| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, March 31, 2021 | 3:00PM - 4:30PM | Online Event, Online Event |
Transcendence has been largely mobilized in formulating a modern nation-state in Korea. In this talk the presenter looks into how religion is constructed in relation with the development of secular modernity in Korea from a perspective of circulatory history. The category of religion appeared in Korea in processes through which East Asia was incorporated into the globalized modern world. Unlike those in China and Japan, a considerable portion of Korea’s enlightenment elites and major nationalists recalled spiritual societies to the making of the Korean nation in the globalized East. Such formation of religion in modern Korea was greatly attributed to the colonial and postcolonial politics of the secular nation-building. Rather than condemned as a symbol of feudalism, irrationality and imperialism, religion was largely thought of as an alternative venue of communication for resisting colonialism, contributing to national enlightenment as well as overcoming the nation’s geopolitical limit in the Far East.
Dr. Kyuhoon Cho is a research associate in the Centre for the Study of Korea at the University of Toronto. Previously he taught at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul National University and Nanyang Technological University. His research and teaching focus on Korean religions and heritage in the context of globalization.
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