Korean Protestants Dealing with Ancestor Worship - Term Paper Example

Korean Protestants Dealing With Ancestor Worship Introduction The Korean Protestants have had a strict policy when relating to the practice of ancestor warship since the introduction of protestant Christianity in Korea. Given a number of church doctrines such as those on worship of idols and carving of images for worship Protestants in Korea have always rejected the possibility that their followers can incorporate practices in ancestor worship into the worship of God. This has put the protestant church at loggerhead with some parts of the Korean population since the introduction of Christianity and specifically by those of protestant denomination. The challenge faced by protestant Christians when dealing with ancestor worship can be attributed to the fact that there existed other religious beliefs that had helped propagate the practice in the Korean society over the years, especially traditional religions. Consequently, this essay provides a critical analysis of the challenges that Protestants have faced in their dealing with ancestor worship especially since they have always sought to protect the Christian doctrine from adopting any form of practice that would imply absorption of aspects of ancestor worship. Background to the Korean Protestant Christianity The diverse nature of religion in both South and North Korea is exemplified by the study conducted by Johnson and Hickman, which indicate there are five and four types of religion with each claiming about 10 percent Korean population being their members (14). This paints a clear picture of the interaction between different religions among members of the Korean population. These figures represent the growth of region in Korea with Christianity also achieving huge success in the society. The growth in Christianity is significant especially when considering that Protestants make up the second largest group of worshippers being second to Buddhism, which was, introduced to the Koreans years earlier that Christianity. Protestant churches entered Korea in the 1800s and has since attracted millions of members with approximately 60 000 Protestant churches operating in the in the region in addition to having about 100 000 ministers and 12 000 overseas missions (Kim, Jung Han 132). Contribution of traditional religion to ancestor worship Even with this development and continued growth of Christianity, ancestor worship has continued to be exercised within Korean society. Although the protestant doctrine does not support ancestor worship, and there are other factors outside Protestant Christianity that has contributed to the maintenance of this practice in the Korean society. To make an assessment of what has sustained the practice of ancestor worship, it is essential to make an analysis of how other religious beliefs has dealt with worship of ancestors. This perspective is informed by the fact that the Korean society has embraced multiple religious practices with both traditional and contemporary religions being accommodated in large numbers. There is no religion that is recognized as official by law nor are there dominant religions making it possible for Christianity to coexist with others such as Shamanism, Buddhism and Confucianism (Kim, Andrew 112). Therefore, having accommodated a range of religious practices for a long period of time, it can be assumed that there are a number religious practices that offered space for members to continue with ancestor worship or ancestor worship is part of the practices of such religious groups. The growth of Christianity over the years mirror the general growth of religion in Korea with traditional religious practices also taking a large part of Korean worship with Buddhism being the largest traditional religion going by the numbers of those practicing. Koreans have practiced Buddhism for centuries since introduction during a period when Koreas was still divided into three kingdoms (Chae 56). However, the influence of Buddhist religious traditions have been limited by a number of factors such as the difficulty in restoring classical concepts of the religion practiced during the time it was limited being practiced in the remote mountain temples during the Chosen Dynasty which was solely based on Confucianism. Further, the presence of factions led by the group following married monks in one hand and those who believe in celibacy of monks in the other hand has continued to inspire rivalry ever since the period of colonization by Japan. Even with these challenges, Buddhism has still continued to grow even in urban canters and it is now common to encounter Buddhist broadcasting systems in addition to Buddhist missionary centres. There are many practices in Buddhism that have similarities with those of Shamanism due to having a shared origin and therefore it is common to find Koreans practicing both religions as the time. Ancestor worship is one f the shared qualities between Buddhism and shamanism with Buddhism documents like Daejang Sacred presenting explicit syncretisation with Shamanist elements. However, Bae (347) insists that ancestor worship has been influenced to a higher extend by practices in Shamanism and Confucianism that by Buddhism. This however does not negate the influence of Buddhism on ancestor worship given that the Buddhist conception of Nirvana as well as human life being cyclical is part of the beliefs in ancestor worship. The interaction of religious beliefs such as shamanism and Buddhism with ancestor worship has led to the belief among Korean Buddhist that the living can offer sacrifices and perform several rituals to help their ancestors reach nirvana, which is a state of ultimate salvation in Buddhism (Chae 57). Syncretisation of the Buddhist concept of cyclical life is also common in ancestor worship. The Buddhist believe that the cyclical nature of life can be presented through the continuous progression of morning, noon, evening and night, the progress of seasons from spring, summer, fall and winter and back to spring again which is then