Enhancing School Safety Frameworks Through Religious Education: Developing a Curriculum Framework for Teaching About World Religions in General Education

Abstract

Current school safety frameworks in South Korea concentrate on physical and infrastructure-related risks (e.g., natural disasters, traffic accidents, and facility management), overlooking safety challenges that emerge from the gradual multicultural transition of Korean society. This work attempts to address this critical gap in school safety frameworks. To do so, we first examine how issues related to increasing religious diversity in South Korea create safety challenges. Through our examination of specific cases in university settings, we demonstrate not only that these issues manifest as sociocultural challenges extending beyond the physical risks that current frameworks prioritize, but also that higher education institutions lack adequate institutional responses. Based on this analysis, we develop a curriculum framework for teaching about world religions in general education as an institutional approach to these challenges. By engaging with the concept of religion alongside various religious traditions and discourses, this curriculum aims to develop students’ religious literacy—a competency for better understanding and navigating complex religious and cultural dynamics in daily life. With this curriculum, we suggest an effective way to enhance current school safety frameworks through religious education that is essential for addressing the challenges entwined deeply with the sociocultural transition in South Korea. In doing so, we also highlight that religion continues to maintain significant influence in contemporary Korean society, contrary to widespread assumptions that undermine its ongoing roles and impact.

1. Introduction

Contemporary South Korea is undergoing a gradual transition toward multiculturalism through increasing populations of immigrants and international students that reshape the cultural and religious composition of society. Such societal changes emerge from globalization processes intrinsically linked to diverse factors such as shifting economic conditions and technological developments (Filipović and Jurišić 2024). This transformation creates diverse sociocultural challenges encompassing differences in language, lifestyles, ethnicity, and religious identity. Here, the increasing diversity of religions represents more than simply a proliferation of faiths—it constitutes a critical site where established sociocultural landscapes in South Korea encounter both challenges and adaptation.

This multicultural transition brings about complex dynamics across all levels of education, including higher education. Universities, in particular, function not merely as spaces for diverse religious identities to coexist, but as focal points where these identities actively manifest themselves and engage with existing institutional frameworks. Religious conflicts emerging in this sociocultural context extend beyond issues of freedoms of particular faiths. Since religions shape both personal beliefs and practical norms in public spaces and established institutional frameworks, these conflicts are intertwined with multifaceted tensions involving student autonomy and dignity, appropriate boundaries for religious symbols and practices in shared places, institutional fairness, and cultural sensitivity, among others. Religious conflicts, in that sense, represent emerging safety challenges in South Korea that current safety frameworks within (and beyond) educational institutions need to address.

Current school safety policy in South Korea, however, remains focused primarily on physical risks and infrastructure management1. Following the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that claimed 304 lives, including 250 high school students, exposing critical deficiencies in emergency response protocols and safety education, the Korean Ministry of Education developed comprehensive safety frameworks through successive basic plans for school safety issues (Im et al. 2022; Kang et al. 2023; Korean Ministry of Education 2015, 2020). These policy developments established systematic protocols for diverse physical risks such as natural disasters, traffic accidents, and facility-related hazards through experience-based education grounded in various preventive strategies. While these safety frameworks and relevant educational programs seem to manage observable physical risks, they lack approaches for understanding and addressing emerging complex conflicts rooted in religious and cultural diversity.

In this study, we strive to address this critical gap by highlighting religious studies in general education as an effective institutional approach to managing these safety challenges in (but not limited to) South Korean university settings. Religious education, we articulate, can offer a structural response to conflicts entwined with religious and cultural diversity—the non-physical factors in school safety that current frameworks cannot effectively manage. More specifically, we suggest that developing and implementing a curriculum for teaching about world religions in general education serves as a pathway for addressing these emerging safety challenges. Through this curriculum, which engages deeply with religion itself as well as diverse religious traditions and discourses, students can develop their religious literacy as an interpretive and civic competency. Similar to “interreligious competence” essential for “dealing with religious pluralism and the challenge of otherness,” religious literacy also encompasses knowledge and abilities to interpret and address various challenges in contemporary multireligious contexts (Filipović and Jurišić 2024, p. 2; Gu and Kim 2025). Fostering this religious literacy, in that sense, enables students to better understand and navigate complex dynamics relevant to ongoing religious conflicts and cultural tensions encountered in their educational communities and daily lives.

To address this critical gap, this study first examines the issues relevant to increasing religious diversity in South Korea with specific cases in university settings. By doing so, we demonstrate the ways in which such issues constitute emerging safety challenges that current safety frameworks cannot effectively manage. Building on this examination, we suggest that religious studies in general education can serve as an effective institutional approach to these challenges by enhancing religious literacy. We then develop a curriculum framework for teaching about world religions in general education, including specific course structures, content, and assessment methods, among others.

2. Religious Conflicts as Safety Challenges in the Context of Multicultural Transition in South Korea

2.1. Interreligious Conflicts as Emerging Safety Challenges in Higher Education Institutions

2.1.1. Identifying the Issue: Factors in Religious Conflicts Within University Settings

Contemporary South Korean society continues its gradual transition into a multicultural society through increased immigration, growing populations of international students, and shifting cultural composition. According to Statistics Korea (2025) and the Korean Ministry of Justice (2025), the international student population in South Korean educational institutions more than doubled from 96,357 in 2015 to 226,507 in 2023 (see

Table 1. Number of international students in South Korean educational institutions (2015–2023).

Years	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Students	96,357	115,927	135,087	160,670	180,131	153,361	163,697	197,234	226,507

and Figure 1). Similarly, the number of multicultural households2 increased from 299,241 to 415,584 during the same period (see

Table 2. Number of multicultural households in South Korea (2015–2023).

Years	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Households	299,241	316,067	318,917	334,856	353,803	367,775	385,219	399,396	415,584

and Figure 2). This transformation leads to various sociocultural challenges associated with diversity in language, lifestyles, ethnicity, as well as religious identity. Religion not only serves as a foundation for cultural identity and individuals’ ethical behaviors, but also intersects with broader social normative orders through its modes of existence, symbolic systems, and practices within public spaces. The growing diversity of religions thus represents more than a diversification of faiths—it functions as a crucial site where societal public structures encounter both challenges and reconstruction.

This transition manifests particularly clearly within university settings, where multiple aspects converge in compressed and concentrated ways. Within universities, students from diverse backgrounds share limited physical spaces where daily activities (e.g., lectures, clubs, religious activities, dining, discussions, and protests) interweave within institutional frameworks. These educational institutions thus serve not merely as spaces where various religious identities coexist, but as central stages where these identities actively express themselves, collide with one another, and grapple with established institutional systems and order. The growing population of international students in universities has intensified these ongoing dynamics, adding layers of complexity to existing tensions. Universities, in that sense, serve as crucial sites where South Korea’s multicultural transition unfolds in practice.

