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Journal of Religion and Health
Published in: Journal of Religion and Health 2/2018

01-04-2018 | Original Paper

Melancholy, Acculturation, and Relief: A Brief Essay on the Religion of Ordinarity

Author: Hyon-Uk Shin

Published in: Journal of Religion and Health | Issue 2/2018

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Abstract

Han is not an idiosyncratic, psychological experience that is peculiar to Koreans, but a multifaceted mode of melancholy experienced by many and various people. What makes this psychological experience particularly familiar to Koreans, however, is that this phenomenon is colored by various, macroscopic factors common in the Korean context, such as sociocultural rigidness, historical instability, political feudality, and economic vulnerability. In this sense, han is an acculturated, multifaceted melancholy. Not only that, it has developed its own religiousness, the goal of which is the restoration of ordinarity, because the state of han premises extraordinary, abnormal, or tension-provoking situations. The explicit and implicit religious idioms developing in the religion of han, such as tongsung-kido and wishing-for-blessing, evolve around this religious telos, helping individuals in Korea restore and live ordinarity.
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Metadata
Title
Melancholy, Acculturation, and Relief: A Brief Essay on the Religion of Ordinarity
Author
Hyon-Uk Shin
Publication date
01-04-2018
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Journal of Religion and Health / Issue 2/2018
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0486-x

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