Reimagining Korea

Yohan Yoo is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Seoul National University, South Korea. His research adopts a comparative approach to diverse religious topics, encompassing areas such as indigenous shamanic beliefs and practices in Jeju, Korea, theory and methodology in religious studies, iconic and performative aspects of sacred texts, and intersections between myth and cotemporary literature. He is the author of Korean Religious Texts in Iconic and Performative Rituals (Equinox, 2024) and three books in Korean: Myths of Our Era (2012), Understanding Religious Studies (2020), and Understanding Religious Symbolism (2021). He also co-authored Cosmologies of Pure Realms and the Rhetoric of Pollution (Routledge, 2021) and co-edited Books as Bodies and as Sacred Beings (Equinox, 2021) with James W. Watts.Song Chong Lee is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Seoul National University, South Korea. He is the author of Ham Sok Hon’s Ssial Cosmopolitan Vision (New York: Lexington Books, 2020). His most recent publications include “Bringing Back the Old Religiosity: Interfaith Cosmopolitan Civil Religion,” Journal of Church and State (Oxford University Press, 2024), “The Violence of New Religious Movements and the Entrepreneurial Model: With a Focus on the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Korea,” The Journal of Religion 3, no. 3 (The University of Chicago Press, 2023), and “Homo-Historicus of Wilhelm Dilthey and Ham Sok Hon,” Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History 50, no. 2 (Indiana University-Purdue University Press, 2023). Lee’s research covers themes in the sociology of religion, such as civil religion, cosmopolitanism, and NRMs (New Religious Movements), through humanistic interpretation and writings.

• Chapter I: Introduction.- Part I: Excluding or Embracing Others Based on Identity and Value.- Chapter II: How K-Pop’s Pursuit of the US Billboard Hot 100 Charts Shifts Its Value and Identity.- Chapter III: Rejection of Coexistence Through Impurity: Opposition to Mosque Construction in Contemporary Korean Multicultural Society.-Chapter IV: Anti-LGBTQIA+ discourse and Hate Speech in Korean Protestant Organizations: Focusing on Sexuality education Discourse in Schools.- Chapter V: V A Rational Evaluation of Idan and Saibi: A Market Approach to Religious “Troublemakers” in Korea.- Chapter VI: Multicultural Encounters and Living with Difference: Focusing on Religious Community Building in a Migrant Weekend Enclave in Gimhae, South Korea.- Part II: New Flows of Value and Identity in Contemporary Korea.- Chapter VII: The Cosmopolitan Vernacular: Korean Shamans (Mudang) in the Global Spirituality Market.- Chapter VIII: Religious Disaffiliation and the Religious Identity of Koreans: Focusing on “Religious Nones” and “Meditation”.- Chapter IX: Samboilbae and Ochetuji in the 10.29 Itaewon Disaster Movement: Affirmations of the Value of Life and the Establishment of New Identity.- Chapter X: New Mourning Spaces: Historical Reflections on Recent Youth Deaths in South Korea.