True Parents Legacy
term

Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle)

and Wolli Kangron — 원리강론 — Exposition of the Divine Principle

Korean: 원리강론 (Wolli Kangron)
Hanja: 原理講論 (Wolli Kangron)
English title: Exposition of the Divine Principle Published: 1966 (Korea);

English translation authorized edition: 1996 Author: Sun Myung Moon (teaching); Hyo Won Eu (systematic presentation) Also known as: The Divine Principle; Wolli Kangron; The Principle

Definition

Wolli Kangron (원리강론, 原理講論) is the primary doctrinal textbook of the Unification movement — the written, systematic exposition of the divine revelation received by Rev. Sun Myung Moon. It is the foundational theological text that defines the movement's understanding of God, creation, the Fall, human history, the Messiah, and the ultimate purpose of providence.

Published in Korea in 1966 under the guidance of Rev. Moon and prepared by Hyo Won Eu, the first president of the Unification Church of Korea, it has served for decades as what Rev. Moon himself called the textbook of truth for a new age.

The term breaks down as follows: 원리 (wolli, 原理) means “principle” or “fundamental law”—the underlying divine law governing all creation; and 강론 (kangron, 講論) means “lecture” or “exposition”—a formal, systematic presentation. Together: the systematic exposition of the divine principle.

I. Etymology and the Three Texts

The Lineage of the Text

Wolli Kangron was not the first written expression of Rev. Moon's teaching. It is the third and most developed form of teaching that passed through three distinct stages of written formulation:

Wolli Wonbon (원리원본, 原理原本)—“Original “Text of the Divine Principle.” This was Rev. Moon's own handwritten manuscript, composed while he was a refugee in Pusan following the Korean War, after the earliest manuscript was lost in North Korea. The Wonbon represents the most direct, unmediated written expression of his revelation in his own hand.

Wolli Hesul (원리해설, “原理解說)—“Explanation of the Divine Principle.” Published in 1957 under the guidance of Hyo Won Eu, this was the first systematic presentation of the teaching with biblical, historical, and scientific illustrations—a more organized framework built on the Wonbon.

Wolli Kangron (원리강론, “原理講論)—“Exposition of the Divine Principle.” Published in 1966, this is the definitive edition: the most comprehensive, rigorously structured, and authoritative presentation of the teaching. Rev. Moon personally gave Hyo Won Eu special instruction regarding its content and then reviewed the text meticulously before publication.

Reverend Moon gave President Eu special instruction regarding the content of these texts and then checked them over meticulously. These efforts resulted in Wolli Hesul (Explanation of the Divine Principle) published in 1957 and Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle) published in 1966. For the past thirty years, Wolli Kangron has been the text of Reverend Moon's basic teaching.

— Hyo Won Eu, Preface, Exposition of the Divine Principle (1966)

The Korean Term 원리 (Wolli / Principle)

The word 원리 (wolli) carries significant weight. 原 (won) means “origin, source, fundamental” — as in the original nature or root cause of things. 理 (ri/li) means “principle, reason, pattern, ”order”—the inherent rational structure of reality.

Together, 原理 designates not merely a rule or guideline, but the fundamental ordering principle of existence itself — the divine law built into the structure of God, creation, and history. This is why Rev. Moon's teaching claims not merely religious authority but universal applicability: Wolli describes the law that governs all things, visible and invisible, material and spiritual.

II. The Origin of the Revelation

The teaching contained in Wolli Kangron was not developed through academic study or theological debate. It emerged from a process of direct spiritual encounter that began when Rev. Moon was sixteen years old.

On Easter morning, April 17, 1935, Jesus appeared to Rev. Moon and asked him to complete the mission that Jesus had been unable to finish. This encounter launched decades of intense spiritual seeking—including periods of imprisonment under Japanese colonial rule in Korea and under the North Korean communist regime at Heungnam labor camp—during which Rev. Moon continued to deepen his understanding through direct encounter with God and the spirit world.

The Introduction to Wolli Kangron describes this origin explicitly:

With the fullness of time, God has sent one person to this earth to resolve the fundamental problems of human life and the universe. His name is Sun Myung Moon. For several decades he wandered through the spirit world so vast as to be beyond imagining. He trod a bloody path of suffering in search of the truth, passing through tribulations that God alone remembers. Since he understood that no one can find the ultimate truth to save humanity without first passing through the bitterest of trials, he fought alone against millions of devils, both in the spiritual and physical worlds, and triumphed over them all. Through intimate spiritual communion with God and by meeting with Jesus and many saints in Paradise, he brought to light all the secrets of Heaven.