Religious conflicts that emerge in these universities extend well beyond issues of freedoms of particular faiths. Instead, these conflicts unfold through religion as a medium, intertwining with complex challenges across multiple dimensions: safety within and for communities, student autonomy and dignity, appropriate boundaries for symbols and practices in public spaces, standards for ethical judgment, institutional fairness and cultural sensitivity, among others. Given that religions function not merely as personal belief systems but are deeply involved in the practical norms and organizing principles for public spaces and institutions, these conflicts demand careful structural and institutional responses. While freedom of religious expression, rights of religious practices, and access to religious spaces represent important constitutional rights, they require adjustment or redefinitions when infringing upon others’ rights in ways that threaten campus safety, coexistence, and institutional legitimacy. Moreover, the nature of conflicts varies depending on whether they involve religious groups, religious and non-religious individuals, or domestic and international students. These varying dynamics suggest the need for carefully differentiated institutional approaches.

In this context, we examine specific cases that illustrate these dynamics in the following sections. Rather than exploring these incidents as isolated events, we demonstrate that these cases indicate how the institutionalization of religious expression, cultural negotiation processes, ethical boundaries, and public space governance are being challenged within multi-religious university settings in South Korea. By doing so, these cases reveal the ways in which fundamental questions about the ethics of religion and coexistence, entwined deeply with (potential) safety challenges, emerge in contemporary Korean society.

2.1.2. Examining Cases of Religious Conflicts in and Beyond University Settings

Religious Conflicts at Dongguk University: Vandalism of the Buddha Statue in 2000 and Land-Claiming Prayer Activities in 2011

Dongguk University, a renowned Buddhist-affiliated private educational institution in South Korea, has experienced a series of religious conflicts that demonstrate the persistent nature of interreligious tensions within university settings. In June 2000, vandals defaced the four-meter bronze statue of Buddha in front of the main building, painting red crosses on the statue and writing “Only Jesus” on the surrounding ground (Song 2000). The statue, erected in November 1964 to commemorate the establishment of Dongguk University, serves as a symbol of the institution’s Buddhist identity and its institutional missions. The university administration convened an emergency academic committee and requested a police investigation (Song 2000). In 2002, the same statue was vandalized again when perpetrators used red marker to write “Only Jesus” and draw crosses on it (Bulgyo Sinmun 2002).

In 2011, additional conflicts emerged involving different types of religious activities in this institution. Jeonggakwon, the Buddhist temple in Dongguk University, reported that Christian missionary activities occurred on campus, some of which violated university policies and procedures (Yang 2011). The incidents included land-claiming prayer activities conducted by Christian missionary groups within the campus, resulting in stark confrontations between Christian missionaries and a university Buddhist monk. Later, some Christian group members filed legal complaints against this monk with the police on charges of obstruction of business, theft, insult, and assault. The Christian missionary group members claimed that “we were only conducting missionary work, but the monk interrupted us” (Yang 2011). Other reported activities included unauthorized nighttime Christian religious assemblies on campus, illegal rental of classrooms for Christian worship services by external individuals who used false student identities, and incidents involving temple spaces and property damage, among others (H. Kim 2011; Lee 2011).

These incidents at Dongguk University exemplify the ways in which religious conflicts can evolve from symbolic violations into severe challenges to institutional authority and campus safety. In other words, the cases demonstrate that religious conflicts can develop into confrontations, legal disputes, and broader threats to safety within university settings when religious practices infringe upon other religions’ symbols, sacred spaces, and institutional frameworks.

The Islamic Mosque Construction Conflict near Kyungpook National University

The area near Kyungpook National University in Daegu has also experienced an ongoing religious conflict since 2021. Muslim international students from the university began pursuing the construction of an Islamic mosque for their communal worship in Daehyeon-dong, a residential area near the campus. These students have been gathering for Islamic worship in this area since 2012, initially renting spaces before purchasing the current property in 2014. However, this movement faces intense opposition from local residents, creating repeated construction halts and resumptions that have intensified into broader social conflicts. Local residents have opposed the construction by expressing concerns about hygiene issues, noise, and cultural differences. While the Buk-gu Office in Daegu initially approved building permits in September 2020, approximately 350 residents submitted a petition for construction cancellation in February 2021 (Y. Kim 2023). The petition suspended the mosque construction project until the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the building owner in September 2022, yet the conflict has continued with ongoing construction delays and disputes (H. Cho 2023).

As opposition continued, the conflicts have escalated through provocative actions targeting Islamic religious practices. Local residents positioned pig heads at the mosque construction site, referencing Islamic dietary restrictions, and displayed banners that contain messages such as “Islam OUT! Protect Daehyeon-dong” (Y. Kim 2023). Direct confrontations have occurred between the local residents and Muslim international students, resulting in physical altercations, police investigations, and mutual legal proceedings. These students have reported experiencing discriminatory treatment, with the residents calling them “terrorists” and telling them to “return to their countries.” However, the residents claim that their opposition concerns the location rather than religious discrimination (Y. Kim 2023).

This incident exemplifies the ongoing tensions between religious freedom and community residents’ concerns, demonstrating the ways in which religious conflicts involving international students can extend beyond university boundaries into broader community safety issues. Furthermore, the case illustrates the ways in which such tensions can persist beyond legal resolutions when underlying social conflicts remain unaddressed. This ongoing conflict thus indicates that religious disputes can become entrenched without proper approaches to address conflicts established through cooperation between the university and the local community. In that sense, these dynamics reveal that contemporary religious conflicts within and beyond university settings require distinct approaches that extend beyond current institutional safety frameworks.

Halal Food and Prayer Space Accommodation Conflicts at Some Universities

Many universities across South Korea have experienced conflicts that stem from increasing demands by Muslim international students for halal food provision and prayer spaces facing Mecca. Hanyang University became the first to open a halal food cafeteria, followed by Seoul National University, which subsequently launched similar services (Ko 2013). Universities including Korea University, Kyung Hee University, Kookmin University, and Yonsei University have partially responded to these demands through various measures. Regarding halal food provision, for example, Korea University now discloses ingredients in student cafeterias after having received numerous inquiries about pork content, and now provides chicken-based meals instead of pork once weekly. Similarly, Kyung Hee University displays phrases such as “No pork included” or “Halal meat used” on student cafeteria menus (Kang and Park 2024).

