Religion in South Korea is characterized by a dominance of Buddhism, Protestantism, and Roman Catholicism. According to the census of the year 2005, 22.8% of the population identifies as Buddhist, 18.3% as Protestant and 10.9% as Roman Catholic, totaling a 29.2% Christian population.[1][need quotation to verify] These three denominations have grown rapidly in influence only by the mid-20th century, as part of the profound transformations that the South Korean society has gone through in the past century.[2][need quotation to verify]
Korea entered the 20th century with almost the totality of its population believing in the native shamanic religion and practicing Confucian rites and ancestral worship.[2] Korean Buddhism, despite its long history and cultural influence, at the dawn of the 20th century was moribund, reduced to a tiny minority after 500 years of suppression by the strictly Neo-Confucian Joseon kingdom,[2] which also disregarded traditional cults.[3] Communities of Christians already existed prior to the 1880s, when the crumbling Joseon state and its intelligentsia endorsed a large influx of Catholic and especially Protestant missionaries from the West.[4] The King of Korea himself and his family tacitly supported Christianity.[5] During World War II the already formed link of Christianity with Korean nationalism was strengthened.[6]
With the division of Korea into two states in 1945, the communist north and the anti-communist south, the bulk of the Korean Christian population that had been until then in the northern half of the peninsula,[7] fled to South Korea.[8] Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the South Korean state enacted measures to defeat the worship of gods which facilitated the spread of Christianity and Buddhism.[9][need quotation to verify] According to scholars, South Korean censuses do not count believers in Korean shamanism and underestimate the number of adherents of shamanic-derived folk religions.[10] For instance, statistics compiled by the ARDA[11] estimate that as of 2010, 14.7% of South Koreans practice ethnic religion, 14.2% adhere to new movements, and 10.9% practice Confucianism.[12]
Religion in South Korea is characterized by a dominance of Buddhism, Protestantism, and Roman Catholicism. According to the census of the year 2005, 22.8% of the population identifies as Buddhist, 18.3% as Protestant and 10.9% as Roman Catholic, totaling a 29.2% Christian population.[1][need quotation to verify] These three denominations have grown rapidly in influence only by the mid-20th century, as part of the profound transformations that the South Korean society has gone through in the past century.[2][need quotation to verify]Korea entered the 20th century with almost the totality of its population believing in the native shamanic religion and practicing Confucian rites and ancestral worship.[2] Korean Buddhism, despite its long history and cultural influence, at the dawn of the 20th century was moribund, reduced to a tiny minority after 500 years of suppression by the strictly Neo-Confucian Joseon kingdom,[2] which also disregarded traditional cults.[3] Communities of Christians already existed prior to the 1880s, when the crumbling Joseon state and its intelligentsia endorsed a large influx of Catholic and especially Protestant missionaries from the West.[4] The King of Korea himself and his family tacitly supported Christianity.[5] During World War II the already formed link of Christianity with Korean nationalism was strengthened.[6]With the division of Korea into two states in 1945, the communist north and the anti-communist south, the bulk of the Korean Christian population that had been until then in the northern half of the peninsula,[7] fled to South Korea.[8] Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the South Korean state enacted measures to defeat the worship of gods which facilitated the spread of Christianity and Buddhism.[9][need quotation to verify] According to scholars, South Korean censuses do not count believers in Korean shamanism and underestimate the number of adherents of shamanic-derived folk religions.[10] For instance, statistics compiled by the ARDA[11] estimate that as of 2010, 14.7% of South Koreans practice ethnic religion, 14.2% adhere to new movements, and 10.9% practice Confucianism.[12]
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