— Introduction, Exposition of the Divine Principle (1966)

III. The Central Problem Wolli Kangron Addresses

The text opens not with a claim about God but with a diagnosis of the human condition. At the center of every person, it argues, there is a great contradiction: the original mind that desires goodness and the evil mind that desires wickedness.

These two opposing forces wage a fierce internal battle in every human being throughout history, and no philosopher, religion, or civilization has been able to resolve this fundamental contradiction at its root.

The Introduction identifies this as humanity's most urgent problem, framing it as evidence of the Fall—a departure from the original condition for which human beings were created:

We find a great contradiction in every person. Within the self-same individual are two opposing inclinations: the original mind that desires goodness and the evil mind that desires wickedness. They are engaged in a fierce battle, striving to accomplish two conflicting purposes. Any being possessing such a contradiction within itself is doomed to perish.

— Introduction, Exposition of the Divine Principle (1966)

Wolli Kangron claims to answer the questions that all previous traditions could not: What is the nature of the original mind? What caused the contradiction? Why did a perfect God allow the Fall? How can the contradiction be permanently resolved? And what is the ultimate goal of human history?

IV. The Relationship between Scripture and Truth

One of the most important positions Wolli Kangron takes—and one that explains its authority structure—is its relationship to existing scriptures, particularly the Bible. The text does not claim to replace the Bible, but neither does it treat it as the final or complete word of God. Instead, it articulates a principle that is both humble and bold:

Scriptures, however, are not the truth itself, but are textbooks teaching the truth. They were given at various times in history as humankind developed both spiritually and intellectually. The depth and extent of teaching and the method of expressing the truth naturally varied according to each age.

— Introduction, Exposition of the Divine Principle (1966)

This position—that scriptures are divinely inspired textbooks rather than absolute truth in every detail—allows Wolli Kangron to present itself as a fuller, more systematic expression of the same eternal truth that the Bible and other sacred texts have conveyed in their ways and ages. Just as a more powerful lamp does not invalidate a smaller one but simply illuminates more fully, Wolli Kangron presents itself as a new and brighter illumination of the same divine reality.

Jesus himself, the Introduction notes, indicated that such a fuller truth would eventually be revealed: “I have said this to you in figures; the hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in figures but tell you plainly of the Father” (John 16:25).

V. The Dual Mission: Reconciling Religion and Science

A defining ambition of Wolli Kangron is to reconcile two paths of knowledge that have seemed irreconcilable: religion and science. The text argues that both religion and science are expressions of the human search for truth—religion pursuing internal, spiritual truth; science pursuing external, material truth. These two paths must eventually converge:

Religion and science, setting out with the missions of dispelling the two aspects of human ignorance, have seemed in the course of their development to take positions that were contradictory and irreconcilable. However, for humankind to completely overcome the two aspects of ignorance and fully realize the goodness which the original mind desires, at some point in history there must emerge a new truth which can reconcile religion and science and resolve their problems in an integrated undertaking.

— Introduction, Exposition of the Divine Principle (1966)

This is the claim Wolli Kangron makes for itself: not a sectarian religious text, but a universal synthesis of internal and external truth that can give both religious believers and scientifically minded people a coherent framework for understanding God, humanity, and history.

VI. Structure and Content of Wolli Kangron

The book is organized into two major parts, each addressing a distinct dimension of the divine-human relationship:

Part One: The Principle of Creation establishes the foundational understanding of God's nature and the structure of the universe. It introduces the concept of God as a being of dual characteristics—internal nature and external form, masculine and feminine—and explains how all created things reflect these characteristics. Key concepts introduced here include Universal Prime Energy, Give-and-Take Action, the Four-Position Foundation, the Three Great Blessings, and the human portion of responsibility.

The chapters of Part One on tplegacy.net include foundational teachings on the Dual Characteristics of God, Give and Take Action, Universal Prime Energy, and The Purpose of the Creation of the Universe.

Part Two: The Principle of Restoration applies the theoretical framework to the actual history of God's providence. It traces God's efforts to restore fallen humanity through a pattern of providential history governed by the Law of Indemnity and shaped by the recurring interplay of Cain and Abel. It covers the providential roles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus; the parallels between historical periods; and ultimately the purpose and nature of the Second Advent.

The chapters of Part Two on tplegacy.net include The Human Fall, Eschatology and Human History, The Messiah: His Advent and the Purpose of His Second Coming, Resurrection, Predestination, Christology, Moses and Jesus in the Providence of Restoration, The Periods in Providential History, and The Second Advent.

