Editing Minjung Buddhism (section)

== Critiques and Decline ==
Minjung Buddhism drew sustained criticism from moderate Buddhist intellectuals even before its dissolution. Critics such as Hyŏn'ŭng and Pak Kyŏngjun argued that the movement had merely grafted historical materialism onto Buddhism rather than deriving a philosophy of history from Buddhist thought itself, that its dismissal of Hwaŏm and Sŏn as mere "idealism" relied uncritically on the crude historical-materialist readings of the Chinese Marxist scholar Ren Jiyu (任继愈; 1916–2009), and that its reading of the primitive Sangha as fully communistic was doctrinally and historically simplistic.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 304–306.</ref> The movement's acceptance of revolutionary violence, though justified through classical precepts on "compassionate killing," alienated pacifist moderates and drew uncomfortable comparisons to the earlier justifications of state violence by pro-government "nation-protection" Buddhists under Park Chung Hee.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 304–305.</ref> Critics also faulted the movement's leadership for doctrinal elitism, factionalism, and an ill-defined conception of the minjung itself.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", p. 306.</ref>

The movement went into rapid decline after 1988–1989, a decline scholars attribute to the collapse of the Eastern European and Soviet communist bloc, the 1992 election of longtime opposition leader Kim Young-sam to the presidency, and the 1994 removal of the Chogye Order's undemocratic, pro-government administration — developments that addressed several of the movement's core grievances by other means.<ref>Mun, Chanju (2014). "A Historical Introduction to Minjung (Liberation) Buddhism: A South Korean Version of Radical Buddhism in the 1980s". ''Politics, Religion & Ideology'' 15.2: 264.</ref> Its final theoretical publications appeared in 1988–1989, and its publications were displaced by the more moderate journals ''Chŏngt'o kuhyŏn'' and ''Taesŭng Pulgyo''.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 293–294.</ref> Although Minjung Buddhism achieved neither Korean reunification nor a lasting institutional foothold, scholars credit it with rousing the Chogye Order from institutional lethargy, embedding social-scientific analysis into Buddhist doctrinal discussion, restoring the Order's independence from direct state control, and channeling former activists into the environmental, social-welfare, and monastic-reform movements of the 1990s — a legacy visible, for instance, in the later environmental activism of the dissident monk Pŏpchŏng.<ref>Jorgensen (2010), "Minjung Buddhism", pp. 306–307.</ref>