academic debate on the issue yet, namely which internal and external factors moved Korean religions to pursue their own cultural contents. This paper starts with critical review of preceding research on the subject of religious cultural contents, focused on those concepts, ‘(religious) cultural contents’ and ‘(religious) cultural archtype’ which play key roles in the research. Next, taking Jingak-jong (f. 1947), a new Buddhist order, as an example, various cultural projects of the order (including creating ‘Jingak cultural contents’) are delineated. Furthermore, internal and external factors are explored which have driven the order to start a new cultural work/policy. Lastly, a collusive ties between Korean government and religious organizations is pointed out, while the former provides the latter enormous financial support in the matter of producing cultural (tourist) contents. It will show how deeply the state is involved in the field of culture/religion under the economic logics.