Socioreligious Meaning of Healing Culture in Korea

     인경 (김형록)   

1Prof at Dongbang Culture University

Abstract

While there is an affirmative evaluation in regard to healing boom (healing craze) that it has worked appropriately in our stressful, hard and tough social lives, consequently comforting many people, there is also criticism that healing is just one of many social trends, devoid of any truly curing functionality. Faced with this criticism, the religious community generally tends to embrace healing culture positively within the religious system. On the contrary to this, some scholars say there is a tendency whereby healing rather embraces religion. This trend, anyway, sees increasingly more people - especially the young generation - looking for new forms of healing such as meditation, yoga, breathing training as well as spirituality or religion. This phenomenon is worthy of our attention. Eventually this trend means casting an implicit doubt on the existing roles of religion, requiring sort of self-reflection and so the study believes the existing religious community needs to brace for new spiritual campaigns positively.

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