The story of the emergence of NEW ESSENTIALS OF UNIFICATION THOUGHT -3

It should be noted here that, first, the way of systematization developed in the book is not a product of Unification Thought itself, but rather the Rev. Moon’s thought itself is Unification Thought, and therefore, the systematization by the author is but one expression of the Rev. Moon’s thought; second, even though my intention was to accurately present the thought given by the Rev. Moon, it is always very difficult to ensure the absolute accuracy of expression, due to the limitations of my own ability. That is why the first edition contained so many points which were rather difficult to understand. Since Unification Thought is the theoretical system of a profound thinker―namely, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon―it was felt necessary to make it available to scholars interested in philosophy. Accordingly, copies of the book were sent to several international professors. Shortly after that, there was an unexpected response: Some professors pointed out that, publishing a book without the author’s name was an unfair and irre-sponsible attitude on the part of the author, because in doing so, he is evading responsibility for any controversies that might arise from the book. Faced with such a criticism, I explained to the Rev. Moon that, since it was necessary to introduce his thought to world scholars, I felt compelled to publish future books in my own name, thus taking responsibility for any misinterpretations or mistaken wording. That is why the Japanese editions, and later the English editions ( Explaining Unification Thought and Fundamentals of Unification Thought ) were all published under my name. Yet another unexpected result occurred: Quite a few scholars began to think that the content of those books was my own thought, even though I had clearly introduced it as the Rev. Moon’s. That misunderstanding caused me to feel deep grief. Recently, however, quite a few Unificationist scholars have qualified themselves as Unification Thought lecturers and now can cope with arguments concerning Unification Thought. In this context, it has now become unnecessary to place my name on the book. Yet, it seems equally inappropriate to place the Rev. Moon’s name as the author. The reason is that, even though it is almost no longer necessary for me to bear responsibility for the wording of the book, the content of the book is but a part of the Rev. Moon’s thought. Furthermore, and I could hardly assume that this book is a perfect rendition of the Rev. Moon’s thought, I did not want even a small portion of it to cause any harm to Heaven’s authority. In organizing and systematizing Unification Thought, it is indispensable to make a comparison with the thoughts of other philosophers in various fields, in order to argue that Unification Thought is more complete than other, past, thoughts. Yet, I am not sure that this comparative effort has been done adequately or not. Here I can sympathize with the predicament of the late President Eu, who likewise was unable to publish Divine Principle (1966) under the Rev. Moon’s name, even though it contained the Principles taught by the Rev. Moon. Thus, just as Divin e P rin ciple was published under the name of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, likewise the books dealing with Unification Thought will, from now on, be published under the name of the Unification Thought Institute, whether in Korea or abroad, by permission of the Rev. Moon―just as the first edition was. The present work, New Essentials of Unification Thought , is the English translation of the Korean edition published in 1993, which is, per the Rev. Moon’s instructions, subtitled Head-Wing Thought . Also, this book is in fact the revised and enlarged edition of Essentials of Unification Thought (1992) published in English. Ever since the publication of the first Korean edition of Essentials of Unification Thought (1973), the Rev. Moon has con-tinued to teach us more profound truths at every opportunity, and I have arranged his teachings and included them in the present text. Therefore, the content of the present edition has incerased significantly, compared with previous editions.

To be continued...