Like the Judeo-Christian religion, it speaks of an ideal golden age in the distant past and a golden age at the end of history. For the Confucian the goal of history is called "ta-tung": the age of Grand Unity. History progresses through three stages: a past era of disorder, a present era of relative peace and a future utopia of universal harmony. Hence, men can have hope because "ta-tung" will come on earth in the last days.
In the past, European writers on religion contrasted the light which Christianity brought with the earlier period of pagan darkness. Recent historians have corrected that simplistic interpretation of the preChristian West. The world into which Christianity came was not just sunk in sin. Quite the opposite. Graeco-Roman civilization provided a useful foundation upon which the Christian church could be erected. Greek philosophy was a valuable preparation for Christian theology. Stoic morality was helpful in creating a Christian social ethic. Pagan mystery religions prepared the soil for planting the Gospel.
Similarly when Christian missionaries came to Korea they were inclined to disparage the older, established faiths. Confucianism was unmodern and repressive, they said. Ancestor worship was condemned. The Confucian ethic was denounced for its merely humanistic base, its oppression of women and its unprogressive veneration of the past. Buddhism was criticized for idolatry and other worldly asceticism. Shamanism was ridiculed as superstition and occultism.
However, in recent years several Christian scholars have begun to see the positive aspects of Korea's religious heritage. 2 If Graeco-Roman civilization was a preparation for the Gospel in the West, shamanism, Buddhism and Confucianism prepared for Christianity in the East. Unification theology therefore deeply appreciates the many ways God has inspired and guided the religious quest of Koreans throughout their long history.
