New Religious Movements in South Korea Focused on Contemporary Situation

Abstract

New Religious movements or new religions, which are conceived as being distinct from traditional mainstream religions, has a long history in Korea starting with Tonghak (1860), the first Korean new religion. It is attempted at this paper to give a general description on the development of Korean new religious movements showing their characteristics in each period. Especially, a great attention is paid to a new or “New Age” type of religious groups which has been expanding since the middle of 1980s in South Korea. These groups differentiate themselves from the existing new religions by their non- or less hierarchical, loose organizational structure, and their paying clients, among others. The increasing popularity of those programs which these groups offer reflects the changing religious needs in modern South Korean society, namely, the pursuit of more individualized or subjective form of religiosity/salvation, which is believed to be more effective in maximizing the (spiritual/mental) potentiality of individuals. In order to demonstrate this changed religious consciousness of individuals, some results of questionnaire surveys were presented which were conducted by this author.