Abstract

This article examines the transformation of Buddhism and the problem of religious modernity in Won Buddhism, one of the indigenous new religions that arose in colonial Korea in the early 20th-century. Amid an era of colonial domination and social upheaval, Sotaesan Bak Jung-bin (1891–1943)— honored as Daejongsa—founded a new religious movement grounded in the Buddhadharma while seeking to reform contemporary Korean Buddhism. His thought synthesized elements of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism with cosmological insights drawn from late 19th-century movements such as Donghak (Eastern Learning), particularly the doctrine of the Later Heaven Great Awakening (hucheon gaebyeok). While affirming the Buddhadharma as the central truth of Won Buddhism, Sotaesan did not merely accommodate the spirit of modernity but sought to address and transcend the spiritual crisis of his age. Observing the rapid expansion of material civilization, he advocated a “Great Opening of Spirit” (jeongsin gaebyeok) as a religious response to the profound transformations of the modern world. This study first delineates three major ways in which Sotaesan reinterpreted Buddhist ideals in dialogue with modern change and then considers how the doctrines of Won Buddhism illuminate a distinctive trajectory of religious modernity in early 20th-century Korea.