"Poverty" emerges as a recurring keyword in the life of Cardinal Kim Su-hwan (1922-2009), one of the most revered religious leaders in contemporary Korea. Through close textual analysis of eight selected messages drawn from The Collected Works of Cardinal Kim Su-hwan and key primary sources, this study demonstrates that poverty stands at the very heart of his spirituality and pastoral ministry. Cardinal Kim distinguishes between enforced poverty-rooted in structural injustice that dehumanizes both the poor and the wealthy - and the voluntary poverty of Jesus, characterized by material destitution, freedom from need and possession, and kenosis (self-emptying). His emphasis on poverty rests on three convictions: that the poverty pervading the whole life of Jesus is ultimately grounded in the poverty of God himself; that "the spirit of poverty and love is the glory and witness of the Church"; and that the poverty chosen by Jesus is the path toward human fulfillment and liberation. His lifelong pursuit of following the poor Christ renders him worthy of the designation praecipuus paupertatis amator ("a most excellent lover of poverty")-a phrase attested in the canonization proceedings of Thomas Aquinas-and his spirituality of poverty and its pastoral praxis deserve to be remembered as one of the most precious legacies of the Asian Church in the twentieth century.
This study explores the lives of Tatar Muslim migrants in Korea from 1920 to 1945, shedding light on their little-known history and the impact they left on the Korean Peninsula. Originating from the Volga-Ural region in Russia, in the 1920s Tatar Muslims migrated to Manchuria, Korea, and Japan due to Russia's anti-Islam policies and Japan's pro-Islam stance. After settling in Korea, they maintained their identity as Muslims and, by relying on Japan's imperial and colonial policies, were able to preserve their religious and ethnic identities throughout the Japanese colonial period. Through a literature review and case analysis, this research documents their migration, settlement, religious practices, education, and community organization. Primary sources consulted include twentieth-century newspapers, Tatar Muslim publications, government reports, and interviews. By reconstructing their history, this study provides insights into the cultural and social dynamics between the Korean Peninsula and the Tatar Muslim community, emphasizing that community's unique identity and contributions during a complex historical period.
This article traces the historical reclassification of Korean shamanism (musok) from the Confucian category of & ubreve;msa (illicit rites) to the modern designation of "superstition,"arguing that this shift reshaped the evaluation of ritual mediation, authority, and moral legitimacy. In the Choson period, critiques of & ubreve;msa focused less on belief in spirits than on the problem of unauthorized mediation within a hierarchical ritual order. With the emergence of modern classificatory regimes, this framework was displaced by the category of misin (superstition), through which shamanic practices were recast as epistemically unreliable and morally suspect. By connecting this historical transformation to contemporary political controversies, the article shows how successive regimes of classification continue to structure public perceptions of spiritual mediation. It argues that debates surrounding Korean shamanism reveal deeper tensions between competing models of mediation, authority, and ethical responsibility, demonstrating how categories such as "religion"and "superstition"are historically produced and mobilized in modern public life.
In this article, I first introduce a newly rediscovered text authored by the Korean Confucian scholar Ch'oe Han-ki (1803-1877), T'onggyong (sic)Viz (Penetration of the Confucian canons), which until its rediscovery had been known solely by its title. The complete text was recently discovered in the Park Seyoung family collection of books. Here I will articulate the story of how the text was rediscovered, the content of the work, the date of its composition, and its place in Ch'oe's prolific corpus. Second, I will interpret this text from the standpoint of Ch'oe Han-ki's hermeneutical philosophy, focusing on his preface to the T'onggyong. I will explain how his philosophy of processual reality and language and heart-mind makes possible his ambitious reorganization of the Confucian canon. His significant distinction between the enduring canons of the heavens and the temporary canons of the sages will be explained. As a corollary, the Confucian canon is reliable but to a limited degree. Derived from the order of the heavens, it is valid yet fallible. In this regard, Ch'oe's notion of the unknowable heavens and fallibility will be explored. Third, I argue that the discovery of the T'onggyong raises a challenging question as to whether Ch'oe Han-ki is a precursor to Korea's modern intellectuals. While traditionalists adhered to Neo-Confucian classics and modernists rejected the entire Confucian tradition, Ch'oe argues from the standpoint of cumulative experience, from the idea of the Confucian classics being in the making rather than completed, and thus capable of being reformed so as to be efficacious in novel environs. At the end, I translate classifying topics that Ch'oe had used for the reorganization Confucian canon in the appendix.
Poorly known in Korea and almost completely ignored abroad, the Pophwa yonghomjon(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(Miraculous tales of the Lotus S & umacr;tra), compiled in the fourteenth century, still represents an important work among the Buddhist literature of the late Koryoperiod. This importance is certainly not due to its content or originality: far from being innovative, the Pophwa yonghomjonis in fact an anthology of stories, focused on the miraculous character of the Lotus Sutra, taken from previous works. Despite this, the work is not without a certain interest sufficient to justify research on it, and this interest lies above all in the issues concerning its author and the choice of sources, which are mostly Chinese but also Korean. The value of the collection increases if we consider that various tales are derived from works today lost. In the following pages, this article will deal with the work and its author, and then present some critical notes regarding the Korean sources from which the author drew his stories.
