한국 신종교의 생사관과 상장례-계승과 혁신을 중심으로-

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is, by comparing the views of life-death and the death rituals of Korean new religions with those of Korean traditional religions, to elucidate the ideal and ritual characteristics in new religions’ views of life-death. For the purpose, this thesis examines four traditional religions and five new religions. The former includes Musok (Korean shamanism), Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity. Taoism is not included, for it has been fused into other religions. The latter includes Cheondogyo, Daejonggyo, Jeungsangyo, Won-Buddhism and Unification Church. New religions have different views of humans. For example, that of Cheondogyo is Confucian, Jeungsangyo is shamanistic, Won-Buddhism is Buddhist, and Unification Church is Christian. But new religions’ views of life-death show several commonalities. On the one hand, they succeed to traditional religions’ views of life-death: Like traditional religions, new religions’ views of life-death are very progressive; Compared to traditional religions, new religions say more close connection and cooperation between living persons and dead persons’ spirits; Except Cheondogyo, almost new religions emphasize solace rites for the dead spirits, which can be also seen in traditional religions. On the other hand, they show diverse renovations: Though they acknowledge the existence of dead persons’ spirits, they put more emphasis on “bodily eternal life”; They call humans the lord of all creation, and lay stress on humans’ self- recognition and responsibility; Preserving the meaning of death rituals, they develope more simple and rational rituals. Korean new religions’ views of life-death and funeral rites can be characterized as follows: First, though being modernized, they have not brought about any change in most Koreans’ view of life-death. Instead, they have accepted the views of traditional religions such as Musok, Confucianism and Buddhism. Secondly, although Korean new religions presented creative thoughts such as innaecheon (humanity as divinity), haewonsangsaeng (solving resentment and living together), shininhabbal (humans fight on earth, then gods also fight in heaven), samjinguil (convergence of three truth into one), they did not show little development in death ritual. Third, Korean new religions require believers to more actively cope with death, and to prepare enough for death during their life-time.