Page 48 - A Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy

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recovery of its wholeness in order to counter this threat.” Young Min Kwon describes the
nationalism of the 1970 as “[i]n the context of the state of the time during 1970s, nationalism

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took its place as an exceedingly dynamic notion that embraced the whole of society.”
In the 1980s, cultural nationalism reached it peak. Cultural nationalism became a

weapon for the intellectuals in their struggle for democracy and in responding to the series of

atypical successions of regimes and their ever-growing power. Folklorists collected and revived

original forms of national culture and popularized them by staging them at college festivals and

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in open playgrounds for the public. Meanwhile, Korean traditional religions vigorously

participated in the social activity, while Christianity suffered from social neglect and indifference.

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“Multi-religiosity” was one of socio-religious phenomena of the time. By the turn of the 1990s,

cultural nationalism was to begin a battle with the criticism from a new spirit on the horizon

postmodernism.

87 Byung Kwan Chung, “That They All may Hear: A Case for Receptor-Oriented
Contextual Communication with the Younger Generation in Korea,” D.Miss. diss., Fuller
Theological Seminary, School of World Mission,1993, 138

88 Kwon, Young Min, “The Logic and Practice of National Literature,” in Studies in
Literary Nationalism (Seoul: Minum Sa, 1988), 521.

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Genres like Nongak (Peasant music), Pansori (Traditional opera), Talchum (Mask
dance), and even Kut (Shamanistic ritual to call for ancestors sprit and blessing) in the name of
traditional culture. Those were welcomed not only by the old but also by young intellectuals.

90 I-Wheum Yoon, “The Trends of Korean Religion in 1993,” in Hankuk Chongkyo
Yungam 1994 (Korea religion annual report 1994), 1995, ed. Hankuk Chongkyo Sawhoe
Yunguso (Research Center for Korea Sociology of Religion), 77-82. Multi-Religiosity means
that any single religion cannot lead the society.