Semantic Analysis

Several Korean terms in this Language Package carry a range that overlaps dangerously with shamanistic or Confucian-social vocabulary, even where the word itself is doctrinally correct and well-established.

Terms with shamanism-adjacent semantic pull

• 은혜 (grace): correctly means unearned favor, but sits close enough to the semantic field of 복 (fortune) and 기복신앙 (fortune-seeking faith) that a reader’s default processing may lean transactional without active correction.
• 능력 (power): correctly means ability/power generally and is the right word for Romans 1:16, but is also the everyday word used for a shaman’s claimed spiritual ability, requiring context to keep the salvific sense in view.
• 성령 (Holy Spirit): the compound itself is safe, but its individual component 령/영 (spirit) is the operative word in Korea’s shamanistic vocabulary for the spirits a mudang channels — reinforcing why the compound, never the bare component, must be used.

Terms with Confucian-social semantic pull

• 의 (righteousness): covers both the biblical sense and 의리 (loyalty-and-honor ethics), a prominent Korean social-relational value.
• 순종 (obedience): covers both Spirit-produced obedience of faith and hierarchical social-status compliance rooted in Confucian ethics.

A narrower-than-English term functioning well

• 언약 (covenant): narrower than English “covenant” in a good way — it excludes the commercial-contract sense entirely (carried instead by 계약), so the word itself does some of the doctrinal-safety work other languages have to achieve through explanation.

Implication

Where a Korean term’s risk comes from proximity to shamanistic or Confucian-social vocabulary rather than an outright competing wrong word, the glossary’s notes field flags the specific adjacent term and the mechanism of confusion, since the corrective is contextual/structural teaching rather than simply picking a different word.