Ham Sok Hon and Quakerism

V. Sok Hon Ham and Quakerism.

"Whilst reading the book, Friends for 300 Years: The History of Quakers¹⁶⁷, I have learnt a great deal about the importance of the corporate-community spirit. Prior to this, by and large, I lived only within a circle of liberalism with the concept of individualism."¹⁶⁸

From the time Sok Hon Ham came into contact with Presbyterianism at the age of six (1907), his ideas were frequently caught between Western and Oriental influences. He was a very selective and eclectic thinker whose ideas changed in time with his changing circumstances. Thus it is difficult to categorize his religious belief or even to identify which ideas interested him most among the various philosophies to which he was drawn. Nevertheless, by the end of his life (1989), he was an "official" member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). And so this chapter explores the significance of Quakerism within his life and thought and connects it to the changing times in which he lived. I will examine how and why he came into contact with Western Quakers. And I shall examine in detail, what appealed to him in Quakerism, given his desire to defend the "Feeble" Orient from the Herculean West.

Sok Hon Ham first read about the Western Quakers while he was in Osan School (1921) through his reading of Thomas Carlyle's Sartor Resartus. He was greatly impressed by the story of George Fox and subsequently resolved to read his biography.¹⁶⁹ In his further readings he came across the characters of further outstanding Quakers, and he viewed them with an increasing degree of curiosity. While he was in Japan (1923-1928), he had a chance to attend a Quaker Meeting with Uchimura Kanzo and Nitobe Inazo.¹⁷⁰   In the whole of Japan, Nitobe (1862-1933) was one of two Japanese students to study in the USA and Europe. He was the first Japanese to join the American Quakers in Baltimore in about 1885, and married a Friend, Mary Elkinton, in 1891. Having studied agriculture and taken his Doctorate at Halle, he returned to Japan and initiated great agricultural reforms. After the First World War Nitobe became the first Under-Secretary-General of the League of Nations and spent some years in Geneva. on his return to Japan he was made a life-member of the House of Peers.¹⁷¹

But it was not until 1947 that Sok Hon Ham's attention was drawn toward Quakerism in a serious way. At this time he had just escaped from North Korea, and he heard from Dong-hwan Hyon of the large numbers of conscientious objectors amongst the Quakers.¹⁷² Dong-hwan Hyon was the General Secretary of the Korean YMCA, who had just returned from a trip to the USA. Sok Hon Ham recalled: "I was very interested in the Quakers' absolute pacifism."¹⁷³   In 1953, immediately following the Korean War, he had an occasion to meet British and American Quakers at Kunsan refugee medical camps in South Korea. He spoke about his first impression and his interest in the humanitarian activities of the Quakers in South Korea.

"Just after the Korean War in 1953, the British Friends Service Council and the American Friends Service Committee helped with the work of the rehabilitation of my country. While helping to reconstruct a hospital destroyed during the War in Kunsan, they organized a work camp. This was the first project administered by the Quakers in Korea. Some young Quakers were participants in the work camp as well. I met the Quaker participants and was impressed with their beliefs. Because of this I became interested in Quakerism".¹⁷⁴

From the 1940's, we have seen that Sok Hon Ham developed a degree of suspicion toward doctrinaire Christianity, and regarded Christianity as backward and old fashioned. In particular, he believed that system and doctrine were always behind the spirit¹⁷⁵ which meant he had a great deal in common with Quaker belief, prior to his becoming a member, for Quakerism also highlighted the idea and experience rather than doctrine. He spoke of the need for constant change and re-interpretation of religious dogma and canons:

"Religious canons originally contained principles to enhance life, not a columnar list of commands. The vitality of a canon being its underlying spirit, the canon needs to be repeatedly reinterpreted. The canon has to be supported by the new life experience and a new interpretation of history."¹⁷⁶

One can see through this writing that Sok Hon Ham believed people should not bind their God or their experience of God to a fixed idea as ancient people had done. In particular, he criticised the doctrine of the "resurrection of the body" in Christianity. He interpreted the life of the Spirit as an eternal thing, which transcended materialism, and replaced the life of the physical body.¹⁷⁷ He criticized the shamanistic style of Korean Christianity:

"Korean Christians have a larger respect for their creeds and dogmas than for what they are capable of experiencing. They pray for their own bliss and welfare, so showing that they have not cast out shamanism."¹⁷⁸