related to the human, transition from birth to puberty and adulthood to old age and death. The human life is therefore seen as being in a cyclical progression just like the seasons which fits into ancestor worship belief that dead spirit can be saved if he/she is on course in the nine celestial bodies. Ancestor worship allows for the presentation of various rituals and festivals to ensure the spirit is prevented from going astray and therefore will be reborn into the present world. The presence of Confucianism in the Korean society has greatly influenced the religious practices of the people especially since the transitioning from being a philosophy to being a religion (Bae 347). The influence of Confucianism has been profound on the overall lifestyle of the people with ancestor worship being among the important areas that the people incorporate in their daily activities. Among the concepts of Confucianism that has helped maintain the practice of ancestor worship over the years is filial piety especially the notions relating to the solidarity of the family structure. The practice of Confucianism that venerates family and filial piety continues to influence the conduct and standards of decorum in many contemporary families. In the past, those who did not subscribe to principles of filial piety were ostracised and were never accepted back as rightful members of their community. The enshrinement of ancestor worship in Korean society based on Confucianism can also be explored based on factors such as incorporation of filial piety into the education system from 14th to 20th century by the Yi dynasty. Such practice in the history of the society ensured ancestor worship continues to be a sacred symbol in which members of the society find meaning and purpose for their lives in addition to being strongly entwined with the Korean sense of identity. Therefore, members of the Korean society find observance of these rituals as an important pillar in their efforts to strengthen family bonds and solidify the foundation of Korean society (Connor 197). Another religious practice that has had great impact in perpetuating the practice of ancestor warship in Korea is Shamanism. The religious practice has had a consequence in the attitudes, cultural practices and behaviours of Koreans toward various aspects of their lives (Kim, Andrew 118). The influence of Shamanism in Korean society is motivated by the fact that it was among the earliest form of religious practice in Korean even before establishment of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Christianity. Therefore, other religions had to introduce a number of Shamanism into their practice in order to attract more followers. Shamanism is based on the belief that occurrences that cannot be explained by simple human observation such as disease, a loss of life, immature death, and calamities by unknown reasons can be solved through spiritual intervention as they are caused by conflicts between the physical and social disorders or cosmic disharmony. To resolve these conflicts, an intervention by a shaman is sorted in order to connect the world of the living to the spiritual world of the dead. According to Chae these belief in the power of Shamans is proof of the significance of ancestor warship in Korea especially since it represents the belief in a multiplicity of spirits and immortality of the soul after death (52). In propagating ancestral worship, a Sharman is sought to make contact with the supernatural world in order to perform services such as that of a divine healer, prophet as well as manipulator of future events. Apart from having the power to determine an appropriate spouse, successful business or suitable place to locate a grave Chae (52), the intervention of a Sharman is sort when attempting to exorcise spirits. The role of a Sharman in this case involves offering sacrifices to spirits in order to get blessings and to bring back the souls of the dead. Koreans who subscribe to this form of religion believe they can offer sacrifices to their ancestors to ensure they are favoured by their ancestors and therefore be protected from illnesses, bad luck and death. Therefore, Shamanism religion has furthered the practice of ancestor worship through beliefs such as the ability to seek intervention of the dead in matters affecting the affairs of the living. Animism is another traditional religion of Korean ancient periods that has influenced the practice of ancestor worship up to the contemporary society. According to Chae, animism is a primitive religion whose doctrine has nature and spirits as the main objects to be worshipped (46). The Animism religious beliefs claim spirits occupy many things in the natural environment including the body of animals and corpses of human beings. Therefore, this religion contributes to the worship of ancestors by stressing that the dead continue to exist as spirits and are still considered as members of the family whose role is to take care of the living by providing them with protection and blessings. However families that do not offer sacrifices to their ancestors especially during memorial days are cursed therefore members are forced to practice ancestor worship in an attempt to maintain a harmonious relationship. Therefore, traditional religions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Shamanism and animism have greatly contributed to the propagation of ancestor worship in Korea. Members of the society are afraid of the repercussions if they fail to appease their ancestors and are forced to offer various forms of sacrifices to in order to have protection from any form of harm. Reaction of Protestant Christianity to Ancestor Worship Since ancestor worship had been enshrined in the customs and beliefs of Korean society before entrance of Christianity into the country, the protestant church had to find the best way possible to interact with the issue. There was always the risk that some members of the church will be found at a crossroad regarding whether they should drop the practice of ancestor worship, fuse it with Christianity