Conflicts have manifested through institutional challenges in balancing religious accommodation with perceived equality concerns. For instance, the adjustments universities implement have often generated tensions within campus communities. Some students perceive such accommodations as privileges (Ahn 2018), while Muslim students argue that access to halal food represents the rights of basic religious practices (Park and Seo 2018). As international students from different backgrounds increase drastically on campus, universities face challenges in organizing inclusive group activities and meals that accommodate diverse religious requirements. These challenges extend beyond food to prayer space allocation, as universities struggle to provide appropriate facilities for worship while maintaining existing campus operations (Y. Cho 2019).

The underlying tensions reflect questions about religious accommodation within university settings and the extent to which universities should modify existing systems to accommodate specific religious practices. Differing from the conflicts that involve missionary activities or doctrinal impositions, these disputes center on international students’ daily religious practices that create tensions with existing institutional systems and culture. Access to halal food and prayer spaces represents more than simple convenience issues, as these needs are intrinsically linked to the right to have religious practices respected. These conflicts also present safety concerns as unresolved accommodation issues create social tensions and conflicts within campus communities. In that sense, these situations demonstrate that universities require new safety frameworks that extend beyond current approaches so as to address challenges related to religious diversity and institutional equity.

Religious Conflicts Regarding Mandatory Chapel Attendance at Some Universities Affiliated with Christian Denominations

Jeonju University, a private educational institution affiliated with a Christian denomination, experienced significant religious conflicts in 2012 when students launched petition campaigns against mandatory chapel attendance requirements for graduation. The university required students to attend chapel once weekly for a minimum of four semesters out of eight total semesters, with additional requirements for three credit hours of theology courses. Student opposition emerged through online petition campaigns, with one student posting under the title “Please abolish Jeonju University’s mandatory Protestant Religious classes,” receiving over 400 signatures within days and generating extensive debate. Students argued that mandatory attendance constituted religious coercion, particularly problematic for non-Christian students who were required to participate in religious activities regardless of their personal religious beliefs (J. Park 2012). Under the university’s strict attendance requirements, students who failed to complete chapel courses received F grades and had to retake them to graduate.

A similar case reached the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in 2022 when a non-Christian student at a university affiliated with a Christian denomination filed a complaint regarding mandatory chapel requirements. The university offered four types of chapel programs with formats that avoided traditional worship structures and disclosed chapel requirements in admissions materials, requiring students to complete four semesters total for graduation. According to the Commission’s official decision document, each chapel type aimed at spreading Christian teachings, with classes conducted by externally invited pastors (National Human Rights Commission of Korea 2022). Hence, the Commission determined that the programs constituted religious education aimed at spreading Christianity. The Commission thus ruled that mandatory attendance without alternative courses violated religious freedom and recommended establishing substitute courses or assignments (National Human Rights Commission of Korea 2022).

The persistence of these conflicts across multiple religiously affiliated private educational institutions in South Korea indicates recurring and intensifying tensions between their religious identity and individual student autonomy. In other words, these disputes highlight a fundamental aspect of religious freedom: it encompasses not merely the right to practice religion, but also the freedom not to practice religion. Given these incidents, religiously affiliated universities should establish systems that accommodate students’ diverse religious and non-religious identities through meaningful choices, even when they seek to maintain their religious identity. Without these accommodations, certain religious traditions become institutionally dominant, creating structural sources of religious conflicts that threaten safety within and beyond campus communities.

2.2. Toward Religious Literacy Through Religious Studies in General Education

As described, religion increasingly constitutes a critical non-physical factor in safety challenges within and beyond university settings in South Korea. However, these institutions have yet to develop comprehensive institutional approaches to address such emerging challenges. While religion transcends personal belief systems and fundamentally shapes core sociocultural aspects in contemporary society (e.g., public order, institutional authority, and the ways of communal interactions), the cases we examined reveal that higher education institutions generally lack adequate frameworks to address conflicts in evolving contexts of cultural and religious diversity in South Korea. Given these circumstances, we suggest religious education as a valuable structural, institutional approach to addressing religious conflicts.

Indeed, religious education remains limited in the landscape of South Korean higher education. Except for religiously affiliated private institutions (e.g., Dongguk University, Yonsei University, etc.) or a few universities with departments of religious studies (e.g., Seoul National University, Sogang University, etc.), most institutions lack educational programs or specific general education curricula for religious studies (Seong 2024). Even religion-related courses at those religiously-affiliated institutions often focus on specific doctrinal teachings based on their founding religious organizations (Gu and Kim 2024a, 2024b, 2025), which potentially violates educational neutrality and student autonomy. The mandatory chapel attendance cases we examined clearly illustrate how these limitations in religious education manifest as actual conflicts.

These circumstances have the potential to perpetuate misunderstanding, prejudice, and institutional bias that stem from insufficient understanding of religion. While religious education at religiously affiliated universities derives its legitimacy from implementing their institutional missions and founding religious principles, it often becomes a catalyst for religious conflicts when functioning as faith promotion rather than academic inquiry. Given that even religiously affiliated institutions enroll students from diverse religious and non-religious backgrounds, institutional emphasis on specific religious traditions may violate individual religious freedom and generate institutional conflicts. In other words, religious education centered on specific religious traditions often fails to accommodate religious diversity and academic neutrality, which may create conditions for institutional and identity-based tensions.

Within this context, religious literacy emerges as an essential competence for citizens in contemporary South Korea as the country undergoes its gradual transition toward a multicultural society (Gu and Kim 2025; Seong 2024). Religious literacy involves not merely memorizing specific information about religions, but rather encompasses interpretive and ethical abilities that enable coexistence with others holding different belief systems. Such abilities derive from rigorous academic engagement with the diverse histories, practices, principles, symbolic systems, and social roles of religious traditions. Religious literacy thus functions as a crucial civic competence for both religious and non-religious citizens. Given that contemporary universities serve as critical sites where individuals from various backgrounds shape communal life within confined spaces, religious literacy becomes vital for ensuring safety that encompasses physical as well as social and symbolic dimensions.

However, most curricula in South Korean universities tend to approach religion through the lens of personal faith, unscientific thinking, or superstition. Few institutions engage with religion as a legitimate subject for academic and cultural inquiry. As a result, ignorance and prejudice about religion persist, serving to entrench and intensify ongoing interreligious conflicts rather than prevent them. The lack of religious literacy, in other words, erodes capacities for coexistence with others, which may lead to structural threats to safety.

In this context, we suggest that incorporating religious studies into general education curricula represents an effective institutional approach to enhancing religious literacy. Here, we would like to emphasize that such religious education must not aim to teach specific doctrines or promote a particular faith, but rather constitute interdisciplinary education that examines religion as social, cultural, philosophical, and historical phenomena through academic inquiry. This approach should not seek to encourage or discourage particular religious beliefs, but rather enable students to interpret diverse ways religions have functioned throughout human life, communities, and history.

