When Christianity was introduced to the East Asian Sinosphere, there were many controversies over the translation of the divine name due to the clash between the traditional idea of God and the Christian concept of God. In Korea, the Chinese Catholic translation, “Tianzhu” (天主=Lord of Heaven), was used in the Catholic Church while God was translated into “Haneunim,” “Hananim,” or “Hanănim” in the Protestant Bible translation. Although the signifiant of these three terms is different, the signifié is the same, meaning “Lord of Heaven,” to which the meaning of “One Lord” would be added after some time. Then, in 1977, when Catholics and Protestants published a Common Bible Translation, God was translated into neither “Tianzhu”, which was used by Catholics, nor “Hananim” (meaning One Lord in modern speech), which was used by Protestants, but a third alternative, namely, “Haneunim” (meaning Lord of Heaven). Anglicans, Catholics, and Orthodox Churches have been consistently using “Haneunim,” while Protestants reject this solution and continue to use “Hananim.” Regarding the problematic situation of Korean Catholics and Protestants giving different translations for many Christian terms, including the divine name, I try to show in this study that “Haneunim” can be a better term than other translations of God, hoping that the unification of the divine name as “Haneunim” will serve as an impetus toward further unification of Christian terminology in Korea. To this end, I revisit controversies on the Korean translation of the divine name and argue for the option of “Haneunim” from several different perspectives: ecumenical, trinitarian, religio-historical, translative (in particular, from the audience's point of view), and cultural-historical.

In this paper, I argue that the mainstream discussion of religion and politics and the dominant discourse of civil religion are both based on the narrow definition of politics, which premises power-dynamic and power-relation. However, growing worldwide interfaith engagement can contribute to reshaping our conversation particularly of civil religion. In the new political environment religion does not necessarily play the categorical role of the traditional power-dynamic. A variety of interfaith experiences have been creating and fostering a new consciousness, which is spiritual, moral, and political. It has been translated into social norms, law, policies, and invisible cultural pressure or force in various political communities. I argue that the new model, which I call interfaith civil religion, would not put religion in a position where its inherent qualities are given up as shown in the classic models and where the significant contributions that religious communities are currently making are overlooked. And this concept of interfaith civil religion would be my response to Robert Bellah's diffident anticipation of a new level of civil religion coming out of a society larger than the state, which he expressed by saying “flickering flame of the United Nations.” There is no absolute trans-national sovereignty at present. However, my discussion will demonstrate a possible groundwork to conceptualize a trans-national symbolic system, which Bellah imagined as “the civil religion of the world.”

The cognitive science of religion (CSR) has over 30 years of history. However, the language of CSR is still unfamiliar to contemporary scholars studying religion in Korea. This unfamiliarity must be resolved so that important advances in CSR can be carefully reviewed in the Korean academic community. This study analyzes how CSR deals with the concept of religion and its implications. First, CSR raises new research questions based on the achievements of classical religious studies. Second, it explores the evolutionary origins, cognitive mechanisms, and cultural success factors, not of religion per se, but of thoughts and behaviors considered religious, which do not contradict the lessons provided by debates on the concept of religion in classical religious studies. Third, even in naturalistic approaches to religion, where CSR belongs, there are controversies regarding the concept of religion between the cognitive byproduct model and adaptationist model. Fourth, the standard CSR model shows that several research questions in the study of religion can be empirically explored when the privileged value attributed to the concept of religion is reserved. Although CSR inherits the debates over the concept of religion from classical religious studies, it differs in its exploration of the evolutionary and cognitive factors that explain why religion is difficult to define as an autonomous system.

Giambattista Vico is regarded as an anti-Enlightenment thinker who sought to show the central role of religion and myth in the construction of human society and civilization. He challenged René Descartes, his central intellectual target, who constructed a model of science based on mathematical knowledge. According to the Cartesian model of science, myth is considered to be a mere fiction of primitive humankind who are less intelligent and more ignorant than modern man. Against Descartes's model of science, he endeavored to establish the new model of science based on human memory, imagination (fantasia), which is, for him, the basis of myth and religion. He asserts that even mathematical knowledge is not objective truth, but a product of human-making (poesis). Therefore, the distinction between myth and reason is, for him, not valid, since myth embraces rational thinking. He holds that myth is an expression and interpretation of human experience of the sacred, which is the basis of religion. This means that myth is not a fictional story as Enlightenment thinkers like David Hume believed, but a way of understanding (Weltanschauung) the world of primitive men. The significance of Vico's theory of religion and myth consists in his consideration of religion in its own terms, not from an outside point of view. His perspective prefigures the modern theory of religion such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, and sociology of religion.

