Lessons from 18th-Century Joseon Intellectuals It has been over 50 years since I first began reading and writing in elementary school. However, it was only after high school that I truly understood the depth of a book. For the past 40 years, since I first tasted the true joy of reading, countless books have passed through my hands. Through this long journey, certain preferences emerged — those “guests” of the soul that bring inexplicable joy and delight upon encounter. My first guest was Soren Kierkegaard. I met him in the summer of 1978, in a humble bookshelf of a rural church, while reading a 10-volume essay collection by Professor Ahn Byung-wook. From then on, a Byeok (癖) — a deep obsession — began to form: a compulsion to find and read every book by Kierkegaard. Though I was a poor theology student, I struggled to collect every published work of his. Years later, my second guest arrived: Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I immersed myself in his writings.…