The modernist theory of nationalism has been the dominant approach in understanding nation and nationalism around the world. It claims that nation is a product of modernization and secularization. The dominant power of modernist theory has been challenged recently, however. In debates on the role of religion in emergence of nationalism, Anthony Smith and others demonstrate national community is very similar to ‘sacred communion’ in a sense that they both believe in divine selection and mission of people. In this paper I discuss religion indeed played a significant role in formation of Korean nationalism. Tangun, the mythical founder of Korean nation, became a symbol of nation in the early 20th century as nationalists selectively emphasized historic records. Through Tangun worship Koreans built a notion of ‘chosen people’ and it played a significant role in formulating anti-colonial nationalism in the context of social Darwinist struggle in the early 20th century.

This paper attempts to illuminate the relationship between modernization and religion through the concept of secularization, as noted by sociology of religion. Secularization can be seen as a version of modernization of sociology of religion which is discussed in general social theory. In practice, the fact that related debates continue to this day from when the concept of secularization was first developed shows that secularization is thought to be a core theme of sociology of religion. From this perspective, the attempt is made for an understanding within the sociology of religion of the relationship between religion and modernization by carefully examining the concept of secularization and theories regarding it and the newly appeared secularization theory born out of the various debates. Furthermore, through the examples of the growth of the Korean Protestant and Evangelical movements, a simple resolution is sought as to how one can understand the situation of Korean Protestantism in regards to secularization.

The recognition of the crisis of modern society began in Europe in 1920s. Nowadays the crisis of modern society has been accelerated widely across the board. And the seriousness of the problem lies in the fact of that the crisis is the inevitable result of pursuing and achieving development in modern sense. Namely, the crisis of modern society comes from the modern world that is the foundation of modern civilization. Therefore, a new world view is needed to overcome the crisis of modern society. In this paper, a new world view based on the East Asian social thoughts is constructed. The reason this paper is constructed based on the East Asian social thoughts is that the East Asian social thoughts includes after-modern elements fluently. In this paper, the unified world view is constructed based on the East Asian social thoughts. And a after-modern alternative society is explored based on the unified world view. In the after-modern alternative society, the structure and goals of life are fundamentally changed. In essential, the structure and goals of life are changed from life centered in ‘labor and consumption’ to life centered in ‘practice of austerities and enjoying the Tao’. In the after-modern alternative society, everybody respects himself and/or herself and the world. Everybody is combined with love. World government appears and world common language is used. All the social institutions including family, economy, politics, education and everyday life are reorganized in the way to realize the idea of the unified world view. Finally, the way how to reach the after-modern alternative society is described simply. The modern society is constructed by the modern ways such as struggle and competition. In the same way, the after-modern society is constructed by the after-modern ways such as peace and love. The essence of the way to reach the after-modern alternative society is ‘the change of world through the change of self’.

This paper aims to analyse the present status of confucian studies in the academic world of Korean sociology statistically for the last 10 years(1997～2006). According to the survey, the sociologists who have participated in confucian studies were 28 persons and they wrote 26 books and 144 papers. Classifying these papers by the subjects, there were 13 papers on the subject of general studies, 35 papers on the subject of methodology and theory formation studies, 18 papers on the subject of conception, ideology, human view and world view studies, 19 papers on the subject of modern life and social phenomena, 18 papers on the subject of confucian value and confucian democracy/capitalism, 19 papers on the subject of social institution and community, 13 papers on the subject of social thought study. These papers were published in 50 sorts of academic journals, and the half of the papers appeared in academic journals of sociology. The researched academic achievements were appended at the end of this paper. Several tasks to which confucian sociologists should keep attention were found. First, there lacks of constant supply of new confucian sociologists to achieve developmental succession in this academic field. Second, the confucian sociological study inclined heavily toward theoretical orientation. It is necessary to create alternative knowledge of the present society through the empirical research. Third, it is necessary for confucian sociologists to understand each other and to share interests in confucian studies. Forth, it is necessary to consolidate the basis of the sociology of knowledge in the study of confucian sociology. The modern interpretation of the confucianism can be realized by recreating a modern ideology from the historical confucianism.

Typically, it was on the viewpoint of ostentatious consumption the discussion on social ostentation. Today, many researchers conclude that the Korean show off his personality through material ostentation. However, the social activities associated with structural and historical context of that society. The goal of this research is structural and historical understanding of over-ostentation in Korean society. More specifically, we checked up Korean peculiarity of social ostentation, material ostentation include elements of personality empirically and such peculiarity is ‘why, and what drove along’ the formation to make clarifications. Meanwhile, we used the concept of social recognition capital as conceptual tool to understand the causes and course of Korean peculiarity of social ostentation. We clarified various social capitals to acquire for social recognition exists and at the same time, they are affected by social structures and habitus from theoretical study. Through this theoretical framework, we described the context and formation process of personality-habitus, and admitted tracking whether changes in how social recognition capital in the structural changes of Korean society. Through the above process, we tried to explain the phenomenon of over-ostentation in a modern Korean society. As a result, we cleaned up the long-term changes of social ostentation in Korean society as follows: (1) in the change from Confucian society to Capitalist society, social recognition capitals changed from identity to materials. As a result, the dominant form of ostentation changed to material ostentation from identity ostentation. Nevertheless, the personality-habitus remains, it was Korean peculiarity of social ostentation, and material ostentation included elements of personality. (2) Tool of social ostentation became various; material is emerging as a dominant means of showing off. Therefore, all kinds of things become the means of showing off. The subject of showing off was changed. In traditional society, the subject of showing off was limited, however, today that owns the material means that anyone can be the subject of a social ostentation. All of these factors interact with the results of the blended, over-ostentation phenomenon appears in today’s Korean society.