VII. Key Distinctive Teachings

Wolli Kangron presents several teachings that distinguish it from conventional Christian theology and from all prior religious traditions:

On the Fall: The root of the Fall was not the eating of a literal fruit but an illicit love relationship—first between the Archangel Lucifer and Eve (the spiritual fall), and then between Eve and Adam before their proper maturation (the physical fall). This corrupted the lineage of all humanity, making the restoration of lineage through the Marriage Blessing the central act of salvation.

On Jesus: Jesus was not God Himself but a perfected human being—the Second Adam—who stood in the position the first Adam should have held. His crucifixion, while achieving spiritual salvation, was not God's original plan but the consequence of Israel's failure to receive him. Physical restoration of lineage was left for the Second Advent.

On Providence: All of human history is governed by the Law of Indemnity and follows repeating patterns — dispensational time-identity — in which historical periods mirror each other across different timescales.

On the Second Coming: Christ will return not on literal clouds from the sky but as a human being born on earth, from a nation in the East. Korea is identified as that nation.

On Salvation: Salvation is not an individual act but something achieved through the family—the ideal God-centered family, not the individual believer, is the basic unit of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Section VII-A — Wolli Kangron and Unification Thought: The Philosophical Extension

Wolli Kangron is the foundational theological text of the Unification movement — but it does not exhaust what Rev. Moon's teaching claims to offer. It is complemented and philosophically extended by Unification Thought (통일사상, Tongilsasang), the systematic philosophical system developed by Sang-hun Lee under Rev. Moon's direction.

The relationship between Wolli Kangron and Unification Thought is structurally analogous to the relationship between the New Testament and the classical theological and philosophical tradition that grew from it: the foundational text contains the essential revelation, and the philosophical elaboration develops its implications with the full range of intellectual tools available to the era.

Wolli Kangron speaks primarily in theological language — the language of God, creation, Fall, providence, and Messiah. It addresses questions of divine purpose, human destiny, and the meaning of history in terms accessible to people of faith. Its authority is primarily revelatory: it claims to disclose what God revealed to Rev. Moon through direct spiritual encounter.

Unification Thought speaks in philosophical language — the language of ontology, epistemology, ethics, and axiology. It addresses the same ultimate reality — God, human beings, and their relationship — but does so by engaging the full tradition of Western and Eastern philosophy on its own terms. Its claim to authority is not purely revelatory but argumentative: it seeks to demonstrate, through philosophical reasoning, that the Principle is true.

This dual register explains a structural feature of the Introduction to Wolli Kangron that is sometimes overlooked: the Introduction already performs a philosophical move before the explicitly theological content begins. By identifying "internal ignorance" (spiritual questions) and "external ignorance" (scientific questions) as the two aspects of the one fundamental problem of the Fall, it frames the entire text within a philosophical anthropology — an account of the human condition that integrates the spiritual and the intellectual, the religious and the rational. This framing is itself a philosophical claim about the unity of knowledge, and it anticipates the full integration of theology and philosophy that Unification Thought develops systematically.

Three philosophical contributions Wolli Kangron makes:

The first is an ontological claim: the universe is not fundamentally made of matter (materialism), nor is it fundamentally made of mind or spirit (idealism). It is made of the give-and-take action between paired aspects of God's own dual characteristics — Seongsang and Hyeongsang, yang and yin — and all created beings participate in this structure. This is a specific and original ontological position that neither Western nor Eastern philosophy had articulated in this form.

The second is an epistemological claim: truth is not found by reason alone (rationalism), by experience alone (empiricism), or by revelation alone (fideism). It is found at the convergence of internal spiritual knowledge (developed through religion) and external material knowledge (developed through science). This is an explicitly integrative epistemology that anticipates by decades the "post-secular" conversation now taking place in Western philosophy and theology of religion.

The third is a historical-teleological claim: human history is not cyclical (classical Eastern and Greek frameworks), not purely linear without direction (secular historicism), and not simply a waiting for catastrophic divine intervention (apocalypticism). It is a purposeful, law-governed process moving toward the realization of the ideal family, governed by the Principle of Indemnity and driven by the give-and-take of good and evil forces at every level from the individual to the civilizational.

Section VII-B — Comparative Perspectives: Wolli Kangron as a Founding Sacred Text

Wolli Kangron belongs to a rare category in religious history: texts that claim to reveal truth not primarily by transmitting ancient tradition but by disclosing new understanding of the eternal Principle appropriate to a new providential age. Examining it alongside other texts in this category illuminates both its distinctiveness and its place in the broader phenomenon of revelatory literature.

