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Paper short abstract

This article addresses issues related to religion and law that have not been well-researched in previous studies, focusing on at least three aspects. Research on the Japanese colonial period of Korea, particularly on religion, has primarily focused on the Governor-General’s control over religions.

Paper long abstract

This article addresses issues related to religion and law that have not been well-researched in previous studies, focusing on at least three aspects. Research on the Japanese colonial period of Korea, particularly on religion, has primarily focused on the Governor-General’s control over religions. In this regard, the Ordinance on Religious Propagation (1915) and the Religious Organizations Act (1939) were already well-known representative control regulations (Taehoon Kim 2011; Michael Kim 2016; Sanjato Yoshinobu 2018). Also, the concept of “religion” in modern Korea has been well-studied (Marion Eggert 2012; Albert Park 2020; Pang Wonil 2021; Edward Baker 2021). First, it examines how Korean Christianity, with half a million believers, participated in the various discussions in mainland Japan leading up to the Religious Organizations Act and why they raised oppositional voices. Second, it demonstrates that, despite its non-application of the Act in colonial Korea, the Religious Organizations Act, contrary to conventional wisdom, catalyzed Korean elites and Christians to support control over pseudo-religions. Third, it examines how the category of “religion,” developed by Christianity in colonial Korea, survived after liberation, despite the abolition of the Ordinance on Religious Propagation and the subsequent dismantling of religious regulations under the US military government. Given Christianity's long-standing sensitivity to state interference with religion, it is ironic to examine the legacy of Christianity’s negative attitude toward other pseudo-religions—or, as Koreans call them, “national religions,” such as taejonggyo [Great Religion] and chŏndogyo [Heavenly Way Religion]. In this regard, it also seeks to examine the intellectual history of the formation of the category of modern “religion” during the colonial period.