Contemporary Buddhist Movements and Alternatives in Korea

This book provides a comprehensive exploration on the history and practices of native Buddhist movements in contemporary Korea. It begins with a historical emergence of Korean Buddhism, followed by the colonial transmission of Japanese Buddhism in East Asia.

The study critically analyses the development of five distinct Buddhist sects and two alternative movements from the 1960s to the 2020s. Each group is explored through key categories: origins and founders, beliefs, sacred scriptures, myths, symbols, and treasures, socio-political impact, and internal conflicts or scandals. Focusing on ethnographic and cultural perspectives, the book examines how these groups—emerging during Korea’s post-war purification movement—define themselves: the Bomun order, the Jingak order, the Cheontae order, the Taego order, the Jogye order, International Moral Association (IMA), and Deasoon Jinrihoe. Despite Korea’s turbulent journey through dictatorship, industrialisation, and democratisation, these new religious movements have demonstrated remarkable social resilience and engagement.

This work will be an essential resource for scholars and students of Buddhist Studies, Korean Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Religious Studies, and Political Science. It will also appeal to policymakers, religious practitioners, and general readers interested in Asian spirituality, cultural identity, and the interplay between tradition and modernity. By focusing on understudied contemporary sectarian movements, it addresses a significant gap in English-language scholarship and provides a framework for understanding how religious innovation operates within, and contributes to, the civic and political life of democratic Korea.

David W. Kim (PhD, University of Sydney) is Professor of Modern History at Kookmin University, Seoul. He is an Affiliated Researcher, INFORM, Kings College London (KCL), a former Honorary Lecturer in the School of History at the Australian National University (2014–2025), and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Divinity School (2023–2024). Kim is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (UK), a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (UK), and an editor for Brill’s Handbook Series on Contemporary Religions (Netherlands) as well as the Editor for the Series East Asian Religions and Culture (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK). Kim is a Committee Member for World Heritage, Korean Government. He has authored twelve books and 92 peer-reviewed articles, including Religion in Modern Education: Conflict, Economics, and Politics (2026), Silk Road Footprints: Transnational Transmission of Sacred Thoughts and Historical Legacy (2025), Socio-Anthropological Approaches to Religion: Environmental Hope (2024), Sacred Sites and Sacred Stories Across Cultures (2021), Daesoon Jinrihoe in Modern Korea (2020), Colonial Transformation and Asian Religions in Modern History (2018), Religious Encounters in Transcultural Society (2017), and Religious Transformation in Modern Asia: A Transnational Movement (2015).