The Quran:
Islam's foundational text presents itself as the direct, verbatim word of God delivered through the Prophet Muhammad as a final and complete revelation — the Seal of the Prophets (Khatam al-Nabiyyin) receives the Seal of Revelation. Wolli Kangron makes a structurally different claim: Rev. Moon is not a passive vehicle for dictated divine speech but an active spiritual seeker who, through decades of prayer and spiritual combat, arrived at an understanding that he then communicated — partly through his own writings (Wolli Wonbon) and partly through a systematizer (Hyo Won Eu). The text therefore has a collaborative character that the Quran does not share.

The Book of Mormon:
Joseph Smith's founding text of the Latter-day Saint tradition presents itself as the restoration of an ancient sacred record — the recovery of a lost scripture, translated by prophetic gift from golden plates. The parallel with Wolli Wonbon (the original manuscript, written after the loss of the earliest text in North Korea) is striking: both involve a founding prophet who reconstructs or restores a lost sacred text after a period of tribulation. However, where the Book of Mormon claims to restore an ancient record, Wolli Kangron claims to reveal a new understanding of the eternal Principle — not a restoration of what was previously known but a disclosure of what was never previously revealed.

The Urantia Book:
Published in 1955 — just years before Wolli Kangron — the Urantia Book is another 20th-century text claiming to reveal a comprehensive account of God, creation, and human history through revealed knowledge. It shares with Wolli Kangron the ambition to reconcile religion and science and to provide a complete cosmological framework, though its origins (channeled through human intermediaries by celestial beings) and content differ entirely. Their near-simultaneous appearance in the same decade reflects a broader mid-20th-century religious phenomenon: multiple movements claiming comprehensive, science-reconciling, history-explaining revelatory texts.

Comparison with established canonical texts:
What distinguishes Wolli Kangron from the Bible, the Torah, and the Quran in terms of its authority structure is instructive. The Bible derives authority from its multiple authors across millennia, its doctrinal consensus established by councils, and the spiritual experience of billions. The Quran derives authority from its verbal perfection, its memorized transmission, and its claim of direct divine dictation. Wolli Kangron derives authority from a different source: the personal spiritual history of one man — Rev. Moon's decades of direct encounter with God, Jesus, and the spirit world — and the systematic reasoning of the text itself. Its authority is therefore simultaneously personal (prophetic) and rational (philosophical), combining two modes of authorization that earlier traditions typically kept separate.

VIII. The Translation History

The Divine Principle (1973)—the first English translation, made by Dr. Won Pok Choi. Produced with great care and erudition, it was a literal translation intended to preserve the sacred character of the text. Through this work, Dr. Choi laid the foundation for the teaching of Wolli Kangron in the Western world.

Exposition of the Divine Principle (1996)—the new authorized English translation, commissioned by Rev. Moon. The translators sought to accurately render meaning into clear English, consulting Dr. Choi's guidance and drawing on the expertise of scholars in various fields. It adhered strictly to Rev. Moon's wishes that the integrity and purity of the text be maintained. This is the translation used throughout tplegacy.net.

The Preface to the authorized edition also describes the color-coded edition—red for the main thread of teaching, blue for secondary topics, yellow for tertiary—allowing readers to grasp the central argument rapidly before studying the full text.

IX. The Ultimate Goal of Wolli Kangron

The Introduction states with clarity that the purpose of Wolli Kangron is not merely intellectual or religious—it is practical and cosmic. Its ultimate aim is the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth:

When all people come to know God through the new truth and encounter the reality of the spirit world, they will realize that they should not set the ultimate purpose of life in the material world, but instead should look to the eternal world. They will walk the path of faith, and when they reach their final destination, they will meet as brothers and sisters. If all people are to meet as brothers and sisters by virtue of this one truth, what will that world be like? Under the light of the new truth, all those who have struggled over the long course of history to dispel the darkness of ignorance will gather. They will form one great family.

— Introduction, Exposition of the Divine Principle (1966)

X. Key Sources on tplegacy.net

The complete text of the Exposition of the Divine Principle—the authorized English translation of Wolli Kangron — is available in full on tplegacy.net, organized chapter by chapter:

The Textual Family of the Divine Principle

Wolli Wonbon — 원리원본 — the original handwritten manuscript by Rev. Moon, composed in Pusan after the Korean War; the earliest written form of the revelation.

