Religion and education have been related very closely in traditional society . Religion has affected to set up the purpose of education and the image of ideal human being. Yet they started to be separated into each other in the enlightening period. In that period, the term of religion was fir st introduced to Korean society and the world view centering on China was destroyed. Also, the idea of religious freedom and the principle of the separation of state and religion were introduced to Korean society.
In the enlightening period, Confucianism lost its power and Christianity gained its power. Therefore, Korean society has changed from Confucian society to multi-religious society. On this situation the traditional-Confucian education and modern-pragmatic education were combined and carried out. Especially in order to keep the national sovereignty and identity, it was stressed to teach the pragmatic knowledge and technology. The new style schools, which were on the bases of traditional education system and supported by Korean government, taught Western science and technology and foreign languages.
This was not what was formed through full discus sion on the aspect of religious thought. Therefore, it can be said that the character education in that period lost its religious foundation and that the pragmatic knowledge education was incomplete.