scholarly journals The challenge that Confucian filial piety poses for Korean churches

Author(s):  
David M. Park ◽  
Julian C. Müller

Contemporary ancestor worship is currently practiced around the world in several different forms. However, the essence and practice of ancestor worship varies throughout Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America. The context of countries under the influence of Confucianism is very different from that of other countries. Confucianism teaches that ancestor worship is the most prized display of filial piety toward one’s dead ancestors. Amongst Asian countries under the influence of Confucianism – specifically China, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea – ancestor worship has not only been accepted and propagated as a culture, but it is also considered to be filial piety. Especially the Korean people think that ancestor worship is a very important expression of filial piety, and it is a ritual which they practice regularly during their festive days. What does Confucianism teach about filial piety, and how is ancestor worship practiced? What does the Bible teach about filial piety? Are practical applications of biblical filial piety present in Korean society? Rather than allowing Confucian ancestor worship to take root in Korean society as a traditional Korean heritage, the conclusion is that Korean Christians must make an effort to teach and facilitate biblical filial piety.

Author(s):  
Rachel M. McCleary

Protestant missions to Guatemala, in varying degrees, incorporated innovative oral, visual, and audio evangelizing strategies in their proselytizing. The traditional mainline Protestant bias favoring the “triumph of literacy” over oral/audible forms of learning sidetracked those missions engaged in vernacular translations of the Bible away from direct evangelization and toward investment of significant financial and human resources into literacy programs. Pentecostals continued to emphasize the oral/aural dynamic of evangelizing, thereby becoming the quickest-growing and largest segment of Protestantism in Guatemala. Consequently, institution-building requisite for investment in traditional forms of human capital (education and health) has not characterized Protestantism in Guatemala. This argument can be extended to other regions of the world—notably the rest of Latin America, Asia, and Africa—laying the foundation for a broader, global understanding of Pentecostalism and low investment in human capital.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kweku Ampiah

The paper examines the popularly known Confucian values and ritual practices and questions the notion that these norms and practices are unique to East Asia. By evoking the essential social values and norms of the Akan culture (in West Africa) the analysis posits that the so-called East Asian values as codified by Confucius are actually universal principles. The essay examines how the principles of filial piety and ancestor worship play out in the social practices of the Asante people (of the Akan ethnic group) and the Confucian communities, and suggests that a proper comparative examination of these practices across cultures would show that some cultural groups outside the East Asian zone might turn out to be more ‘Confucian’ than some of the East Asian countries.


2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 186-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malini Ratnasingam ◽  
Lee Ellis

Background. Nearly all of the research on sex differences in mass media utilization has been based on samples from the United States and a few other Western countries. Aim. The present study examines sex differences in mass media utilization in four Asian countries (Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore). Methods. College students self-reported the frequency with which they accessed the following five mass media outlets: television dramas, televised news and documentaries, music, newspapers and magazines, and the Internet. Results. Two significant sex differences were found when participants from the four countries were considered as a whole: Women watched television dramas more than did men; and in Japan, female students listened to music more than did their male counterparts. Limitations. A wider array of mass media outlets could have been explored. Conclusions. Findings were largely consistent with results from studies conducted elsewhere in the world, particularly regarding sex differences in television drama viewing. A neurohormonal evolutionary explanation is offered for the basic findings.


2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (142) ◽  
pp. 113-126
Author(s):  
Enrique Dussel Peters

China's socioeconomic accumulation in the last 30 years has been probably one of the most outstanding global developments and has resulted in massive new challenges for core and periphery countries. The article examines how China's rapid and massive integration to the world market has posed new challenges for countries such as Mexico - and most of Latin America - as a result of China's successful exportoriented industrialization. China's accumulation and global integration process does, however, not only question and challenges the export-possibilities in the periphery, but also the global inability to provide energy in the medium term.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-56
Author(s):  
K. Kale Yu