Such education plays essential roles in understanding interreligious differences, recognizing sources of conflict, and forming public ethics across different belief systems. Furthermore, this approach not only allows religious individuals to reflect more deeply on their own religious traditions but also provides non-religious individuals with interpretive perspectives for understanding others’ beliefs. Religious studies in general education thus establishes foundations for trust, respect, and ethical communication among community members—the core non-physical elements that constitute school safety. In addition, this religious education can facilitate proactive and preventive approaches to various religious conflicts emerging within universities (e.g., disputes over prayer spaces, dietary requirements, symbolic practices, limits of religious expression, etc.) while helping establish cultural criteria for institutional responses. In this way, such an education functions not merely as knowledge transmission but as an ethical framework for mediating between institutional demands and diverse cultural contexts.

In this sense, we articulate that religious studies in general education serve as an essential pathway for enhancing religious literacy, requiring their curricula to be grounded in a historical perspective on world religions. We acknowledge that many scholars have critiqued the concept of world religions for its Western-centric assumptions shaped by universalizing discourses centered on particular religious traditions. Nevertheless, integrated narratives that explore how diverse religious traditions formed within their historical and intellectual contexts, interacted, and repeatedly navigated conflict and coexistence retain their educational and social significance. Given these considerations, we now turn to developing a curriculum grounded in a historical perspective on world religions, with its specific structures and content. In doing so, we suggest an educational and pedagogical pathway for enhancing religious literacy.

3. Developing a Curriculum Framework for Religious Studies in General Education: Teaching About World Religions

3.1. School Safety Education Development for Enhancing Religious Literacy: The Research Institute of Comprehensive School Safety at Dongguk University

Since October 2014, following the critical turning point after the Sewol ferry incident, the Korean Ministry of Education has supported school safety policy developments through strategic partnerships with specialized academic research institutions. From 2014 to 2023, Sungshin University School Safety Research Institute served as a key research partner, conducting various policy studies and research initiatives in school safety education. In September 2023, this mandate was assigned to the newly established Research Institute of Comprehensive School Safety at Dongguk University, beginning a new phase in foundational research and educational policy developments for school safety in South Korea.

This institute, in collaboration with the Korean Ministry of Education, has established a research framework aimed at developing sustainable approaches to school safety for contemporary South Korean society. Recognizing unprecedented and complex challenges including, importantly, climate change, infectious disease outbreaks, and various physical hazards that threaten school safety and societal stability, the institute has developed a research agenda that systematically responds to the need for more comprehensive, adaptive strategies capable of addressing both current and emerging threats. This agenda consists of three research domains that organize the overarching policy studies and educational research: (a) curriculum development across all levels of educational institutions; (b) safety infrastructure and management systems within and beyond educational institutions; (c) legal and institutional frameworks for school safety.

First, the curriculum development domain focuses specifically on ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of safety education programs across K-12 and higher education institutions. This area engages in developing adaptable curricula that can respond to complex safety risks while maintaining pedagogical effectiveness. Studies in this domain involve creating experience-based curricula and pedagogical practices, establishing assessment frameworks for risk literacy development, and integrating safety education with current academic programs. Second, the safety infrastructure and management systems domain addresses both institutional safety facilities and broader community safety networks, recognizing that school safety now extends beyond classroom-focused approaches. This research domain aligns with the Comprehensive School Safety Framework 2022–2030 offered by Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction & Resilience in the Education Sector (2022), which prioritizes protecting students and educators through comprehensive safety facility development responding to various threats including disasters and violence. The area examines the ways in which educational institutions coordinate with local communities, transportation systems, and emergency response services to create integrated safety networks in our contemporary society. Studies in this area thus focus on developing practical technological solutions, upgrading physical safety installations, and establishing clear communication protocols that connect educational institutions with their communities so as to address both potential physical hazards and emerging unprecedented challenges. Third, the legal and institutional frameworks domain focuses on refining safety laws and institutional standards through policy analysis, identifying regulatory gaps, and developing governance structures for school safety. This area recognizes that updating legal foundations becomes essential for ensuring educational safety to protect students, faculty, and staff while preventing safety accidents within and beyond educational institutions. Studies in this domain thus concentrate on consolidating scattered laws related to school safety currently spread across multiple legal frameworks3. The research also attempts to develop rapid response systems and their legal foundations for safety incidents that can adapt to changing educational environments, including declining student populations and rapidly changing social and cultural contexts in South Korea. With these three interrelated domains, the Research Institute of Comprehensive School Safety at Dongguk University strives to create an integrated research direction(s) and generate outputs that produce sustainable, evidence-based approaches to address the interconnected nature of school safety challenges in contemporary Korean society.

Within this context, as part of the institute’s first research domain focusing on curriculum development, we present a curriculum framework for teaching about world religions to address emerging safety challenges. This course, a history of world religions, targets undergraduate students who take courses for general education in their early years. The course also assumes the typical level of religious understanding that these targeted students bring to university after completing secondary education. We have determined that developing this course for universities without religiously affiliated colleges (e.g., College of Buddhist Studies in Dongguk University, College of Confucian Studies in Sungkyunkwan University, College of Theology in Yonsei University) and departments for religious studies (e.g., Seoul National University and Sogang University) would provide the most representative curriculum framework. These excluded institutions, in other words, already offer various forms of religious education, including mandatory chapel requirements and/or diverse religion-related courses across general education and specific major programs. Hence, we suggest that universities where students encounter religious studies solely through general education courses constitute a crucial factor for developing a curriculum framework that can enhance religious literacy in South Korean higher education. Given the typical structures of general education, we designed this course as a three-credit class with two meetings per week.

This three-credit course begins with fundamental questions about the category of religion itself. For instance, the course description could articulate this critical approach as follows:

In contemporary society, we accept the existence of diverse religions without resistance to the category of religion, despite the lack of a singular definition. What can be included within this category? The course explores the history of world religions based on such questions, examining the historical development, core doctrines, and cultural influences of major religious traditions that have shaped human civilization. Through objective and academic approaches, this course seeks not only to enhance religious literacy but also to establish foundations for interreligious dialogue and mutual respect.

To align with the four interconnected dimensions of the capacities we previously suggest (i.e., knowledge, interpretation, critical–ethical engagement, and coexistence), the course establishes five primary objectives: (a) attaining a rigorous understanding of religion as both a category and phenomenon; (b) understanding the historical development and core doctrines of major world religions; (c) analyzing the ways in which religions have shaped human civilizations and cultures; (d) cultivating capacity for mutual understanding and dialogue across religious traditions; and (e) developing objective and critical thinking about religious phenomena.

3.2. Course Overview and Class Contents

The course, utilizing the materials presented in

Table 3. List of course materials: Textbooks and supplementary texts (Oh 2013; Sharma 2013; Ahn and Ryu 2014; Sen 2018; Keown 2020; Ames 2005; Leaman 2025; Hart 2020; H. Park 2024).

