The formation of modern Buddhist scholarship: The cases of Bak Jong-Hong and Kim Dong-Hwa

Abstract

Contemporary Buddhist scholarship in Korea has been strongly affected by its origins in the Victorian era, when Western religious scholars sought to rationalize and historicize the study of religion. Modem Korean scholars, trained within the Western scholarly paradigm, share this prejudice in favor of the rational. The result is a skewed understanding of Buddhism, emphasizing its philosophical and theoretical aspects at the expense of seemingly "irrational" religious elements based on the direct experience of meditation practice. This paper seeks to examine the historical context in which modern Korean Buddhist scholarship was shaped during the colonial period of Japan. In particular, two case studies will be examined in light of postcolonial perspectives on Buddhist studies: Bak Jong-hong and Kim Dong-hwa. Bak studied Korean Buddhism in the context of so-called Korean thought. He sought to uncover the national and cultural identity of Korea, and thus his scholarship led him to seek the uniqueness of Korean Buddhism. On the other hand, Kim first introduced modern Buddhist scholarship to Korea, and since then, contemporary Korean Buddhist scholarship has owed much to him. Despite Bak and Kim's contributions to contemporary Korean Buddhist scholarship, however, if we took at them in light of a postcolonial perspective, these contributions need to be revaluated.