The purpose of this article is to critically reflect on two arguments about Donghak. Specifically, it examines the religious and ideological meanings inherent in Donghak based on the discussion of religious philosophy. The contents of this study were as follows. First, the religious meaning of Donghak was found in Suun’s religious experience. Religious experience was a message of salvation for universal human beings. It was also a process of elevating the existing self and sublimating it into a more advanced self. It was a process of recovering a lost or forgotten self. This was the process of overcoming human finitude. This was the reason why Donghak was not only a theoretical thought, but also had the character of a practical faith. Second, the ideological significance of Donghak was the fact that it deconstructed the existing ruling ideology with the ideology of the new era. It was also a positive ideology that made society brighter by developing the recovery of individual nature into a problem of universal recovery of human nature.