or have to choose between Christianity and religious practices that accommodated the practice. This major decision becomes even more important when considering the tough stand taken by Protestant Church in Korea against practices related to ancestor worship. Protestants church in Korea does not allow ancestor worship by members of their church terming the practices unbiblical, pagan tradition with strong religious elements and should therefore be taken as sinful acts. Due to this stand, Korean Protestants have encountered huge challenges when dealing with ancestor worship especially practiced by members of their church. It can be argued that the outright rejection of ancestor worship by Protestants might be cause of a lack of understanding of the significant of the practice to the overall custom and beliefs of the people of Korea. Protestant Christianity was introduced in Korea by Korean merchants who got exposure to the religion while travelling to Manchuria with the So brothers, Sang Yun and San U (also known as Kyong Jo) playing an important role in bringing back the religion and teaching it to their neighbours. Sang Yun is especially credited with bringing the translated version of the bible back to Korea after he had been baptised by and worked under John Ross. When the So brothers and later on the protestant missionaries entered Korea to spread Christianity, the issue of ancestor worship was at the forefront of issues they had to deal with in order to instil their Christian values to the people (Van Gelder 168). However, given the perspective by protestant missionaries that the ancestor worship was a pagan practice, they abhorred their members from associating with it. Ancestor worship was declared contrary to the teachings in New Testament while offering sacrifices to the ancestors unscriptural and unacceptable in Christianity following the wide criticism from protestant missionaries (Park 120). These formed the basis of protestant Christian’s perception of ancestor worship in the years to come with those joining protestant churches having to public declare they would henceforth not be associated with the practice. One of the requirements for baptism became taking oath to denounce the practice of ancestor worship. Although the rejection of ancestor worship can be seen as being intolerant to the traditional practice of the Korean society or that Protestants should have taken the same route as their catholic counterparts who accepted certain aspects of the practice, there are a number of arguments that supports the Protestants’ stand on the issue especially based on the bible. The Protestants presented a number of reasons for their opposition of ancestor worship with the first reason being the assertion by the missionaries that offering sacrifices to appease the spirit of the dead ancestor contravened specific provisions in the Christianity doctrine especially in the Ten Commandments. This argument by the protestant missionaries is well grounded in the Ten Commandments especially in the first commandment which is about worshiping other gods and the second commandment which prohibits carving objects and resenting them for worship. Consequently, offering sacrifices or participating in any form of ancestor worship was perceived by the Protestants as being similar to polytheism and idolatry and therefore there was no way the church was going to entertain such practices. Based on the teachings of the bible rejection of ancestor worship was well placed since the two commandments cited by the church explicitly opposes having other symbols replace or compete with the worship of God. The second reason that informed denunciation of ancestor by protestant missionaries had to do with the manner in which the Korean ancestor worship venerated immortality of the soul. Although Christianity believes in the immortality of the soul and that there will come a time when those who died will rise again, practicing ancestor worship has a major departure from the doctrines of Christianity when other practices and beliefs are attached to the issue of resurrection. Such practices prevalent in ancestor worship which represents a big departure from beliefs held in Christianity include the belief that the soul can reside in a tablet in a shrine, consume the sacrificial animal in addition to the belief that the ancestor was able to bless or curse the living descendants. The ancestor worship also believed that a soul was able to exist for four generations before slowly fading away which is in contradiction to Christian teaching. Apart from the Christian teaching asserting that the there are only two places, hell or heaven, for the soul to exists, the soul is also invisible, spiritual and cannot disappear for ten thousand years (Pak 47). The rivalry between Protestants and Roman Catholics may have played a part in the rejection of some aspects of ancestor worship. This especially true when one considers the Roman Catholic’s belief that there is a link that relates to the existence of the living and the dead, which is especially elaborate in the veneration of the saints by the Roman Catholics. Therefore, accepting any form of ancestor worship would have also translated into the acceptance of such Roman Catholic practices as purgatory and endorsing the concept of saints (Park 55). Further, Protestants wanted to avoid encouraging of practices that could lead to the propagation of traditional beliefs and practices such shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism and animism. Allowing members of their congregation to take part in activities that were aimed at protecting the clan structure of traditional communities would have encouraged the practice of ancestor worship. Therefore, the missionaries feared the traditional practices would negatively affect their efforts to instil in the people religious values that would create a society of believers in Christ. Therefore, they linked the practices in Confucian ancestor worship to Roman Catholic mass which the protestant missionaries found to be unscriptural, in disagreement with