Category	Title [English Translation]	Author [Korean Translator]	Publisher	Year	ISBN
Textbook	Segye Jonggyo Dulreobogi [A Tour of World Religions]	Oh, Kang-nam	Hyeonamsa	2013	9788932316727
Textbook	Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from Each Tradition	Sharma, Arvind [Lee, Myung-Kwon]	Sonamu	2013	9788971395790
Textbook	Segyeui Jonggyo [World Religions]	Ahn, Shin & Ryu, Sungmin	Korea National Open University Press	2014	9788971395790
Supplementary Text	Hinduism	Sen, Kshitimohan [Kim Hyoung jun & Choe Jiyeon]	HUiNE	2018	9791159013782
Supplementary Text	Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, Second Edition	Keown, Damien [Koh, Seunghak]	Gyoyoseoga	2020	9791190277402
Supplementary Text	Asian Philosophy, the Life and Creativity	Ames, Roger T. [Chang, Wonsuk]	Sungkyunkwan University Press	2005	9788979866094
Supplementary Text	Judaism	Leaman, Oliver [Yu, Jae-Deog]	Penielpub	2025	9791193092392
Supplementary Text	The Story of Christianity	David Bentley Hart [Yang Segyu & Yun Hyerim]	VIA	2020	9788928647538
Supplementary Text	Islam-eul Wihan Byeonmyeong [In Defense of Islam]	Park Hyondo	Bulkwang Publishing	2024	9791193454619

, consists of two parts, with the midterm exam as the transition point: Part I covers foundations of religious studies and Eastern religious traditions (Weeks 1–7), while Part II examines Western religious traditions and contemporary religious discourse (Weeks 9–15). The weekly class topics, objectives, and content for Part I are as follows (see

Table 4. Part I: Class topics, objectives, and contents (Weeks 1–8).

Week	Class Topic	Class Objective	Class Contents
1	What is Religion?	✓ To attain a rigorous understanding of religion	✓ Learn about the significance and meaning of religion ✓ Explore classifications of world religions ✓ Understand why religious literacy is necessary in contemporary society
2	Indigenous Religions and Shamanism	✓ To understand the foundational characteristics of human religious experience ✓ To identify the universality and particularity of religious phenomena ✓ To reflect on the contemporary significance of indigenous religions through Korean shamanism	✓ Learn about the features and forms of indigenous religions ✓ Explore animism and totemism ✓ Examine the worldview and rituals of (Korean) shamanism
3	Hinduism: Formation and Development	✓ To understand change and continuity in religion by examining the historical development of Hinduism. ✓ To analyze how the dharma–karma–rebirth (saṃsāra) framework has shaped Indian society	✓ Learn about Vedic religion and Brahmanism ✓ Understand the core concepts of Hinduism (e.g., dharma, karma, and rebirth (saṃsāra)), the caste system and its social structure ✓ Explore the diversity of Hindu traditions and sects
4	Sikhism and Jainism	✓ To understand the diversity of Indian religious traditions ✓ To explore the contemporary significance of Sikhism’s integrative features and Jainism’s philosophy of nonviolence	✓ Learn about the emergence and early development of Sikhism, the Guru tradition, and core doctrines and practices ✓ Understand the origins of Jainism with a focus on Mahāvīra, and the philosophy and practice of nonviolence (ahiṃsā)
5	Buddhism: Origins and Development	✓ To understand the Buddha’s awakening (bodhi) and foundational early Buddhist doctrines ✓ To identify how Buddhism differentiated itself from earlier Indian religious traditions and how it developed over time	✓ Learn about the life of the Buddha and his awakening (bodhi) ✓ Understand foundational doctrines: the Four Noble Truths (catvāri āryasatyāni) and the Noble Eightfold Path (āryāṣṭāṅgamārga) ✓ Explore early Buddhism and sectarian Buddhism (Nikāya schools) ✓ Learn about the emergence and development of Mahāyāna Buddhism
6	Buddhism: Transmission and Regional Variations	✓ To understand the transmission of Buddhism across Asia and the emergence of distinct regional traditions ✓ To identify characteristic doctrines and practices in these regional traditions	✓ Learn about Theravāda Buddhism in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia ✓ Explore Chan/Seon Buddhism in China and Korea ✓ Understand esoteric Buddhism in Japan and Tibet—Vajrayāna (Tibet) and Mikkyō/Shingon (Japan)
7	East Asian Religious Traditions	✓ To attain an informed understanding of Confucianism and its influence on Korea	✓ Learn about Confucius and the formation of Confucianism ✓ Understand core Confucian ideas—ren (仁), yi (義), li (禮), zhi (智) ✓ Explore Daoism and Chinese folk religion, Shinto in Japan, and traditional religions in Korea
8	Midterm Exam

).

We shaped Week 1 to establish foundations for the entire course through the fundamental question “What is religion?” The university settings in South Korea often face practical constraints where the first classes during opening week rarely extend beyond a brief orientation. Moreover, since students complete course registration adjustments by the second week, covering substantial content in early sessions becomes impractical. Given these constraints, Week 1 should prioritize providing an essential course framework alongside information and direction that the syllabus alone cannot convey. In reality, students’ choices to enroll in general education courses in foundational disciplines such as religious studies are usually primarily driven by schedule convenience, movement patterns between classes, credit requirements in specific areas when preferred courses become unavailable, and grade point considerations. Therefore, instructors should not only establish the fundamental course direction but also generate intellectual curiosity that motivates students to commit to the course for the semester. This approach means that Week 1 both provides practical orientation (e.g., course objectives, class procedures, grading methods, among others) and engages students with the fundamental question “What is religion?” to generate curiosity about why religious literacy proves necessary in contemporary society. By doing so, Week 1 aims to demonstrate that learning about the meaning and importance of religion, along with the classification system of world religions, constitutes essential civic competence for citizens in contemporary multi-religious societies. Alongside introducing the academic concepts of religion and world religions, we suggest that instructors should help students understand that this course for general education provides value for navigating globalized societies throughout their future careers.

Following this foundation, Week 2 explores the origins of human religious experience through indigenous religions and shamanism, which represent the starting points of the religious history of humanity. Students learn about the characteristics of animism and totemism, along with shamanic worldviews and rituals, with Korean shamanism (musok) serving as a specific example to enhance their understanding. This week aims to help students understand the foundational characteristics of religious phenomena and recognize religion as a universal human experience. Here, we consider it important for Week 2 to review the content covered in Week 1. As described, this approach accounts for the situation that students typically finalize their enrollment by the second week. Furthermore, given that this course functions as part of general education, we determined that indigenous religions and shamanism can serve effectively to expand students’ understanding of religion beyond their conceptual frameworks acquired through secondary education. In other words, this approach seeks to expand students’ understanding of religion by presenting indigenous religions and shamanism as legitimate religious phenomena rather than primitive religions viewed through imperialist frameworks. While limitations of this course prevent deeper exploration into these topics, we believe introducing perspectives that consider practices such as tarot reading as religious phenomena can enhance students’ religious literacy and provide foundations for studying institutional religions in subsequent weeks.

