Korea - A Religious History [Paperback]

James H. Grayson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 070071605X | ISBN-13: 978-0700716050 | Publication Date: October 25, 2002 | Edition: Revised

This is an historical survey of all the religious traditions of Korea in relation to the socio-cultural trends of seven different periods of Korean history. The book includes a discussion of the history of the study of religion in Korea, a chronological description of Korean folk religion including shamanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, Islam, and Korean New Religions, and some final observations about the unique characteristics of religious beliefs and practices in Korea.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr James H. Grayson is Reader in Modern Korean Studies in the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield, and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. His research interests are in traditional Korean religion, Korean Christianity and Korean oral folklore.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; Revised edition (October 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 070071605X
• ISBN-13: 978-0700716050
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,340,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by non Korean speaking, lay person, July 27, 2007

By 

Madeleine Dunn (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Korea - A Religious History (Paperback)

I am reading several books about Korea. My interest stems from my love of watching Korean historic and romantic tv mini series (available with English sub- titles). Mr. Grayson's style of writing is surprisingly fluid and readable for such a scholary and intellectual work. I did wonder whether English is his first language because his vocabulary can get a bit strained (at one point he uses the word "transitoriness"). Although the author usually translates into English the name of a Korean treatise when it is first introduced, he then refers to it throughout his book by its Korean name. Scholars, manifestos and schools of thought are so numerous and brought up in such quick succession that it became much too much for me to absorb, so like a student, I had to create my own key list of the name of each scholar, the date he lived, the Buddhist, Confucian or Christian school he ascribed to and the title of his writings in both English and Korean. (If another edition of this book comes out such an appendix would be very helpful. In fact, this book seems to beg for charts). The author also had a bad habit of referencing a certain scholar prior to that scholar's formal introduction which may not then appear until the next paragraph or sub-chapter. Despite the difficulties I encountered, this book did give me an understanding of the basic religious history of Korea. I am grateful that Mr. Grayson has applied his scholarship to writing this book so that an ordinary non Korean speaking person such as myself can appreciate the scope and depths of the religious culture and history of the Korean people and Korea's religious and culture relationship to its neighboring countries.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, September 26, 2005

By 

C. Blomberg (Seoul, Rep. of Korea) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Korea - A Religious History (Paperback)

I wrote a short (choppily edited by deleting paragraphs for Amazon) response paper to this book for a class I took, and I am attaching it below. But in general, I want to say this is one of the most amazingly clear and totally inclusive books on religion I've ever seen. To encompass the entire history of Korea with all its complexity is an incredibly impressive task and Grayson deserves accolades and more. Throughout the book Grayson begins by explaining the historical happenings of the time period, then details the corresponding religious developments. It works admirably not just as religious history but as history.

There are many things to like, even love, about Grayson's small book "Korea: A Religious History". Though Grayson occasionally confuses, and there are several places in which he doesn't mention that other interpretations exist (much less introduce the other interpretations), overall Grayson's book is the most concise, coherent and all inclusive book covering the entire gamut of religions through the entire history of human life on the Korean peninsula.


To Western people, in general, religious affiliation is exclusive. At their most liberal, religiously inclined people may be Unitarians, which essentially just means they can embrace the whole gamut of Christian faiths, or should I just say, Protestantism. Across the board, though, you would hard pressed to find any westerner who would consider shamanism a religion (it would generally be classified as a `cult' or `superstition') and this has led to countless problems in the evaluation of religiosity using western methodology. In fact, this very thing was studied by Professor Yoon Yee-heum in cooperation with Gallup Korea in 1984. The polling they did found clearly that Christians could be counted accurately from a questionnaire (the study found a 5% deviation between self-identification and "practical" identification as Christian). The same survey found that Buddhists could not be counted accurately, with twice as many practical Buddhists as those who self-identified as such. Confucianism absolutely could not be self-identified, with many Koreans holding tight to Confucian thought, yet not identifying themselves as Confucians. In 1984 Yoon's study found that 91% of respondents were "practical" Confucianists. I suspect this number is down somewhat now, as the younger people in Korea are increasingly losing their traditional thought. An interesting subject for study would be a follow-up trying to identify if women were more likely to abandon Confucian concepts than men. Even though Yoon did not address Shamanism, just from the data he did gather we have seen that the majority of people in Korea obviously can live with and accept two or more religions simultaneously.


Though many people say that the attraction of Christianity had to do with the aspect of `equality in the eyes of the Lord' I disagree with this position. Simply speaking, Koreans even today show a tendency to be more likely to follow a Christian faith if they are more highly educated members of the white collar or executive class of society. These are -not-the people who will feel the strongest pull in `equality'. If the aspect of love for all was so important, we'd see that more destitute families adopted Christianity, but rather we see a much larger former yangban tendency to be Christian. The people who live the lives of farmers and fishermen today, are, according to the most recent data available still more likely to be Buddhist than Christian. And, while we argue this whole equality issue, it should be too obvious to state, but perhaps I do need to remind people that Buddhism does not support stratification in society outside of the simple `layperson v. bhikku/bhikkuni' dichotomy. Confucianism, which still underlies (as per Yoon's data) the thoughts of a majority of Koreans did, however, support stratification and Korean society today does, unfortunately, still have a very classist vein running through it.

I also have on more than one occasion detected a tendency in the Korea of the 1960s and 70s to throw the baby out with the dishwater. Or, in other words, in the rush to modernization and economic strength many Korean traditions were discarded carelessly to adopt western styles with little critical thinking in advance. Far too many people turned their backs on hanbok, pansori, and Buddhist temples in favor of button down collars, Beethoven and baptism. A large number of the converts to Christianity, then, may simply have been following the latest trend, accepting Christianity as part and parcel of modernization.

In conclusion, I enjoyed Grayson's book and feel it is a well-written text.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative, interesting, brief., March 8, 2003

By 

Wyote (Seoul) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Korea - A Religious History (Paperback)

This book briefly covers Korea's religious history from prehistory until the present. It's an interesting story because Korea has always been a unique society: in the ancient past it bred unusual forms of Buddhism; then it was the most Confucian society in history; today it is the only country in Asia to really embrace Protestant Christianity, while at the same time interesting syncretic religions emerge and the shamanist traditions continue.

Grayson gives the most important facts and a few interpretations about each of these phenomena; but the book is too brief to go into any depth on any matter. It's a good first book on Korean history and religion, but I constantly wanted to know more than he was telling me. Like me, you'll probably want deeper books after this fine introduction.