Hyo Won Eu — 유효원 — first president of the Unification Church of Korea; the scholar who systematized Rev. Moon's teaching into the form published as Wolli Kangron.

Section XI — Wolli Kangron in New Religious Movement Scholarship

While sociological studies of the Unification movement have been extensive, direct scholarly engagement with Wolli Kangron as a theological and philosophical text has been more limited — and in some ways more intellectually significant.

Early academic engagement:
The text was first seriously engaged by Western academic theologians in the context of the New Ecumenical Research Association (New ERA) dialogue conferences beginning in the early 1980s. These conferences, which produced volumes including Hermeneutics and Unification Theology (1980) and Unification Theology in Comparative Perspectives (1988), brought scholars from Reformed, Catholic, Orthodox, and Buddhist backgrounds to engage Wolli Kangron on its own terms. Contributors including Herbert Richardson (University of Toronto), M. Darroll Bryant (Renison College), and Andrew Wilson (Unification Theological Seminary) examined the text's Christology, soteriology, and hermeneutics in sustained dialogue with mainstream theological traditions.

Christology and the incompleteness of Jesus:
The teaching on Jesus as a perfected human being (not God Himself) who failed to complete his physical mission attracted the most intense theological discussion. Catholic and Orthodox scholars found this teaching the sharpest departure from ecumenically shared Christological commitments, while more liberal Protestant scholars noted resonances with historical-Jesus scholarship and kenotic Christology. The EDP's treatment of the resurrection (spiritual rather than physical) and the cross (a path of last resort rather than God's original intention) produced productive, if unresolved, theological debate.

The hermeneutical question:
Scholars engaged the question of how Wolli Kangron's interpretive method relates to established traditions of biblical hermeneutics. The text's approach — reading the Bible typologically and figuring Old Testament patterns as shadowing New Testament events, which in turn shadow Completed Testament Age events — resonates with patristic and medieval allegorical methods while departing from historical-critical methodology. This hermeneutical question was identified by scholars as foundational: if the text's interpretive framework is accepted, many of its distinctive conclusions follow naturally; if it is rejected, the conclusions do not follow even if individual arguments are valid.

The science-religion claim:
Philosophers of religion and scientists engaged at ICUS (International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences) examined the text's claim to provide the framework for reconciling religion and science. Nobel laureate participants and prominent scientists found the ambition admirable and the ontological framework (Seongsang-Hyeongsang, give-and-take action) genuinely interesting as a metaphysical proposal, while maintaining that the specific scientific claims in the text required updating with more recent empirical knowledge. The authorized 1996 English translation acknowledged this, noting that "certain scientific, historical and biblical illustrations" were minimally revised where scholarship had advanced.

The People Behind the Teaching

True Parents — 참부모 (Chambumo) — Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon, whose revelation and life course are the living source from which Wolli Kangron emerged.

Sun Myung Moon — 문선명 — the founder of the Unification movement; recipient of the revelation that forms the content of Wolli Kangron.

Core Concepts from Part One (Principle of Creation)

The Four-Position Foundation — 사위기대 — the structural pattern of God, subject, object, and union through which love is realized; the organizing principle of creation.

Give and Take Action — 수수작용 — the dynamic of reciprocal exchange between subject and object that generates all energy and existence.

Fallen Nature — 타락성 — the root problem Wolli Kangron diagnoses and traces to its origin in the illicit relationship of the spiritual and physical Fall.

Core Concepts from Part Two (Principle of Restoration)

Indemnity — 탕감 (tanggam) — the law governing restoration; the process of setting conditions to separate from Satan and return to God's lineage.

Salvation History — 섭리역사 — the providential course traced in Part Two, from Adam through Jesus to the Second Advent.

Rebirth — 중생 (jungsaeng) — the transformation of lineage through True Parents that Wolli Kangron identifies as the core act of salvation.

The Holy Scriptures of the Movement

Cheon Seong Gyeong — 천성경 — the Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk; companion scripture compiled from Rev. Moon's speeches.

Cham Bumo Gyeong — 참부모경 — Scripture of the True Parents; chronicles the life course of the True Parents as the living embodiment of Wolli Kangron's teaching.

Pyeong Hwa Gyeong — 평화경 — collection of public peace speeches by the True Parents; the movement's outward-facing expression of the Wolli Kangron worldview.

This glossary entry is part of the Glossary of the Unification Church on True Parents Legacy. It does not represent an official statement of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU).

More terms

Perfection Human History Satan / Lucifer Subject and Object Three Generations Lineage God's Dispensation Ethics Kingdom of Heaven The Last Days Communism Prayer