DOI
10.32436/2475-6423.1209
Abstract
This article examines Korean Catholic funeral rites through the lenses of ritual
guidebooks and lived religion, arguing that Catholic funerary practice in Korea
has emerged through sustained engagement with Confucian and Buddhist tradi-
tions as well as modern nationalism. Focusing on Catholic manuals such as the
Sangjang yesik [Rites for Mourning and Funerals] and related texts, it traces how
officially sanctioned liturgical forms coexist with, accommodate, and reinterpret
indigenous ritual logics surrounding mourning, burial, ancestor veneration, and
care for the dead. Rather than viewing Korean Catholic funerals as a simple
localization of Roman rites, the article conceptualizes them as a dynamic ritual
field in which multiple religious grammars operate simultaneously.
Situating these practices historically, the study shows how early Korean Cath-
olics negotiated ancestral rites, mourning customs, and local temporalities of
death under persecution in Chosŏn Korea. In a society grounded in filial piety
(hyo) and loyalty (ch’ung), the prohibition of ancestral rites rendered Catholic
practice morally suspect and politically subversive. Under these constraints, lay
Catholics developed distinctive funerary forms that embodied Catholic belief
through familiar cultural idioms. Central among these is the yŏndo, a uniquely
Korean tradition of funeral chanting that integrates Catholic prayer with in-
digenous musical rhythms and communal mourning, emerging not through
top-down inculturation but from vernacular practices shaped by everyday ex-
periences of death and loss. Drawing on textual, ethnographic, and historical
analysis, this article demonstrates how Korean Catholic funerals function as
negotiated spaces in which religious plurality is ritually enacted and rendered
meaningful.
Recommended Citation
Han, Jieun
(2026)
"Negotiating Plurality: Korean Catholic Funerals as Lived Religion,"
Journal of Global Catholicism:
Vol. 10:
Iss.
3, Article 2. p.10-49.
DOI: 10.32436/2475-6423.1209
Available at:
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/jgc/vol10/iss3/2
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