Definition
Founded in South Korea in 1954 by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) has been more widely known as the Unification Church (then, from 1996, as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU)) or, in popular parlance, as “The Moonies.” Its central Scripture is the Divine Principle, which provides an interpretation of the Bible with further revelations concluding that the Messiah was alive on this earth. Unificationists believe Moon to have been that man. The movement spread throughout the world, evoking considerable controversy, while engaging in a wide variety of ventures.
Introduction
The Reverend Sun Myung Moon was born as Mun Yong-myeong, the fifth of eight children, in what is now North Korea on 25 February 1920 (6 January according to the lunar calendar). His family converted to Presbyterianism when he was around 10 years old. Later he was to report that Jesus appeared to...
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References
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Barker, E. (2018). Unification Church, Moonies. In: Gooren, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_532-1
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