As Protestant missionaries landed on Korean shores in the late nineteenth century, a great deal of effort went into creating a Christian identity using literacy and literature as cornerstones of missional strategy that would become the benchmark of the Christian experience for Koreans. The relationship between the Protestant missions' emphasis on reading and Korea's Confucian culture of learning is of particular importance for an understanding of the growth of Christianity in Korea because Christianity's close association with literacy and sacred writings energised the Confucian imagination of Korean culture. Perceiving the reading of Christian literature, including the bible, as a salient way to salvation, Koreans turned to reading and memorising the scriptures to experience the manifestation of God's revelation. The high respect afforded to education and learning as a dominant cultural value constitutes an important, if overlooked, element in the replication of faith in Korean society that reproduced the gospel under their own familiar terms.


Author(s):  
Benjamin W. Goossen

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the global Mennonite church developed an uneasy relationship with Germany. Despite the religion's origins in the Swiss and Dutch Reformation, as well as its longstanding pacifism, tens of thousands of members embraced militarist German nationalism. This book is a sweeping history of this encounter and the debates it sparked among parliaments, dictatorships, and congregations across Eurasia and the Americas. Offering a multifaceted perspective on nationalism's emergence in Europe and around the world, the book demonstrates how Mennonites' nationalization reflected and reshaped their faith convictions. While some church leaders modified German identity along Mennonite lines, others appropriated nationalism wholesale, advocating a specifically Mennonite version of nationhood. Examining sources from Poland to Paraguay, the book shows how patriotic loyalties rose and fell with religious affiliation. Individuals might claim to be German at one moment but Mennonite the next. Some external parties encouraged separatism, as when the Weimar Republic helped establish an autonomous “Mennonite State” in Latin America. Still others treated Mennonites as quintessentially German; under Hitler's Third Reich, entire colonies benefited from racial warfare and genocide in Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Whether choosing Germany as a national homeland or identifying as a chosen people, called and elected by God, Mennonites committed to collective action in ways that were intricate, fluid, and always surprising.


Author(s):  
Brian Stanley

This book charts the transformation of one of the world's great religions during an age marked by world wars, genocide, nationalism, decolonization, and powerful ideological currents, many of them hostile to Christianity. The book traces how Christianity evolved from a religion defined by the culture and politics of Europe to the expanding polycentric and multicultural faith it is today—one whose growing popular support is strongest in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, China, and other parts of Asia. The book sheds critical light on themes of central importance for understanding the global contours of modern Christianity, illustrating each one with contrasting case studies, usually taken from different parts of the world. Unlike other books on world Christianity, this one is not a regional survey or chronological narrative, nor does it focus on theology or ecclesiastical institutions. The book provides a history of Christianity as a popular faith experienced and lived by its adherents, telling a compelling and multifaceted story of Christendom's fortunes in Europe, North America, and across the rest of the globe. It demonstrates how Christianity has had less to fear from the onslaughts of secularism than from the readiness of Christians themselves to accommodate their faith to ideologies that privilege racial identity or radical individualism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Stenschke
Keyword(s):  

Book review


2020 ◽  
pp. 49-81
Author(s):  
Bruno Van der Maat

The current pandemic has seen some adverse reactions from the most diverse religious groups all over the world to government regulations. After having described some of their manifestations, this contribution analyzes what the Bible and some post biblical (patristic and Talmudic) traditions say about illness and pandemics. As it is ascertained that these sources contain very limited material on these subjects, the third part of this article proposes some ethical reflections regarding the official response to the pandemic as well as some pastoral implications. Key Words: Pandemic, Religion, Bible, Talmud, Pastoral Care.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (12) ◽  
pp. 104-110
Author(s):  
T. I. MALASHENKO ◽  
◽  
A. Yu. STEPANOV ◽  

The article provides an overview of Russia's military-technical cooperation, the specifics of state regulation in the context of the world arms and military equipment market. Emphasis has been made on some regions (CIS, Africa, Latin America) where activities are intensified. The effectiveness of the existing system of military-technical cooperation of Russia and particular aspects of its functioning are evaluated.


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