Weeks 3 and 4 focus on Indian religious traditions by examining Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism consecutively to introduce the diverse religions of the Indian subcontinent. Week 3 addresses Hinduism, which can be classified as one of the four major world religions by the number of adherents. The course takes a diachronic approach to the development of Hinduism from the ancient Vedic period to the contemporary era, examining core concepts such as dharma, karma, and rebirth (samsara), along with the social impact of the caste system. Week 4 examines Sikhism and Jainism, which are relatively smaller in scale but possess distinctive characteristics, to illustrate the pluralistic nature of Indian religions. This week emphasizes Sikhism’s guru tradition and Jainism’s principle of nonviolence (ahimsa). From this point, the question of what constitutes world religions requires deep consideration. We acknowledge that our classification rests on geographical region and number of adherents. We will discuss our detailed selection criteria in a later section.

The course examines Buddhism over Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5 addresses the Buddha’s life and awakening (bodhi), foundational doctrines including the Four Noble Truths (catvāri āryasatyāni) and the Noble Eightfold Path (āryāṣṭāṅgamārga), and its development from early traditions to Mahāyāna Buddhism. Week 6 focuses on Buddhism’s transmission across Asia and the distinctive characteristics of each regional tradition. The course comparatively examines Theravāda Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Chan/Seon Buddhism in China and Korea, and esoteric Buddhism in Japan and Tibet so as to enhance students’ understanding of Buddhism’s regional adaptation and transformation.

Week 7 comprehensively examines the religious foundations of East Asian cultures through Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto, and traditional Korean religions. The course focuses on Confucius and the formation of Confucianism, emphasizing core concepts such as ren (仁), yi (義), li (禮), and zhi (智), while exploring in depth the characteristics of Confucianism that significantly influenced Korea. The week also addresses Chinese Daoism and folk religion, along with Japanese Shinto, to deepen students’ understanding of the religious characteristics and mutual influences within East Asian cultural spheres.

Week 8 is the midterm exam that consists of essay questions focusing primarily on concepts covered in Weeks 1 and 2. For instructional effectiveness, we divided the course into Part I and Part II at the midterm based on the geographical origins of religions. This division results in the content in Part I solely constituting the scope of this exam. Such an approach would pose no issues if the final exam also consisted of essay questions. However, considering students’ workload and the learning objectives they should achieve upon course completion, we determined that a research paper based on the assigned reference materials for this course becomes necessary. Therefore, we designed the midterm exam as an essay test focusing on the content from Weeks 1 and 2 to assess whether students fulfill minimal learning requirements and understand the foundational concepts. In addition, depending on the course (and students’) circumstances, the midterm exam can be replaced with a review of research proposals for the final paper. We believe this replacement option supports course management by providing one week of flexibility, considering student convenience in various situations such as university events or festivals that might affect instruction.

Part II (i.e., Weeks 9–16) continues the exploration of world religions by examining Western religious traditions and contemporary religious discourse, building upon the content covered in Part I. The weekly class topics, objectives, and content for Part II are as follows (see

Table 5. Part II: Class topics, objectives, and contents (Weeks 9–16).

Week	Class Topic	Class Objective	Class Contents
9	Judaism	✓ To understand Jewish monotheism and the doctrine of chosenness ✓ To analyze how the Diaspora experience has shaped Jewish religion and culture	✓ Learn about Ancient Near Eastern religions and the origins of Judaism, including the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Torah ✓ Understand Jewish historical development and the Diaspora, and how they shaped core doctrines and practices ✓ Explore major modern denominations of Judaism (e.g., Orthodox, Conservative, Reform)
10	Christianity: Formation and Expansion	✓ To understand how the Jesus movement developed into a universalizing religion ✓ To analyze Christianity’s institutionalization and its historical significance	✓ Learn about Jesus and the earliest Christian communities ✓ Explore Paul and the missionary expansion of Christianity to Gentile audiences ✓ Understand the patristic period and the formation of foundational doctrines ✓ Examine imperial patronage, the adoption of Christianity as a state religion, and the rise of medieval Christendom
11	Christianity: Divisions and Modern Developments	✓ To understand how schism and reform shaped modern and contemporary Christianity ✓ To identify the distinctive characteristics of Christianity in Korea	✓ Learn about the 1054 East–West Schism and its consequences for Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism ✓ Explore the Protestant Reformation and the emergence of Protestant traditions ✓ Understand modern diversification within Christianity and the rise of the ecumenical movement ✓ Examine the introduction and development of Christianity in Korea
12	Islam: Foundation and Expansion	✓ To understand Islam’s core beliefs and practices ✓ To analyze how the expansion of Muslim empires shaped the transmission of Islam	✓ Learn about Muhammad and the revelation of the Qur’an ✓ Understand Islam’s core beliefs and practices—the Six Articles of Faith and the Five Pillars ✓ Explore the expansion of the early Muslim empires (e.g., the Umayyad and Abbasid) and emerging transregional networks ✓ Understand the Sunni–Shia split and its historical development
13	Islamic Civilization and Contemporary Islam	✓ To understand the relationship between religion and civilization by examining Islam’s classical period (often called the “Golden Age”) and modern revival movements ✓ To identify and critically address prevalent misconceptions about contemporary Islam	✓ Learn about intellectual and cultural developments during Islam’s classical period, including advances in philosophy, science, medicine, and the arts ✓ Understand Islamic law (sharīʿa) and key social institutions ✓ Explore the modern revival and reform movements in Islam and their historical contexts ✓ Recognize the diverse forms and practices of contemporary Islam across regions and traditions
14	Atheism and Contemporary Religious Discourses	✓ To explore the dialogue between religious and nonreligious worldviews ✓ To critically reflect on the significance and limits of religion in the age of science	✓ Learn about the historical development of atheism and agnosticism ✓ Understand secularization theory and transformations in the social role of religion ✓ Explore various approaches to science–religion relations ✓ Recognize contemporary spirituality movements and new religious movements (NRMs)
15	Interreligious Dialogue and the Future	✓ To critically evaluate the roles that religion should and can play in contemporary society, based on the material covered this semester ✓ To articulate a well-reasoned position on those roles	✓ Learn about religious pluralism and exclusivism ✓ Understand the aims and challenges of interreligious dialogue ✓ Explore secularization and the future of religion
16	Final Exam

).

