The Role of Catholic Religious Education in Korean s Identity Reformation

ABSTRACT

Religion is one of the most important factors determining the identity of a society as the ultimate value and belief system. The identity of Korean had been formed by the religios such as Shamanism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. We investigated interaction between the Catholic doctrines and the Confucianistic tradition which caused extreme conflict in the late ChoSun dynasty when the Catholic and Western culture were first introduced.The historical introductory process of the Catholic is briefly reviewed, and the identity conflicts were considered in theology, ethics, human relations in society. In the conflict-period dichotomic thoughts prevailed to choose only one of two conflicting belief-systems. However, in the late 20th century more mutually admissive mind has arised, and mutual understanding and benefit between the traditional culture and the Catholic teachings has been slowly appreciated to develop matured religious education and inculturation of Catholicism.Now in the 21st century Koreans have experienced identity crisis which is caused by the fast development of material civilization and industrialigation one hand, and the whirlwind of various cultures and religions on the other hand. Based upon the long experience of religious education in the Catholic one should contribute with renewed identity formation and maturation for Korean society.