The ecumenical movement is a movement pursuing the unity of Christian churches. However, Korean churches have experienced the division of churches because of the ecumenical movement. A movement for the union and unity of churches has become a crucial factor in the conflict and division of Korean churches: The ecumenical movement has become a trauma for Korean churches. The existing studies on the Korean ecumenical movement have taken a historical or institutional approach that focuses on its history and ecumenical institutions, respectively. This article is interested in revealing the whole features of the Korean ecumenical movement. It deals with the Korean ecumenical movement within a historical trajectory, including the theoretical, social, and liturgical aspects. Through this categorical, integrated, and comprehensive approach, the topographic map of the Korean ecumenical movement can be drawn multi-dimensionally and holistically. To achieve this goal, this article consists of three main sections in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. The second section outlines a brief survey of its historical trajectory of the ecumenical movement in Korea. The section three deals with three areas, such as theology, institution and liturgy. Theological aspects including creed and confession, ecumenical institutions and organizations, and liturgical and practical activities including worship and prayer meetings. The forth section deals with the status, features, and prospects of the Korean ecumenical movement. The status of the ecumenical movement is described by three dimensions: the religious topography of Korean religions and Korean Christianity, the leading generation of the ecumenical movement, and the core theme of the ecumenical movement. With a description of six characteristics, the prospect of the Korean ecumenical movement is presented from the perspective of the direction of the ecumenical movement, the new generation of the ecumenical movement, and the ecumenical education.

This essay investigates the concealed cultural politics of the Gospel of John as embedded in the New Korean Translation (NKT, 2021) with a focus on disability and gender. The underlying assumption is that Bible translation is a site of cultural politics in which social values are ceaselessly formed, maintained and recreated. To do so, I scrutinize the cultural politics of disability by analyzing the expressions related to people with disabilities (Jn 5:3; 9:39). Second, I reconsider the cultural politics of gender in such a way as to inspect the specific usages of the Greek word γύναι (Jn 2:4; 4:21; 8:10; 19:26; 20:13, 15). Third, I explore the potential, doubled effect of NKT of both liberating and oppressing social minorities in Korean church and society. Finally, I propose a model of Bible translation with social minorities in the place of a model of Bible translation for social minorities. It is, therefore, my contention that Bible translation calls for a closer inspection of ideological values, especially on the part of minority groups.

This paper will analyze and evaluate John Milbank's radical orthodox interpretations and proposals regarding the corona pandemic that appeared in “Between Catastrophes.” Milbank interpreted the closure of chapels in response to the Corona situation in the context of the secularization of modern society by capital and power. Although this interpretation reveals the sociological and ontological aspects of the issue, it is not radical enough considering the biblical critique of secularization raised by Brueggemann. Moreover, Reformed theologians contend that he tends to overly sanctify faith and church by overlooking the fall and sin. Milbank argues that eco-theology cannot solve the ecological problem because it uses the concept of nature formed within the modern dichotomous structure. It can be solved only through the radical orthodox vision that finite beings participate in the eternal production, gift, and reciprocal exchange of Trinity. However, considering Kathryn Tanner's unilateral conception of the gift, his analysis focused too much on transcendental ontology, overlooking the seriousness of the ecological problem presented by the corona pandemic as a zoonosis and the gigantic impact of the pandemic as a catalyst for the increasing impact of the digital age on human culture and religion.

At the high point of New Kingdom, the personal piety of ancient Egyptians can be defined as a spontaneous selection of a certain deity and direct devotion to him/her with no intervention of the state religion and temple cults performed by professional priests. The personal piety is formulated through the following idioms: (a) *rdj DN m jb "placing god into one's heart" and/or (b) *jrj Hr mw DN "acting on god's water," revealing the relationship between the deity and the individual as bAk-nb "servant-master" and/or zA-jt(j) "son-father." The religious feelings and faith of individuals are found, in most cases, in votive stelae built by the workers of Deir el-Medinah during the late Eighteenth Dynasty and the Nineteenth Dynasty. The present article aims to take a close look at the particular ancient Egyptian religious sentiments revolving around penitence and hope for atonement by delving into the penitentiary texts and related images carved on those votive stelae. In those texts, the individuals beg the deities of their choice to be merciful and restore their sight; they promise to declare the deity's power to others as a pardonee. In this regard, the loss of sight can refer either to actual ophthalmological conditions or to pure religious experiences. The present article suggests that "seeing darkness," as an extremely intensive religious experience, can be as real as clinical blindness to those who had to go through the loss of sight in ancient Egypt.