Mission life: THE KUKMIN DAILY

Bible In Top Place Among Books Professors Would Like To Read Again

2018-11-11 15:36

With the Culture and Sports Ministry having declared 2018 a “Year of Reading Books Together,” the Kyosu Shinmun (Professors’ Newspaper) carried out an opinion survey this past October 22~28, asking 405 professors about their reading proclivities. The results, recently reported, showed 4.9% support for the Bible, which also was the book selected by the highest number of professors as one they would like to read again.

In 2nd through 4th places were “Samgukji (Three Kingdoms)” (by Luo Guan-zhong), “The Analects” (Confucius), and “Toji (The Land)” (by Pak Kyongni). “Tao-Te-Ching” (Lao-tzu) and “Guns, Germs and Steel” (Jared Diamond) shared 5th place; and 7th place was held collectively by “Das Kapital” (Karl Marx), “Sapiens” (Yuval Harari) and “Taebaek Sanmaek (Taebaek Mountain Range)” (Jo Jung-rae). “The Little Prince” (Saint-Exup?ry) was in 10th place.

The Bible also placed third highest among the professors’ “recommended books,” together with “Das Kapital” and “Homo Deus” (Yuval Harari). In this category, no. 1 was “Sapiens” and no. 2 “The Analects.”

The Bible is the most popular book in the history of humanity. Up to now an estimated 7 billion Bibles have been sold around the world. Since Christian circles distribute it for free in mission fields, etc., and it is often copied, the number of persons who have actually read it is believed to be much higher than this total.

Prof. Bang Min-ho of the Department of Korean language and literature, Seoul National University, commented, “The survey suggests that intellectuals as a group are worried and are turning to the original, classical world for teachings on how to solve social problems.”

Reporter Kim Sangki (kitting@kmib.co.kr), with Marion Kim (marionkkim@icloud.com)
Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok

Original Article in Korean:
교수들이 뽑은 ‘다시 읽고 싶은 책’ 1위 성경: 교수신문 405명 독서실태 설문조사

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