Subsequently, owing to this critical view of Christianity, Sok Hon Ham was treated as a "heretic" not only by major Korean Christian groups, but also by many of his Christian associates. In particular, in 1957, when he wrote a remarkable article, "Let me speak", in the monthly magazine, Sasang-gye (Thinking World), which was concerned about the increasing dogmatism of Korean Christianity. Through this article, he was heavily criticised by a Catholic Father Hyong-Chung Yun and other established Christian groups. on the other hand, Sok Hon Ham gained many sympathizers, especially among the intelligentsia, university students and non-Christians at a national level. He recalled his experience: "The Church labelled me a heretic and even former friends from the Non-church Movement began to avoid me."¹⁷⁹ Consequently, although he was a "Christian" thinker, he was not welcomed by established Christian groups.

Since Sok Hon Ham had forsaken the Non-Church Movement in 1953, he had not belonged to any Christian denomination; instead he was fascinated with Oriental philosophy and Taoism. But he remained in some way a Christian. However, in 1960, he committed a `sin': "I committed a sin which was totally indefensible".<sup>180</sup>   No one knows what the `sin' was. There is a rumour and some associates maintain that: "Sok Hon Ham loved a woman". But it has remained unspecified up to the present. Subsequently, he was abandoned by several of his Christian associates and left alone with his agony. At this time he spoke of the agony and the difficulties he had as a lonely `sinner': "It was only after I became a sinner that I came to realize that the forgiveness of sins is the greatest thing that can happen to a man."<sup>181</sup>   He bitterly experienced how severely a `sinner' could be separated from the rest of society. For some time, he felt alone and isolated, and his feeling of loneliness increased. Through one of his letters at that time to Byung-mu Ahn, one can see how much he felt this loneliness as a `sinner': "The greater wrong a man does the greater is his need for a friend. --- I am dying! I shouldn't die. A friend, I don't have a friend! I need a friend. --- 9th October 1960."<sup>182</sup>   Hence, he came to know anew that man cannot live alone. Later on, this bitter experience led him to think deeply about the relationship between an individual and `wholeness'.

In this period of Sok Hon Ham's loneliness, when he was longing for a friend, the Friends appeared before him. He later considered what inner situation had caused him to come into contact with the Western Quakers:

"It was not that I had studied about the Quakers and had decided to become one. Rather, as a man with no place to go, and as a drowning man clutching at even a piece of straw, I attended one of the [Quaker] meetings."¹⁸³   That was in the winter of 1961. Since February 1958, a handful of British and American Quakers had held weekly meetings for worship in Seoul.¹⁸⁴   Subsequently in 1962, after an invitation from the American and British Quakers, he went to Pendle Hill¹⁸⁵ for ten months and the following spring to Woodbrooke¹⁸⁶   for a further three months. During this period of study he was attracted by the Quakers religious principle of "do-it-yourself"¹⁸⁷, which appealed to his fondness for the free thinking spirit of humankind.

Nonetheless, at this stage, Sok Hon Ham had no particular desire to become a "formal" member of the Religious Society of Friends. He recalled his feelings of the period: "In the beginning, I did not consider becoming a member of the Quakers. I did not see any difference between the attender and the member."¹⁸⁸   Considering he was not attracted to any religious organization, the Quakers were no exception for him. He described himself as a solitary wanderer in the wilderness: "Always I was as a monk who sleeps a night under the cool shade of the mulberry tree and then continues his wandering."¹⁸⁹

In 1967, however, when Sok Hon Ham attended the Friends World Conference in North Carolina at the invitation of the American Quakers, he decided to become a member of the Society of Friends. He explained why he made such a decision:

"Rather than being the result of a special act on my part, it was a decision arising from a sense of responsibility to the Friends who had befriended me. The Friends stemmed from mysticism, yet they are not self-centred extremists, unlike other religious mystics. The Friends are not authoritarian, unlike other established religions. I do not say Quakerism is a perfect religion, also I do not think Quakerism is the greatest religion. only at this moment, I am in agreement with a great deal of Quaker thought. I do not yet know what will be my next stage."¹⁹⁰