This study aims at reinterpreting Meng in I Ching which symbolize the education of children in traditional society. I interpreted Meng as Unrevealed Truth(未發之性) that can make children to become a Saint(聖人). And the commentary on the individual lines of Meng as the stage to become a Saint and as the alerts at dangers on every stages.

Politics or political leader has to be needed for the moralistic community in terms of Buddhist point of view. Buddhists believed that Cakravartin was the leader who had ability to build a moral community. Accordingly, the concept of Cakravartin includes the model of idealistic ruler and the meaning of the most powerful ruler in the world. In fact, theses meanings about Cakravartin existed in Indian society before the Buddha’s era. The concept of Cakravartin is derived from the myths developed by ancient Indian people. This reflects that the ancient Indian people believed that the good ruler is needed for the good ruling. In other words, every one cannot be a ruler for the good community. This meaning was, of course, changed in its contents when the concept was accepted by Buddhism. The concept of Cakravartin accepted by Buddhism focused on restraint of abuse of absolute power and transformation of power into a tool to practice benevolence. This transformation can be understood as the early Buddhists’s desire to continue the basic meaning of ruler in the changed situation. The thought of Cakravartin was diffused to China with the propagation of Buddhism. Cakravartin was very attractive for the rulers in the various dynasties in China, and they accepted the meaning of Cakravartin as a model of king whom they want to be. However, the Chines kings tried to strengthen their power by using the concept of Cakravartin, rather than they followed the real meaning of Cakravartin. This interpretation is not aimed at devaluating their faith on Buddhism. What I emphasize is that there are not so much differences between Buddhist ruling behavior and traditional Chinese ruling behavior. In other words, the meaning of Cakravartin could not change the meaning of state and society into Buddhistic understanding. This phenomena was almost same as that in the three kingdoms in Korea.

Many critics see yongo chipdan, the traditional community based on kinship, home region and school, as a major source of the continued lackluster performance of Korean economies and democracies in recent years. They argue that ascriptiveness and closedness of yongo chipdan create a strong in-group trust and generalized reciprocity and, at the same time, the distrust of others in general, discouraging the formation of general trust. It is also argued that the general trust should be produced based on public institutions for the sound development of market and democracy. For them, the most desirable group that can produce a general trust is an open and horizontal voluntary association. However, the qualitative and quantitative approaches to yongo chipdan and voluntary association this article tries show the results contrary to the recent critics on yongo chipdan and heaping praises of voluntary association. An NGO, a representative voluntary association in Korean society, limits the range of participation among volunteers and constitutes the limited trust among particular participators to cope with the problem of trust in the course of collective action. A high school alumni association, a representative yongo chipdan, shows a low level of in-group trust and tries to maintain their community through encouraging the norm of generalized reciprocity. The results of this article call for the reappreaciation of trust in some respects. First, what brings the development of market and democracy is not the general trust in others in general, but the particular trust produced through the concrete and intimate relationships. Further, the concept of general trust cannot be captured in sociological concept of trust regarding the social uncertainty and risk. Secondly, the organizational mechanisms of groups and attributes of networks tell nothing about the effects and functions of their social capital. It is needed to examine in detail how trust among in-groups members is produced and maintained and how generalized reciprocity is shared among them.

Gang Gong Bo was a Vietnamese in Dang Dynasty. He was an excellent the prime minister at Hyun Jong in Dang Dynasty. He built a creative theory which combined governing thoughts and political thoughts based on Confucian thoughts. His political philosophy was an unified thoughts of the royalty to the emperor and the ideas of patriotism which was rooted in Confucianism. Gang Gong Bo’s political thoughts included the theory of moderation(中道). He emphasized the common people centered thoughts. His thoughts can contribute to build modern society. His thoughts can provide a new resource in building a new civilization and social reconciliation. Therefore, in this paper, I want to excavate in Gang Gong Bo’s thoughts the resources which can be utilized to develop modern society.

I-Ching is the foundation of Chinese culture. After ancient Lianshan of Xia Dynasty, Guizang of Shang Dynasty, Jingzhuan of Zhou Dynasty and all previous dynasties, I-Ching developed different academic system, for example Xiang, Shu, Yi and Li. We consciously and unconsciously establish and develop modern I-Ching in present age. This paper proposes the opinion of characteristic, content and innovation of modern I-Ching. It is the preliminary summary of modern I-Ching.