A Historical Development of the Relationship between the South and the North Korean Protestant Churches : from 1945 to the beginning of 21^(st) century

Ahn, In-Sub Presbyterian General Assembly Theological Seminary 2007 CHONGSHIN THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL Vol.13 No.1

Korea still remains the only partitioned country in the world as a result of the ideological conflict since the occupation by the United States and the Russian Soviet Union, although in 1945 this country was liberated from Japanese colonialism during 1910-1945. The partition of Korea signifies the relic of the 20th century's world history. This division caused the hatred and inhumane conditions between the South and North Koreans. These circumstances help us to understand the characters of the North and South Korean Churches. In addition, whenever the tension in the Korean peninsular grew, the world peace, none the less the tranquility of Asia and Pacific Ocean was menaced. Therefore, the theological and practical efforts for the reconciliation of Korea, pursued by the South and North Korean Churches, could not be only a task of one national church but also must be an issue of the churches worldwide. This article sketches the historical progress of the relationship between the South and the North Korean Protestant Churches from the liberation of 1945 to the beginning of 2000. The main focus is drawn to two points. Firstly, we treat the development of the viewpoints of the South and North Protestant Churches towards each other. Secondly, this article argues on the relationship between the historical situation of the Korean peninsular and the characters of the Korean protestant churches in the South and the North. Especially, it is important to note that, around the middle of the nineteen nineties, a new trend in the relation of the South and the North Korean Churches towards North Korea was set. It appeared in the procedure for the material aid of the South Korean protestant Churches to the North Korean economic suffering. The practical joint supporting mission between the "conservative" and the "progressive" protestant Churches of the South is building a converging bridge among the opposed circles. As a result, the colonialist period, the partition of Korea, and the process for the reunification of South and North Korea lead us to recognize three characteristic protestant Churches of Korea from 1945 till today. They are the "conservative" and the "progressive" Protestant Churches of South Korea and the "Socialistic Church under the State" of North Korea. Through the cooperation of these Churches and the peaceful and mutual understanding process of the South and the North societies, Korean Protestantism is called to fulfill its tasks for the reunification of Korea, which is rapidly activated in recent days. The Protestantism of Korea should serve God's Kingdom and World Peace with the Churches worldside with open attitudes, by keeping the biblical and the reformed priciples. The 21'1 century will be eager to see the efforts of the Korean Protestant Churches for peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula. It could be evaluated as a "reforming succession" of the Protestant inheritance.( * )

신자유주의와 종교의 불안한 동거 : IMF이후 개신교 자본주의화 현상을 중심으로

박상언 한국종교문화연구소 2008 종교문화비평 Vol.13 No.13

How can we understand a collusion of religion and capitalism in contemporary Korean society? Since the crisis of IMF, Korean society has been swept away by wave of neoliberalism. There is no exception including religions, especially Protestant churches. Now days phenomenon of which Protestant churches show us is how much they are intimate with capitalism on the neoliberalism. Just as neoliberalistic economists insist that the economic growth is the only way of reducing the social inequality and making growth of society, so Korean Protestant churches have sought to spread their gospel and to build so many church buildings in Korea for saving souls out of their sins. Certainly, Korean Protestant churches have grown as fast as Korean economy has done. However, they also have occurred a negative phenomenon that is the individualization and privatization of church by concentration on the church growth. This tendency of Korean Protestant churches has brought many churches to accelerated the accumulation of capital and produced mega churches, while competing with other religion, even other Protestant churches in Korean religious market. Even facing with the consumer culture in Korean society since 1990s, some Protestant churches have strengthen the competitiveness by the enlargement and elegance of church building. Consequently, the capital has become most important to those churches. In this paper first of all I like to show of how Korean Protestant churches has recognized the economic ideology of neoliberalism and corresponded to it since the economic crisis in 1997. Secondly I will examine the capitalization of spirituality and the spiritualization of capital in the Korean Protestant churches.

