Ahn, Chang-beom.  “Hwandangogi is the Most Authentic of the Authentic Books.” Journal of New Religions 16 (Oct. 2006): 241-279.

Abstract

Hwandangogi is a book that explicates the ancient history and ideology of the Korean people. To summarize its contents briefly, the Korean people founded the first state in the history of mankind, and established a reasonable religion. With respect to this, positivist historians deny Hwandangogi for the reason that it does not fit to the problems and makes it clear, showing necessary reference and ground, that Hwanguk existed actually, that the first Hwandangogi Cheonhwang ‘lord of heaven’ was Amita Buddha, who greatly realized the Tao of Heaven, i.e., the operative principle of the universe, and that he created letters and writings and established the reasonable religion. Finally, this study explicates the fact that the original book of Hwandangogi was xylographic, and points out that the positivist historians, who take Hwandangogi to be a forged book, have misinterpreted Sino writings to deny Hwandangogi.