

I want to know more about Korea philosophy/religion! Do Koreans have a religion like we catholics or do they are the same has Chinese and Japanese that have the budism

Any more information will be really appreciated, thanks!

steved wrote:Korea has some unique religious blends. It has significant Confusious roots that are evident today but Buddhism as well as Christianity are fairly ubiquitous.
Keith wrote:Thanks for pointing that out Sinnae! 정 (jeong) is an extremely great concept! I love it! Even though I probably don't have a full understanding of it myself! I think 정 (jeong) will be a great culture class to do. Thanks for bringing that up sinnae!
sinnae404 wrote:I found that a number of different religious beliefs exist, underlying all of which are the Confuscian principles that seem to form the basis of 'good manners' in Korean society (respect based on age, collectivist attitudes etc).
A straw poll of my students showed roughly equal proportions of Christian, Buddhist and 'no religion' (though I think it's really more like 25%, 25% and 50%). The Christians seem to be the most 'religious' - we often got asked to church and Christian people seemed more interested in talking religion. Many buddhist people I met were Buddhist more for reasons of family heritage than anything else.
Please note, these were my observations only! I could be very wrong!
But what I really liked was the principle of 'jeong'. Our boss tried to to describe it to us on our last night in Seoul - I think an English equivilent doesn't exist but it means a bond of affection that can exist between friends, students and teachers, workmates or pretty much anyone. What a great concept!
matthew254 wrote:Great book, terrible title: The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies by Michael Breen ISBN 13 - 978-0312326098
http://www.amazon.com/Koreans-They-Wher ... 491&sr=8-1
talks about history, religion, philosophy, etc. a great read but I really must emphasize how bad of book title this is....
Keith wrote:Thanks for pointing that out Sinnae! 정 (jeong) is an extremely great concept! I love it! Even though I probably don't have a full understanding of it myself! I think 정 (jeong) will be a great culture class to do. Thanks for bringing that up sinnae!