Consequently, in 1967 he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends. Yet as Arthur Mitchell, the first American Quaker Sok Hon Ham met, pointed out: "You [Sok Hon Ham] were already a Quaker before you become a Quaker."¹⁹¹   And although he was drawn by the Quakers' characteristic anti-formalism, anti-dogmatism, puritanism, simplicity, the spirit of equality and pacifism, these elements were already a part of his intellectual formation long before he joined the Society of Friends. He commented why he liked Quakerism:

"I like Quakerism, because it is not interested in formalism, creed, and theological discussion. No priest no Father, everyone is equal to the Friends. They are natural and they have a sincerity along with wide views. The Friends have an open mind for anyone: Buddhists, Unitarians, and even atheists. See how fair they are!"¹⁹²

One can recall Sok Hon Ham's earlier sayings during the 1940's, before he came into contact with Quakerism, when he expressed suspicion of Uchimura's belief on the issue of Atonement: "It is not the historical man Jesus whom I believe, rather I believe in Christ. He is the eternal Christ, who not only is in Jesus but who also by nature is in me."¹⁹³   one can find a distinct analogy between this concept of "Christ by nature is in me", and the Western Quakers' idea of the "Christ Within". Likewise in a separate essay, when he referred to the issue of the Atonement, one can find similar characteristics between his views and Quakerism: "Atonement occurs through Christ, only when Jesus and I no longer divide characters but experience oneness together."¹⁹⁴   Clearly, this concept of oneness together" can be seen as the same notion of "that of God in every man" and the "Seed of God" in Quakerism.

Also as early as 1955 and 1956, Sok Hon Ham wrote of the key meaning of Christian prayer and the `seed of God' within individual humanity in terms that are very close to the Quakers' view that "all life is sacramental". He wrote: "The real prayer is not a prayer through a mouth, it is through all your life."<sup>195</sup>   "Everyone has a seed of God".<sup>196</sup>   Just as Quakers emphasized the Inner Light rather than creed or doctrine, so he had also shared a similar belief throughout his spiritual journey. In 1953, he stressed the changing characteristic of life as against the inflexibility of the Christian creed: "Life changes all the time, so why do you emphasise a fixed creed for this changing life.?"<sup>197</sup>   His parallel historical awareness with Quakerism can also be found in an essay of 1959 (It also was written before he came into contact with Quakerism; his thinking prefigured much of Quaker philosophy. In particular, it is his use of the concept of `inner light' that is very noticeable). Through the essay, he illustrated his belief concerning the reciprocal relations between one's historical awareness and an individual consciousness of the inner light: one cannot expose one's inner light from a valley in the mountain nor in a closet. The inner light comes from our history and society."¹⁹⁸   In this respect, he felt a great deal of accord with the Quakers' various fundamental notions: the `Inward Life', the `Inner Light', `Christ Within', the `Seed of God', `That of God in every man', and its Protestantism.

Thus when Sok Hon Ham came into contact with Western Quakers he saw a close resemblance between his own ideas and those of Quakerism, notwithstanding the cultural gap and the historical disparities. Indeed he drew attention to the similar characteristics of Quakerism and Oriental philosophies: "Howard Brinton described Quakerism as the most `Oriental' religion among the Western religious sects. I have the same views as Howard, Quakerism is quite `Oriental'."¹⁹⁹ That is why, characteristically, he saw a close likeness between Western Quakerism and Oriental Taoism. He saw close parallels between the meditation of Taoists and the silent listening of Quakers in their meeting for worship, and between "emptification [emptying] of mind" in Taoism and the Christian injunction, `Blessed are the poor in Spirit'.²⁰⁰   He spoke of the resemblance of Taoism and Quakerism in this way:

"Lao-tzu emphasized the emptification [emptying] of mind. Emptification and calmness can be realized through meditation. Lao-tzu emphasized meditation because the life of the Spirit cannot be realized through material power. It is said that Quakers meditate in order to feel God's presence."²⁰¹

The progress of the free spirit in humanity will also come from open ideological conflict not from restriction through violence. He understood the notion of emptification of the mind in Taoism and Quakerism as a removal of one's fixed ideas, frame of mind and rigid conception.²⁰²

Sok Hon Ham also felt an affinity between the pacifism of Quakerism and Taoism. Inasmuch as there are various likenesses between Taoism and Quakerism, Sok Hon Ham did not view Quakerism as a New Religion. Instead he identified Quakerism as an embryo for the birth of a New Religion in humanity. As he put it:

