f the universal doctrines a religion seeks to convey are meaningful, why must we carry the burdensome, often corrupt and formalistic weight of an “organization”? Would discarding the organization and leaving only the doctrine not be a purer path to the essence? Here, however, the intellect faces a cold reality: throughout human history, ideologies without form have largely scattered and vanished, while only those with form have survived to change the world. A religious organization is like a “refrigerator” for truth—yet, at times, that very refrigerator becomes the cause of the truth’s flavor being spoiled.
A Necessary Evil for Preservation: Systems Against the Erosion of Time
Individual enlightenment or fragmented acts of kindness are powerful, yet volatile. Religious organizations perform the role of “recording,” “transmitting,” and “systematizing” those sublime values. The reason doctrines from thousands of years ago reach us today is that there were those who bled and struggled to maintain the organization to protect that form. An organization is a collective memory bank created to overcome the limits of forgetfulness and bias inherent in individual intellect.
No matter how brilliant an idea, it cannot be passed to the next generation without a “school” (organization) to teach and disseminate it. In this sense, the organization is humanity’s desperate measure to transmit values as far and as long as possible. However, in this process of transmission, the “manuals” and “hierarchies” introduced for the sake of efficiency eventually come to take precedence over the essence of the doctrine itself.
The Power of Collective Intellect and the Swamp of Groupthink
It is difficult for a lone individual to devote their entire life to others, but an organization gathers the weak wills of individuals to create a massive system of relief. It is an undeniable fact that countless welfare foundations, hospitals, and schools have been established in the name of religious organizations to benefit the world. The organization provides a sense of belonging to the isolated individual and translates the vague teaching to “love others” into a concrete “program.”
However, this power is a double-edged sword. As an organization grows, “maintenance of the organization” becomes an end in itself, and intellectual criticism that contradicts the logic of the organization is regarded as “treason.” The irony arises here: the very form created to better communicate the doctrine begins to suppress “critical reflection” and “individual spirituality”—the very core of that doctrine.
Is the Organization Useless, or a Useful Barrier?
Ultimately, a religious organization is akin to a “useful barrier.” It is a fence that protects the truth, yet simultaneously a prison that prevents one from stepping outside of it. An intellectual being must enjoy the benefits of the system provided by the organization while constantly doubting whether that system is blinding their eyes.
We cannot declare the organization itself to be useless because we still live in the flesh within the structure of society. However, the moment we mistake the “form” taught by the organization for the “essence” of the Divine, religion becomes poison. We must not forget that the organization is merely a boat borrowed for a time to reach the truth, not the destination itself.
Closing Thoughts
The answer to whether religious organizations better communicate values is: “Yes, but they do so at a high price.” The organization spreads the teaching far and wide, but it simultaneously causes that teaching to harden and petrify.
The role of the intellectual is to constantly strike this hardened form with a hammer to break it. Only when there are those who continue to throw stones of questioning—ensuring that the water held within the vessel of the organization does not rot—can religion finally prove its value. Without the intellectual resistance of a minority seeking to maintain the vitality of the core rather than settling for the shell, the organization becomes nothing more than a museum of power. Form is necessary, but one must not sell their soul to it. That is the only way we avoid losing our way in the forest of giant organizations.
The Intellectual Property of Min Jinseong
From chronological traces to algorithmic artifacts.
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