ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explore the subject of religious syncretism, with particular reference to the Unification Church, popularly known as ‘the Moonies’ and renamed the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) in 1996. How is it possible for a set of beliefs and practices, so radically different from those of mainstream Christianity, to arise; and how is it possible for those who subscribe to them to insist that they constitute a legitimate version – indeed a superior version – of Christian faith? The anti-cult lobby (on which, see below) claims that the answer is perfectly
straightforward: the Reverend Sun Myung Moon is an authoritarian leader whose teachings must be unquestioningly accepted by his brainwashed followers; he himself is a megalomaniac with aspirations of grandeur which lead him to proclaim himself as the Lord of the Second Advent who has done what Jesus Christ could not accomplish. Followers of the Rev Moon equally insist that the answer is a perfectly straightforward one: the young Sun Myung Moon received a vision of Jesus Christ on Easter Morning, 1935, which was subsequently complemented by various revelations received through prayer and journeyings into the spirit world. I do not believe that either of these explanations is correct, and in what
follows I intend to show how Unificationism has emerged as a syncretic blend of Protestant Christianity and Korean folk shamanism. In my discussion I shall outline some of the methods of evangelism that were used by the Christian missions, arguing that the boundaries between apparently competing religions (in this case Christianity and shamanism) are inevitably far from clear, and that this blurring of boundaries leaves ample scope for ambiguity and synthesis. Methodologically, my approach draws on field work undertaken in the late 1980s as well as on Unificationist publications, some them publicly available, others only available to members. Additionally, I draw on material on the history of Korean religion together with accounts of Christian missionary activity to build up a picture of how a number of small messianic-apocalyptic
Korean groups took their rise drawing on both sets of ideas, Protestant Christian and folk shamanic. In addition to participant-observer work in Unificationist seminars, much has been gained from informal conversations, both with members and ex-members, sympathisers and critics. In just over a decade since the original paper was written,1 the Unification
Church has undergone more change than simply a change of name to FFWPU. As I hope to show, syncretism does not always entail a harmonious blend of ideas; on the contrary, important tensions have emerged within the FFWPU, particularly in connection with a recent renewed and explicit emphasis on shamanism. Indeed, some of my informants, who were members in the 1980s and 1990s, have now become ex-members; formerly believing that they had espoused a religion that could unite Christianity, as well as the other world’s religious traditions, they have now told me that the FFWPU’s shamanic practices have proved divisive, and alienated them from the organisation. It is worth pointing out too that, from the mid-1990s, the advent of the computer internet has to some degree simultaneously changed the Unification Church and those who research it. The church, including its shamanic practices, is now clearly visible by anyone who cares to visit an FFWPU web site, and the World Wide Web reciprocally provides an important new resource for the researcher. Texts that were once regarded as esoteric, such as The Tradition — Book One (there was never a Book Two), a liturgical manual which sets out the Church’s ritual practices and methods of observing its distinctive festivals, is now publicly available in its totality through Internet access.
