This study aims to explore the possibility of interreligious dialogue in the situation of Korea's religious conflicts through the examples of the meeting of the East and the West represented by the Jesuit missionaries Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and ...
This study aims to explore the possibility of interreligious dialogue in the situation of Korea's religious conflicts through the examples of the meeting of the East and the West represented by the Jesuit missionaries Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) and Hugo Makibi Enomiya-Lassalle (1898-1990) from Western Catholicism. Further, by analyzing and evaluating these two cases of Jesuit priests who tried to lead the mission of interactive communication between the East and the West, not through one-sided and exclusive mission policy against other religions and cultures, but through a way of accommodation and fusion, this study endeavors to compare them with the spirituality of Wonhyo's Hwajeng in South Korea. It is explored how the principles of interreligious dialogue derived from this comparative research could contribute to interreligious peace in today's world. This is also a research to compare the principles of dialogue among religions of the West (Christianity) and the East (Confucianism and Buddhism). Especially, the dialogue method that Ricci adopted in China with Confucianism, and the dialogue led by Lassalle with Buddhism in Japan were based on the Jesuit missionary policy of accommodation. Therefore, in the first year, the attention was given to the Jesuit policy of accommodation to find out how it contributed to interreligious dialogue, and in the second year, the ideas and methods adopted by Jesuit missionaries such as Matteo Ricci and Enomiya Lassalle were examined for specific cases of the accommodation policy, the accommodation method by the former and the mysticism by the latter respectively. In the third year, based on the findings of the first and second year, the accommodation policy of Ricci and the mysticism of Lassalle are compared with the spirituality of Wonhyo's Hwajeng idea which was the principle of interreligious dialogue in Korea. It is expected that the comparative researches on the interreligious dialogue between the East and the West, especially between countries such as Korea, China and Japan, would be a creative task of finding a new principle of interreligious dialogue required by the multi-cultural and multi-religious Korean society in the 21st century.
The research topic of the first year is "The Jesuit policy of accommodation and interreligious dialogue", and it focuses on finding out how the Jesuit accommodation policy works and contributes to interreligious dialogue as a model policy. First, the early Jesuit mission activities centering on the three countries of East Asia such as Japan, China, and India as well as Latin American Indians are examined, and then the principles of interreligious dialogue appeared in the features of the Jesuit accommodation policy are investigated.
The research topic of the second year is "The accommodation policy adopted by Matteo Ricci and the mysticism of Enomiya Lassalle as models of interreligious dialogue". The accommodation policy of Ricci and the mysticism of Lassalle are examined respectively as models of interreligious dialogue. First, the study examines how the accommodation policy adopted by Ricci with an approach to complement Confucianism deals with other religions (Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism). Especially, centering on Ricci's book titled "The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven", the dialogue between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism is intensely analyzed. Through this research, the potential and types of interreligious dialogue in Ricci are explored.
Next, the Zen mysticism of Lassalle, who was commissioned as a missionary in Japan, is explored. Lassalle pursued the meeting of Christianity and the Zen meditation and it is examined in this study how those efforts of Lassalle to seek interreligious dialogue with mystical experiences could overcome the limitations of Ricci's accommodation policy as a complement to Confucianism. Also investigated in the study is the religious experiences and social responsibilities through Lassalle's Zen meditation.
The characteristics of Zen mediation, that are selflessness, no thought, and no form, are studied together with the characteristics of interreligious dialogue of Lassalle that could connect them with Christianity which is theism without religious conflicts, in order to apply it to the multi-religious situation of Korea.
The research topic of the third year is "Spirituality of Wonhyo's Hwajeng idea for interreligious dialogue - an interreligious dialogue model through the spirituality of the East and the West". This task is still on the process. The study involves a comparative analysis of the accommodation policy of Ricci and the mysticism of Lassalle as interreligious dialogue models which was carried out in the research project of the second year, and based on those studies, it is examined how these two models could meet at some point with the spirituality of Wonhyo's Hwajeng idea, and how it could contribute to the interreligious dialogue in today's world. Especially, it is studied how the limitations and significances of Ricci's accommodation policy and Lassalle's mysticism as interreligious dialogue models are overcome by Wonhyo's Hwajeng spirituality, and suggests an interreligious dialogue model that is required by today's multi-religious and an multi-cultural society. Largely, this comparative study will have the significance of connecting the Jesuit accommodation policy of Europe with the spirituality of Wonhyo's Hwajeng idea of Korea, and it will also be a creative task to find the new principles of interreligious dialogue through an interactive negotiation of the two models.