As an initial class for Part 2, Week 9 establishes the foundations for understanding Western religious traditions by examining Judaism as the historical starting point for the religious traditions that emerged in West Asia. This week explores the origins of Judaism, covering Ancient Near Eastern religions and the emergence of Judaism, the significance of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and Torah, and how the Diaspora experience has shaped modern Jewish denominations. The content of this week, Judaism and its key elements, serves as an essential groundwork for understanding Christianity and Islam, which subsequent weeks will examine.

Similar to the approach we take to Buddhism, Christianity and its development also receive two-week coverage. Week 10 examines the foundational period, exploring Jesus and the earliest Christian communities, the role of Paul, the patristic period, and the formation of foundational doctrines, and Christianity’s adoption as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Week 11 addresses major divisions and modern developments, including the East–West Schism of 1054, the Protestant Reformation, the diversification of modern Christianity and the ecumenical movement, and the comprehensive history of Christianity in Korea. This extended examination allows students to understand both Christianity’s early institutionalization and its ongoing adaptations to different cultural and historical contexts.

Weeks 12–13 focus on Islam, which also receives two weeks of coverage. Week 12 examines Islam’s foundational elements, beginning with Muhammad and the Qur’anic revelation, followed by Islam’s core beliefs and practices (i.e., the Six Articles of Faith and the Five Pillars), the expansion of early Muslim empires, and the Sunni–Shia division. Week 13 explores Islamic civilization and contemporary developments, covering scholarly achievements during Islam’s classical period (often called the Golden Age), Islamic law (sharīʿa) and social institutions, modern revival movements, and the diverse forms of contemporary Islam. This approach allows students to understand Islam’s historical development and its multifaceted presence in the contemporary world.

Week 14 pays attention to atheism and contemporary religious discourse. This week explores the historical development of atheism and agnosticism and examines secularization theory and transformations in religion’s social role. The week also reviews various approaches to the relationship between science and religion. It further examines contemporary spirituality movements and new religious movements to understand differences and connections between traditional religions and emerging religious phenomena. By doing so, students engage with various discourses such as those about institutional religions, perspectives on new religions, and secularization and atheism resulting from the development of science.

Week 15 concludes the course by examining interreligious dialogue and the future of religion. This week discusses debates between religious pluralism and exclusivism, the meaning and challenges of interreligious dialogue, and secularization and the future of religion, with a synthesis of what students learn throughout the semester. The course concludes with reflective discussions on what roles religion should and can play in contemporary society.

Week 16 serves as the term for the final exam—students submit the final research paper. For this assignment, students select one of the references listed in the syllabus and write an analytical essay based on their chosen text. The course provides introductory texts for each religious tradition, with detailed information about these textbooks discussed in the following section. Given that in-depth analysis tends to challenge students at the general education level, the primary purpose centers on providing students with opportunities to think more deeply about at least one religious tradition of their interest. Furthermore, reading texts, combining their content with personal reflection, and engaging in logical writing develop students’ essential competencies that general education aims to foster, regardless of the specific content in this course.

3.3. Primary Directions and Rationale for Course Design

We designed this course based on four primary directions: (a) contemporary needs for religious literacy enhancement; (b) critical reflection on the category of religion itself; (c) balance of objectivity and respect; and (d) integration of the South Korean context with global perspectives.

3.3.1. Contemporary Needs for Religious Literacy Enhancement

In this course, we focus particularly on the concept of religious literacy. Contemporary globalized society not only creates a pluralistic environment where diverse religions coexist, but also features a growing population who consider themselves atheist or non-religious due to scientific and technological development. In this context, students cannot develop genuine civic competence without a basic understanding of various religions. This competence extends beyond the field of religious studies and will help students from diverse departments navigate the multicultural environments they will encounter in their post-graduation careers. We, therefore, suggest that religious literacy establishes this course as an essential part of general education. Hence, the primary goal of this course centers on helping students recognize through the study of world religions that the concept of religious literacy extends beyond simply acquiring religious knowledge—it also encompasses the abilities to understand religious phenomena objectively, respect differences between religions, and engage in meaningful dialogue.

Balance of Objectivity and Respect

While religion constitutes a realm deeply entwined with individual faith, general education in university settings must not advocate the superiority of specific religions or aim for conversion. Therefore, we structured this course to examine each religious tradition within its own context, focusing on its historical development processes and sociocultural influences. Through this approach, we seek to help students develop attitudes that acknowledge and respect the unique values and wisdom of each religion.

Critical Reflection on the Category of Religion Itself

To enhance religious literacy, students need a foundational understanding of the concept of “religion” itself. As the course overview describes, although the concept of religion itself lacks singularity, people often recognize various forms as equal religions. Based on this critical awareness, we structured this course to enable students to reflect on what can be included in the category of religion and what limitations such classifications possess. To serve this purpose, we divided the course into Part I and Part II around the midterm exam, although the syllabus does not explicitly state this structure. We arranged this sequence to allow students to understand what constitutes religion, how world religions are composed, and how these relate to each other. We also designed the midterm exam to assess students’ understanding of these fundamental concepts.

Integration of the Context of South Korea with Global Perspectives

Since this course mainly targets Korean students, we prioritized reflecting the influences each religion has had on Korean society and culture. Confucianism presents a particular example: it proves difficult to include within the category of world religions based on the number of adherents, and furthermore, different perspectives exist regarding its inclusion within the category of religion itself. Nevertheless, we articulate that Confucianism should be examined in this course for the following reasons: it has significantly influenced Korean society as a religious tradition, and East Asian cultural characteristics are commonly attributed to Confucian influences when viewed from other cultures’ perspectives. Furthermore, regarding the traditions that have directly influenced the history of religion in Korea (e.g., shamanism, Buddhism, Christianity, etc.), we designed this course to emphasize their Korean characteristics while also enabling students to understand them within global contexts. In addition, given the increasing number of Islamic immigrants, particularly from Uzbekistan, we structured this course to demonstrate that understanding Islam has become necessary within the context of contemporary South Korea.

3.4. Key Considerations in Course Design

The primary challenge of this course involves examining world religions within one semester—a 16-week timeframe. Given the lack of clear definitions of religion and world religions, we faced significant challenges in creating a course for students without a specialized background in religious studies. However, we viewed these challenges as demonstrating the necessity for general education courses that serve students from diverse academic backgrounds. We, therefore, developed this religious studies course for general education with a few key considerations.

First, grounded in this critical awareness, we decided to organize religions by region: South Asia (including China and India), East Asia, and West Asia/Middle East. While this regional organization might lack precision, we valued how it enables the East–West division that students commonly recognize. Furthermore, we determined that Buddhism could serve as a bridge that connects Indian traditions (e.g., Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism) with Chinese traditions (e.g., Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto). We also considered that, given Buddhism’s significant number of adherents and institutional expansion, classifying it as a major world religion would not constitute a serious academic error in general education.