"Quakerism is not the New Religion to which I aspire, but I embrace the hope that out of this form, sprouting from this seed, will come forth the religion that will bring newness to mankind."²⁰³

As a clue to the vital `seed' for the emergence of this New Religion, he placed pre-eminent emphasis on the Quakers' corporate group-meditation, a tendency which did not appear in Oriental meditation. He specifically defined the differences between the meditation of the Quakers and the Oriental meditation:

"Quakers' meditation is different from the Oriental one. Theirs is not individual but corporate. When they meditate in small or large groups, they believe that God is present amongst them. The Oriental style of meditation is a personal Zen, even though a group of ten people meditate together."²⁰⁴

In this connection, when he read the literature of the Western Quakers, in particular, the History of Quakerism, written by Howard Brinton, he came to appreciate the corporate-community spirit of Quakerism. He vigorously commented on the effect of Quakerism on his outlook:

"Whilst reading the book, Friends for 300 Years: The History of Quakers,²⁰⁵   I have learnt a great deal about the importance of the corporate-community spirit. Prior to this, by and large, I lived only within a circle of liberalism with the concept of individualism. But since I was stirred by Quakerism, I cannot think of individualism without holism and a sense of wholeness."²⁰⁶

Compared with Western Quakerism, Sok Hon Ham saw a lack of a corporate spirit in the Oriental tradition and viewed this as a critical limitation. There were reasons why Taoism and other Oriental philosophies could not reach a corporate spirit in the same way that Western Quakerism did. The formidable powers of the dynastic emperors, had imbued the people with fatalism and a spirit of subordination. Correspondingly, it had undermined the potential for corporate organization in the Orient. Whereas the corporate spirit of Western Quakerism had led to their involvement in issues such as the anti-nuclear and the human rights movements, equivalent actions were unlikely to have been prompted by Taoism. Oriental Taoists tended to be transcendental and "ideal" when faced with a practical problem. Thus, one can maintain that this pre-occupation with the "ideal" was a major factor limiting the relevance of Taoism to the practical world.

There is a further reason why, later on, Sok Hon Ham became a member of the Religious Society of Friends. This was Westerners' strong commitment to social justice: "The God of Christianity has a strong sense of justice, unlike other major Oriental religions. I perceive that is why the free spirit has been developed in the West."²⁰⁷   This concept of social justice within Western ideas and Quakerism, animated his social and political activity.

Since Sok Hon Ham had an enthusiastic and a fundamental interest in history²⁰⁸, he interpreted the Inward Light of Quakerism as the Inward Voice; and the Inward Voice as the Voice of God and the Voice of History. In other words, he saw "history as a record of humanity seeking God".²⁰⁹   From his point of view, each historical era is a sheet of paper on which God writes, and history itself can be seen as God Himself. Moreover he understood God as the wholeness as well as the oneness. He used the New Testament to argue his case:

"The son of God is no different from the son of history. In plain language it is history, in religious terms it is God. For this reason, referring to Jesus, Matthew said, `Son of Abraham', Luke said `Son of Adam'."²¹⁰

From this stand-point, he found a corresponding enthusiasm from the Quakers' historical awareness commenting on what aspect of Quakerism he admired:

"I admire Quakers' astute awareness concerning historical events along with their positive attitudes regarding the future of the world. Quakers [show] whole-hearted concern with world affairs rather than their personal matters."²¹¹

He furthermore, maintained that truth should have a historical perspective, not solely from the stand-point of an individual's life.²¹²   He speculated that history was a perpetual process linked inseparably with the present:

"History still lives in the present; it is something that is on the way to completion. History records selected facts, not just any facts; the criteria have to do with whether a fact is linked to life now."²¹³

On a further occasion, Sok Hon Ham affirmed the significance of this notion of whole responsibility with regard to historical events, feeling himself to be an associate in any historical transgression:

"All sins and crimes are related to myself. I am involved as an assaulter [aggressor] in any sin and crime throughout the history of humanity. I am an accomplice in all the sins and crimes. I am rather the principal offender. I am a recidivist - August 1961."²¹⁴

He carefully thought about the concept of the "whole is holy" as an analogue of the flesh and the dirt in the human body: "When the flesh was separated from the whole body it became dead dirt. The flesh can be holy and alive only when it abides within the whole body (totality)".²¹⁵   Considering he could not separate the individual and the whole in any way, he regarded himself as a debtor in relation to the whole of society and its subject people. Equally, in one of his memoranda, he wrote about the inseparability of all members of society:

"Good is not the good of the individual, but the good of the whole. Evil is not the evil of the individual, but the evil of the whole. Problems lie in the whole. Because of that, we must think in terms of the whole."²¹⁶

Consequently, goodness and evil were not separate for him. The whole part of the body is regarded as important for a man, whether a part of the body is clean or dirty, whether it is big or small.²¹⁷

In 1959 also before he came into close contact with Quakerism, Sok Hon Ham emphasised the importance of the interdependent relationship between the individual and the wholeness:

"Humanity exists within society. Although a personality exists as an individual, the fundamental nature of the individual stands within the whole of society. So an individual's deed is determined by the whole of the society."²¹⁸

As I have shown, he re-confirmed his ideas of the totality and the wholeness through Quakerism, receiving confirmation of the rightness of his thoughts through the corresponding ideas of Western Quakers.

Sok Hon Ham believed that not even a saint could exist apart from the whole of the society. As a result, an individual can only make sense and exist within the context of his/her social relations and historical connections. From this outlook, he understood the essence of Christianity as being "Love your neighbour as yourself". For him neighbours are not only his friends but also the people within the wider society, the people of the global community as a whole.²¹⁹   Because he supposed that freedom within humanity could be achieved only through wholeness and oneness, he assumed that recognition of oneself could come only through identification with wholeness: "The first is to see the self in the whole, the second is to see the whole in the self."²²⁰   He declared that the basic nature of human salvation could only be achieved by the total-community accepting total responsibility. He spoke of this total salvation in this manner:

"I don't want my salvation, if it is only for myself. The salvation should be for everyone in the whole world. Even the communists, atheists, heretics, evangelists and shamanists, all of them should have the salvation, that is the real salvation."²²¹

Since Sok Hon Ham held a tolerant view regarding differences of ideas, he supposed the world and the life of humanity to be pluralistic. In this connection, he thought that when life is sunk to its lowest level it tends to standardization and uniformity, whereas when life is raised toward a higher level, its forms became various and richer. And he spoke about the importance of variety in humanity:

"Our thoughts should not be too narrow. Bearing in mind the laws of the universe and of life are poly-dimensional. It should not make a difference if we have different thoughts. No two people have the same face. Such is life. Why do people insist that my religion and my thoughts should be the same as theirs? If they do, their thoughts are too narrow. Varieties of life and thought should grow."²²²

Sok Hon Ham's notion of wholeness is not the corporatism of authoritarian societies. His idea of wholeness is rather a mature stage of individualism along with the community spirit between one and another. To him, there is no distinction between that of an individual and the whole; both blend together inseparably. That is why he thought the truth and the freedom of each individual could only come through the communion of the wholeness.

Sok Hon Ham also deliberated on the concept of wholeness in connection with the historical development of humanity, and he found inescapable connections between the two. one can see through his written output how he defined the changing concept of humanity throughout its historical progress:

"In former times when cultural communication was so restricted, each people believed that it alone had a history. The result was that history was limited to tribal history or national history. However, as history unfolded further, communication became more widespread; it was realized that no people could stand as an island to itself."²²³

Sok Hon Ham deemed the universe, history, religion and God as the eternal incompleteness: an endless growing and constantly changing process. Therefore, he regarded that all things were in a constant metamorphosis which required the ceaseless revising of the systems used by society.²²⁴   From this viewpoint, the same principle can be applied for life itself. Although human beings constantly strive for perfection in life, it is an impossibility because they are imperfect.²²⁵   Accordingly, he understood religion as a continual growing and struggling process rather than a ready-made manifesto.²²⁶   He illustrated the changeable characteristic of religious truth and compared it with the moving walker's view towards the mountain:

"As we get close to the mountain [Truth], the appearance of the mountain can be seen differently according to our distance and angle from the mountain. Thus, if the mountain [Truth] can be seen as different at every moment, according to our views, it is a natural phenomenon."²²⁷

