Why I'm doing what I'm doing

The other day I was asked why I thought what I was studying was important. I think that’s a good question and I should be able to provide a good answer. Unfortunately it’s the type of question that is so basic we often don’t ask it. I gave what I think was a pretty decent answer when asked but I wanted to think more about it. Then I thought I should post it since a lot of the people who read this blog wonder what it is that I’m doing and why.

First, I should say a bit about what I’m studying and how I plan on sharing what I learn with others. Right now I’m focusing on my dissertation. Writing a dissertation involves picking a very limited subject and then trying to become an expert on it. This is how it works. I study Asian history and I focus on Korea. In Korean history I focus on religion, especially during the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). Then I focused further and look at Catholicism. Specifically, for my dissertation I will be looking at two Catholics, Alexius Hwang Sayŏng, who was executed in 1801 because he wrote a letter asking for the Bishop of Beijing to send an invasion force to Korea to force the Korean government to stop killing Catholics and Thomas An Chunggŭn who was executed because he killed Itō Hirobumi, the first Resident-General and one of the main movers behind Japan’s colonization of Korea (he also framed the 1889 Meiji constitution so killing him was kind of like killing someone the stature of James Madison). By studying their lives, and how Koreans today look at them I hope to explore a wide variety of issues, particularly the relationship between nation, state, religion, and violence. My main questions are why do people choose to carry out violence and how do they justify it. My hope is to eventually publish my dissertation as a book or at least publish some articles on it. Basically, doing research and publishing is an important part of how I communicate what I have learned. The main audience though will be really limited, mostly people who study Korea or religion academically. I doubt I would ever write anything that would be considered popular, though I do hope one day to write a history on Catholicism in Korea that a general audience would enjoy (but that would mostly be limited to Christians, Catholics in particular).

But that’s only half of it. I hope to be able to get a job as a professor so that I can teach. So my other audience will be students. The thing with teaching is that I won’t talk all that much about my specialty. I’ll be teaching courses on religion in Asia, Asian history, and the like. If I’m lucky I can teach some classes that focus on Japanese or Chinese history and if I’m really fortunate I can actually teach some that only deal with Korea. I will most likely never teach a course that focuses only on Catholicism in Korea or even just on religion in Korea in general.

So when I talk about why what I am studying is important I am thinking in terms of both researching and publishing, as well as teaching undergraduates (and hopefully some graduates).

First, just in the most general of terms, here is why I think why I think the subject matter I am studying (and will hopefully teach) is important:
1) All true knowledge is good
2) This material can encourage people to think deeply
3) This material can encourage self-reflection and criticism (humility)
4) I want to inculcate a sense of responsibility and agency in people (and in myself); what we do is important, we are free agents but we must carefully think about our choices and bear responsibility for them
5) Remind people of our obligation to do good and find truth
6) Encourage the restraint of power (and the will) by reason
7) Encourage people to reflect on our mortality

This may seem rather broad and at first to have very little to do with what I study. However, much of what I study has to do with the harm we human beings cause when we forget good and pursue power. I study a lot of propaganda and it’s amazing how people are so good at dressing up the greatest of evils in the most beautiful of language. I want to learn how to cut through that and encourage others to do the same. That’s just one example but basically, I think the history I am studying can help in the above.

I think what I am studying is also important in terms of the study of religion and world history:
1) It’s important to become familiar with various cultures. By that I don’t mean simply eating their food and admiring their native dress. I mean to deeply understand what is often a very different understanding of the world.
2) I want to expose people to a different way of thinking about things that seem familiar. For example, we tend to think of Catholicism as a religion that was always on top and was often persecuting people. However, in Korea, it was the Catholics who were getting slaughtered. Moreover, they died not for something they saw as oppressive but as something they saw as liberating. For example, one thing that has struck me is that there isn’t much of an appreciation for perpetual celibacy in western culture. However, the first Korean Catholics embraced the idea that one could leave a fruitful life as a single person in the service of God. I think by studying such differences we can better reflect on our own culture and history.
3) Often religion is understood rather mechanistically and the human side is left out. By studying Korean Catholics, and the difficult choices they had to make when their nation, state, and Church often demanded very different things of them will help make religion and religious people seem more human. Too often religious people, especially if they belong to “cults” or to unpopular religions are dehumanized.
4) I also want to take the issue of religion and violence seriously. Often people who use religion to justify their use of violence as legitimate are portrayed as crazy. However, when Juliet Ward wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” she used religious language and concepts to legitimate violence. So I think we need to look more closely at this issue.
5) Religion and politics are the two things that are usually considered impolite to talk about. They are both considered very private, especially the latter. However, I think they are so important that we need to talk about them. I can do that by studying what I am studying. Furthermore, since it’s a bit more distant from our own lives I can get people to look more objectively at it (it might be hard to objectively look at Fundamentalist Christians in the US for Americans but by studying them in Korea and then applying what is learned to the American context I hope to build some understanding).

I think my work is also important for Asian and Korean history:
1) Catholicism must have been seen as important or the Korean state, which was not particularly wealthy, would not have persecuted it. It must be stressed that many martyrs were old men and women and that even some kids were martyred. Many were also extremely poor and were basically the lowest in society. Such people weren’t a threat but the state sought them out and butchered them. That’s because their ideas and their connection to the outside world made them dangerous.
2) The time period I’m studying is one where the Chosŏn dynasty was falling apart. The state had to turn more and more to violence because the old stories it told about itself were no longer enough to convince people to act the way the state wanted them to.
3) I want to show a different picture of how thing work through studying two Korean Catholics in depth. Often we take our own culture and way of life as natural when it fact a lot of it might simply be the result of the accidents of history.
4) Religion is often written out of Korean history because it brings up division whereas there is a tendency to emphasize unity. I hope to embrace and show these divisions and what they mean for life in Korea.
5) It’s also just good for us to know more about Korea and to consider religious history when looking at Korea.

I think this list needs more work but I think it gives a general idea of what I am trying to do and how. I welcome any comments or criticisms!