the church’s transubstantiation theory in addition to being superstitious folly. Therefore, it seems that Protestants were keen to reject any traditional practice by the Korean population, which had a link to the Roman Catholic mass as part of their universal denunciation of some Roman Catholic practices (Lee 23). Ancestor worship was also linked to a number of social injustices in the Korean society with the missionaries arguing that it was propagating social ills against a section of the society. A number of examples such as early marriage for girls as a practice that was aimed at making sure there is a male heir who would further the lineage therefore providing the continuity initiated by ancestors. Other social ills that Protestants saw as being propagated by ancestor worship included the acquisition of concubines, demeaning women in addition to facilitating widespread poverty in society since activities that took place during ancestor worship were costly. Due to this tough stand taken by protestant Christians against ancestor worship, there were a number of policies that were put in place to discontinue worship of ancestors. Among such measures included the prescription of books that where highly critical of ancestor worship in the Christian theological classes. One of the texts was the work written by Nevius rejecting the practice of ancestor worship. Although Nevius accepted some aspects of filial piety, such as that shown to ones parents, such respect cannot be expressed as a form of worshipping other beings except when it is directed towards God. However, these practices can only be within the doctrine of Christianity when the children do not continue to exercise them even after the death of the parent. Consequently, a distinction was necessary to ensure that there are no areas of contradictions between the teachings of Christianity and acceptance of traditional values (Pak 170). These provisions offered a small opening for the exercise of filial piety especially when not done in a religious contest. It presents an acceptance that there are some aspects of the traditional religious practices that can be adapted to without compromising Christian values as taught by protestant Christianity. To avoid aspects of ancestor warship such as offering of sacrifices was still an important issue that could not be compromised which also translating to the forbiddance of consumption of food that had been offered to the ancestors. Further, protestant missionaries considered bowing from the waist as a display of worship which was to be accorded to God only. The traditional practice of bowing to a picture or tablet of the ancestor was therefore categorized as acts of idol worshipping and therefore not permitted by the church (Park 120). This rejection meant protestant Christians could not participate in memorial celebrations based on the doctrines of ancestor worship with annual memorial services to commemorate the day of death of members of society consistent with church doctrine being preferred. Conclusion The practicing of ancestor worship by members of the Korean society offered protestant Christians a difficult task in their efforts to introduce a new religion to the people. Given the fact that ancestor worship was well enshrined in the traditions and customs of the Korean society, it has become difficult for the protestant church to effectively deal with the practice, which has provided room for it to continue taking place even in the contemporary society. Having other forms of religions that allow ancestor worship in Korea such as animism, Confucianism and Buddhism is one of the main factors that have allowed the practice to be propagated from one generation to another. The main perspective of the protestant church is that ancestor worship is a form of idolatry since it advocates the worshipping of spirits which is against the Ten Commandments that forbids worshipping any other gods except the one God. However, there is a need to analyse the practice of ancestor worship by protestants with a view of coming up with a compromising position which allows for certain aspects of non-religious practices to be conducted by members of the protestant church without betraying their Christian beliefs. This can be done when the church accepts aspects such as filial piety that honours parents when they are still alive in addition to offering memorial rites to the deceased as a sign of respect. Consequently, Protestants have not been able to effectively handle the issue of ancestor worship due to their orthodox policy of rejecting most of the practices by the Korean society to honour ancestors. Works Cited Bae, Choon Sup. "Ancestor worship in Korea and Africa: Social function or religious phenomenon?." Verbum et Ecclesia 25.2 (2004): p-338. Print. Chae, Soo Eun. A Missiological Reflection on Paganism in Korea and its Influence on Korean Christianity. Chongshin Theological Journal 10: (2002) 45-77. Connor, Mary E., ed. The Koreas. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2009. Print. Johnson, Todd and Hickman, Albert. Interpreting Religion: Religious Demography and Mission Strategy. Religious Demography and Mission Strategy, 29. 1 (13-12). 2012. Print. Kim, Jung Han. "Christianity and Korean Culture: The Reasons for the Success of Christianity in Korea." Exchange 33.2 (2004): 132-152. Print. Kim, Andrew. Korean religious culture and its affinity to Christianity: the rise of Protestant Christianity. South Korea Sociology of Religion 61.2 (2000): 117-133. Print. Park, Chung-shin, and Chŏng-sin Pak. Protestantism and politics in Korea. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011. Print. Pak, Ung Kyu. Millennialism in the Korean Protestant church. Vol. 50. Peter Lang, 2005. Lee, Young-Hoon. The Holy Spirit movement in Korea: its historical and doctrinal development. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, 2009. Print. Van Gelder, Craig, ed. The missional church in context: Helping congregations develop contextual ministry. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007. Print. Read More