First Post

I am a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in the department of Asian Studies. I am currently working on my dissertation which focuses on the legitimization of violence. Basically I am looking at two Korean Catholics, Hwang Sayŏng (1776-1801) and An Chunggŭn (1879-1910) and how they justified violence and how the violence they suffered (both were executed by state authorities) was justified.

I have long been wanting to start a Korean religious history blog and have finally made up my mind to do it. This blog will have several purposes. First, I want to try and spread knowledge about Korean religious history. Second, I want to receive comments and criticism on my own take on Korean religious history. I can learn a lot that way which will enable me to be a better teacher and researcher. Third, I want to reflect on what it means to study religion and the various issues someone working in such an area must deal with. I hope that in this area as well, people will make comments.

There are several limitations that I should point to. First, my focus is on Catholicism in Korea. While I have a basic familiarity with other religions in Korea, I am much more comfortable in what I know about Catholicism. Despite that I will try and talk about non-Catholic religions. In fact, I’m hoping that doing so will force me to learn more about these religions. Second, since I am currently working on my dissertation I might not be able to update this blog as often as I would like. For now I am shooting on at least one post a week. Hopefully I can keep up!

I look forward to lots of good comments and criticism!