Up to now, as I have shown, the Quakers' corporate spirit and their tendency toward social reform along with their historical awareness, clearly influenced Sok Hon Ham's notion of social involvement. It is unquestionable that after Sok Hon Ham's sojourn in Pendle Hill and Woodbrooke (1962-1963), his political and social opposition toward the president Chunghee Park's dictatorial regime became more direct. However, that is not to say that Western Quakerism was the dominant factor in Sok Hon Ham's direct political participation. There were further concurrent reasons for his direct political involvement. After his period of study in Pendle Hill and Woodbrooke, he visited West Germany to meet his follower Byung-mu Ahn. With Byung-mu Ahn's encouragement, he become more involved in Korea's chaotic and aggressive political condition. This encouragement contributed to the main turning point for his political participations and social activism.²²⁸   Accordingly, when he returned to Korea from Germany, he wrote a letter to Byung-mu Ahn. Through this letter one can see how much he was determined to change the political climate of Korea:

"I am determined to resist. I will try to arrange the non-violent civilian movement, then I will attempt to establish a civilian government. Of course, I am not a politician, but I will vigorously encourage public opinions. I will go out for public lectures throughout Korea --- July 1963."²²⁹

Correspondingly, Sok Hon Ham held a public gathering in the Civil Assembly Centre in Seoul, where he criticized President Park and his regime. Although this gathering was relatively small, consisting of only eighty or ninety thousand people²³⁰, it had a symbolic impact on Korean society, and influenced both the Korean intelligentsia and university students. His emphasis on human rights, social justice and political participations became more direct and distinct as did his sense of social responsibility.

Once Sok Hon Ham became involved in Quakerism, the Quakers also provided international backing for his civil rights activities. They helped draw public attention to his plight. Thus, when he was detained by General Chunghee Park, the British weekly magazine, The Friend, reported:

"Ham Sok Hon Detained; --- He was arrested with 8 other Christians, following a `March 1st Declaration for Democracy'. This is not the first time that Ham Sok Hon has been arrested during the regime of President Park, --- FWCC [Friends World Committee for Consultation] has sent an appeal to President Park urging a speedy release of the detainees. A letter has also been sent to the Korean Ambassador in this country. --- jointly with the secretaries of the Peace and International Relation Committee and FSC [Friends Service Council], --- They speak of the well-known dedication of Ham Sok Hon to non-violence, based on religious principles and aimed entirely towards humanitarian ends. The AFSC [American Friends Service Committee] has also cabled President Park, and urged President Ford to halt United States aid to South Korea because of the flagrant denial of human rights there."²³¹

Surely, Sok Hon Ham could not have anticipated this kind of international backing and support from such groups as the Chinese Taoists. That is why he viewed the influence and efficiency of the West in today's world in a practical way. He pointed to the predominance of the West within the contemporary world: "Anyway, the contemporary world has been preserved by Western ideology, more or less through Christianity".²³²   Consequently, without the support and the backing from the West, his activities would have been restricted by the totalitarian regime in his own country. Indeed, he could resist effectively and outwardly by maximizing the civil rights and democratic movements within South Korea because of the stable backing of the Western Quakers.

With the exception of the Quakers, other Christian denominations, were seen by Sok Hon Ham as absolutist and monotheistic. He regarded any religion declaring itself as the only truth, as an imperialistic religion.²³³   Equally, he was critical of the conformist views held by Christianity. He conceived himself as a Universalist with poly-dimensional views of the world: "I don't believe the truth can only be found through Christianity. Truth is not expressed to any one person or organization absolutely."²³⁴

Sok Hon Ham moreover believed that the early meaning and essence of Christianity might have lost its effectiveness, even if many individuals had not. He considered that Christianity began to take an incorrect path from the period of Constantine the Great (280-337 A.D.). It was he who officially approved Christianity as a state religion in 313 A.D. It was at this time that the Christian Church became a part of the secular order. Thereafter, it had tacitly approved both the wars and imperial polices of the West. He believed this to be wrong for a practising Christian, which is why he did not approve of established state religion and why he favoured Quakerism as a non-state religion. As he argued:

"When the disciples of Christ were oppressed by the Roman Empire, they tried to overcome the oppression through their living faith, yet when their faith became established as an absolute religion, Christianity began to decay."²³⁵

He also criticized the narrow view held by established Christianity in this way:

"Christians are concerned only for other Christians and for their church affairs, not for non-Christians nor for secular affairs. For them, their churches are their whole world, separate from the real whole world. It is a wrong and narrow notion."²³⁶