In this context, we deliberately organized these religions into Part I for the following reasons: Initially, given our direction of Integration of the Context of South Korea with Global Perspectives, we determined it effective to examine religions that have cultural and geographical proximity to Korea. Moreover, we could not ignore the fact that Western European intellectual traditions form the foundations of what we learn in contemporary society, including, importantly, religious studies. Given this background, we had concerns that exploring European-centered religions first might heighten the risk that students would interpret the traditions we grouped in Part I through an imperialistic perspective infused with Orientalism, despite careful attention to avoid such bias. While this decision lacks empirical support, we nevertheless determined that this class sequence might prove more beneficial for those two reasons.

Second, we considered how to organize specific religions based on our regional classification. While many criteria exist, we initially arranged Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam according to the number of adherents. We then selected Confucianism for its significance in the East Asian cultural sphere and Judaism for its foundational role as the origin of Abrahamic religions. As a result, the course focuses on these six religions (i.e., three Eastern and three Western religious traditions), and thus we plan to provide references for each tradition in the syllabus (see Table 3). While we determined that conducting a course for world religions with these six religions would prove more efficient in terms of class management, we acknowledge a strong obligation to include non-mainstream religions so as to help students understand the concepts of religion and world religions that we discussed above. From this perspective, we included Daoism, which is commonly grouped with Confucianism and Buddhism in East Asia. We also selected Jainism and Sikhism to help students understand two points: Hinduism is not the only religious tradition in India, and doctrinal connections exist between Buddhism and Islam—in the class schedule, we arranged them as Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism by number of adherents.

At this point, we need to acknowledge a limitation of this course in that we did not include Zoroastrianism. This issue stems from a practical constraint where we had to consider more immediate priorities for the university settings in South Korea within the 16-week timeframe. This constraint is evident in the fact that the only Korean-language book on Zoroastrianism available as of 2025 is Mary Boyce’s A History of Zoroastrianism, translated and published in 2020. This same issue extends to other religions that we could not include in this course. While this limitation represents a challenge that religious education in Korean universities needs to address, we determine that more immediate concerns should take priority.

Third, we decided to approach Christianity as one institutional religion—this choice relates to the inherent limitation of the 16-week timeframe. In Korean society, Christianity indeed manifests its influence more prominently through its division into Catholicism and Protestantism. We had considered separating Christianity into three weeks to address this division, but determined that two weeks would be more appropriate due to concerns about disproportionate attention to one religion. In addition, given that the first week serves as orientation for the course, Part I covers Indian religions (2 weeks), Buddhism (2 weeks), and Confucianism with East Asian religions (1 week) for five weeks in total. We thus decided that Part II should cover Judaism (1 week), Christianity (2 weeks), and Islam (2 weeks) to maintain balance among religious traditions.

Fourth, our consideration also includes textbook selection. While using separate introductory books for each religion as the main textbooks with supplementary PowerPoint materials would be ideal, this approach creates the issue of excessive weekly reading loads for students. Since we designed this course as general education for early-year students, we determined that introducing a comprehensive textbook for world religions would be a more effective way to enhance student learning outcomes. Therefore, for this curriculum, we decided to select a main textbook from introductory books for world religions and to create supplementary PowerPoint materials drawn from textbooks of specific religious traditions for each class. By introducing the textbooks within these PowerPoint materials, we provide students with the references that enable them to proceed toward further learning for their final research papers. Taken together, we consider this approach the most effective given the course structure.

Fifth, we consider it essential to include indigenous religions, shamanism, atheism, and new religious movements in this course, although various constraints might prevent in-depth discussions. We believe that examining content previously categorized as pre-religious alongside the concept of primitive and that currently classified as post-religious, along with the discourse of secularization, can contribute to expanding students’ understanding of religion, world religions, and religious literacy.

Despite these key considerations, our course design still has limitations. The concept of world religions itself involves fundamental questions: If this concept refers to globally significant religious traditions, then questions emerge regarding what criteria we determine such significance. On the other hand, the concept could also be defined as all religions of the world. From this perspective, this course covers both too many and too few religions. However, given the target audience for this course, we determine that the current framework remains most appropriate based on the rationale we outlined above. In addition, we believe that this structure could be modified and supplemented with original religious texts in classical languages when adapted specifically for students in religious studies.

4. Conclusions

In this study, we strive to address a critical gap in South Korea’s school safety frameworks. To do so, we first examine the ways in which the issues relevant to the increasing diversity of religion in South Korea create emerging safety challenges. Through our examination of specific cases in university settings, we demonstrate that such issues manifest as complex sociocultural safety challenges that extend beyond the observable physical risks that current frameworks prioritize. We also reveal that higher education institutions generally lack adequate frameworks to address these challenges in the changing context of cultural and religious diversity in South Korea. Based on our analysis, we develop a curriculum framework for teaching about world religions in general education as an effective institutional approach to addressing these challenges. By engaging with the concept of religion itself along with various religious traditions and discourses, this curriculum framework aims to develop students’ religious literacy as a competency to better understand and navigate complex dynamics relevant to ongoing religious and cultural tensions encountered in their daily lives. With this curriculum, we suggest an effective way to enhance current school safety frameworks through religious education essential to addressing the emerging challenges entwined deeply with sociocultural transition in South Korea. In doing so, we also highlight that religion continues to maintain significant influence in contemporary society, contrary to widespread tendencies to overlook or undermine its roles and ongoing impact.

While this study offers a viable approach to expanding these frameworks, we need to acknowledge some limitations. First, practical constraints exist regarding our curriculum, including, importantly, the 16-week timeframe, which inevitably limits deep engagement with diverse religious traditions and discourses. Second, related to these practical constraints, this study does not extensively examine the scholarly critiques of the concept of world religions itself concerning its conceptual limitations and definitional challenges (e.g., Masuzawa 2005). Third, this study does not sufficiently consider approaches to fostering social bonds based on emotional foundations, such as interpersonal dialogue (e.g., Malović and Vujica 2021). These limitations point to important directions for future research. Future studies could engage deeply with theoretical critiques of the concept of world religions itself. This engagement will enable us to shape better pedagogical approaches as well as curriculum development for religious studies in general education. Furthermore, empirical studies regarding this curriculum, including its effectiveness in enhancing students’ religious literacy, would provide valuable support for implementing this framework in diverse educational settings. With our work, these prospective studies will contribute to enhancing school safety frameworks in South Korea through religious education, addressing the emerging complex safety challenges entwined with the gradual multicultural transition of Korean society.