Did this make Sok Hon Ham a Universalist rather than a Christian thinker? Obviously he had the highest admiration for Jesus Christ as his personal God, even more than his love of the Oriental, Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu: "I love both Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, but it is Jesus Christ that I believe in. There is no God for me except His God".²³⁷   But was this enough to make him a Christian? Not absolutely, because he also emphasized the necessity of having wide ranging views which embraced other religions and other thoughts:

"If anyone said `my painting, my poem, and my song are the only great ones, and declares others' paintings, poems and songs are terrible!', he does not understand the real meaning of the arts."²³⁸

In a similar way, Sok Hon Ham also saw the aims of religion and science to be interlinked. He believed that religious views should be affected by secular views, and the latter were necessarily shaped by scientific advance. Therefore, he conceived the relationship between religion and science to be inseparable. Additionally, in the final analysis, he believed that science and religion would gradually approach each other and reach a converging point. He thus did not accept an un-scientific religion. He was more willing to throw away theology than science, if he was forced to choose between two.²³⁹   Basically, he believed that science is the most suitable way of understanding the phenomenal world, whereas religion is an appropriate method of understanding the spiritual world.²⁴⁰   At the same time, he bore in mind that religion and science were not different in terms of the pursuit of the truth. He explained the relationship between science and religion in the following example:

"It is like opening a mountain path by the cutting of a tunnel from either side of the mountain. This tunnelling of the mountain begins in totally opposite directions, yet ultimately, the aim is the same. By approaching the centre [essence] of the mountain [Truth] from different directions, they will meet at the mid-point of the mountain."²⁴¹

Sok Hon Ham also understood that human beings cannot separate religion from politics. The history of humanity was a battle between religion and politics²⁴², yet he also believed the final goal of religion and politics to be the same. Nevertheless, he believed religious principles could never be achieved through the political system. Therefore, he strongly disagreed with the politicisation of religion. He was convinced the politicisation of religion²⁴³   would result in that religion becoming corrupt. What is more, he believed that humanity must not be sacrificed for political statism but for the truth only.²⁴⁴

To sum up, I have analysed the influence of Quakerism on Sok Hon Ham's life and thought. As I have shown, he was a lonely wanderer and a religiously "heretical" man in the Orient, yet felt enlivened and comforted by the Western Quakers. Eventually, although he became a member of the Friends, he also indicated that Quakerism was not a permanent religion for him and declared himself rather as a religious Samaritan woman:

"I am the Samaritan woman. I have five Masters: Native Religion, Confucianism, Buddhism, Presbyterianism, and the Non-Church Movement, but nothing can be master of my spirit. Now, I am a Quaker, but none will be master of my spirit."²⁴⁵

As has been pointed out, even though he confessed himself to be a "Christian", his ideal view of the Christian was not the same as a "conventional view". He tried to separate himself from any religious denomination or political formulation. He believed the origin of the truth came from a conscience of humanity rather than any religious conformity or external political decree.²⁴⁶   Sok Hon Ham's life as a Quaker was an attempt to find the truth within his specific historical era, an era of political oppression and religious narrow-mindedness.

As Jesus Christ said: "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working"²⁴⁷, Sok Hon Ham, as a Quaker, emphasized the necessity of working historically now and spatially here²⁴⁸, and his notion of Heaven as ever present.²⁴⁹   That is why throughout his public activities, he criticized the secular injustices and dictatorial regimes of his time. His religious criticism was the manifestation of his beliefs and his pursuit of the righteous way, along with his humanitarian concerns: the way of God as well as the way of Ssi-Al (people). Likewise, his political activities were his endeavours to share the whole common people's suffering as a means of the redemption from his personally committed `sin', since he believed God to be wholeness.

On every side, Quakerism was very significant for Sok Hon Ham's life and thought, because it stimulated his consciousness regarding religious tolerance and social responsibility. And inasmuch as Quakers are intensely concerned not only with religious matters but also with diverse secular issues, for him, Quakerism provided both wide views and a variety of stand-points for his ideas. What is more, somewhat secondarily, his various activities were backed by the Western Quakers, concretely and substantially. The characteristic of the Truth, as he once noted was: "The Way [Truth] is connected with human relations. I behold a star [Taoism] in the sky [Orient], yet I can only walk on the earth through my feet [Western Quakerism]."²⁵⁰   That was the meaning of Quakerism in the life and thought of Sok Hon Ham.

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