한국의 개신교 부패 현상에 대한 고찰 -교회 내부 구성원들의 인식을 중심으로-

안광현 21세기기독교사회문화아카데미 2012 신학과 사회 Vol.26 No.3

The Korean Protestant churches recently have not played an important role dealing with social problems in the areas of politics, economy, culture and education. They also have not made a positive influence on the Korean society. Instead, they have received negative remarks because of the frequent reports from the mass media that Christian leaders are involved in notorious corruption affairs. Futhermore, some statistics present that the Korean Protestant churches receive negative impressions from the general public due to their unethical behaviors and financial corruptions. In addition, many Korean Protestants feel shame that they are Protestants. Thus, for social integration and national development as well as the religious dimension, the renewal of Protestant churches in Korea become an urgent issue. In order to identify the degree of negative views on the Korean Protestant churches and the corruption of the church leaders, this study carries out a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews with the inside church members. As a result, this empirical analysis presents suggestions to improve the problems of Korean Protestant churches. 현재 한국 개신교는 급변하는 정치, 사회, 경제, 문화, 교육 등에 따른 사회문제 해결에 특별한 역할이나 긍정적 영향력을 발휘하지 못할 뿐만 아니라, 오히려 사회적으로 이슈가 되는 비리나 부패문제에 개신교인들이 많이 연관되어 있다는 부정적인 평가를 받고 있다. 한국의 개신교가 일반국민들로부터 존경을 받기는커녕 비윤리적인 행태와 부패문제로 사회적으로 지탄의 대상이 되고 있다는 통계자료가 제시되고 있다. 더불어 많은 개신교인들이 자신이 개신교인이라는 사실에 대해 부끄러움을 느낄 정도이기에, 오랫동안 개신교가 한국 사회에서 긍정적으로 큰 영향력을 행사했던 것이 완전히 퇴색되고 말았다. 그러기에 종교적 차원뿐만 아니라 사회적 통합과 국가발전을 위해서도 개신교의 갱신과 사도행전에 나타난 초대교회 정신의 회복은 반드시 필요하게 되었다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 한국 개신교회와 개신교 지도자들의 부패와 부정적 시각에 관한 현황을 보다 심도 있게 파악하기 위해 교회 내부 구성원들을 중심으로 설문조사와 심층면접을 실시하였고, 이를 통한 실증분석으로 한국 개신교가 처한 문제점을 개선할 수 있는 시사점을 제시하고자 한다.

『추풍석음가(秋風惜陰歌)』의 저작배경과 내용에 관한 연구

이혜정(Hye-Jung Lee) 영남신학대학교 2016 신학과 목회 Vol.45 No.-

Chupungseokeumga is a gasa work which was in the Christianity Bulletin on October 8, 1912. The gasa written by Reverend Gil Seon-ju began to receive attention relatively recently as a Protestant Church gasa genre in a few research fields. The Protestant Church gasa, which belong to a religious gasa genre in the same context as Donghak gasa and Catholic gasa, mean the gasa that are written and sung in the Protestant Church. The research fields, which are interested in the Protestant Church gasa, include Korean literature academic circles and church music academic circles. Up to the preset, a small number of researchers in these two fields are interested in the researches on the Protestant Church gasa. There have been no such research cases in the fields other than the above two fields. So the Protestant Church gasa have rich research value and have significance worthy of being dealt with as historical heritage of the Korean Protestant Church or as the cases of naturalization of the Korean Protestant Church. This study attempts to analyze the writing background and content of Gil Seon-ju’s Chupungseokeumga, which was published in 1912, among other Protestant Church gasa. Compared with previous researches, the uniqueness of this study consists in the attempt to perform religious sociological analysis of Protestant Church gasa works by examining the writing background in light of time background and by analyzing their content. Particularly, this researcher examines Gil Seon-ju’s personal background and the atmosphere of the Presbyterian Church of the time, along with the analysis of national and the country’s circumstances and attempts an interpretative explanation of the work. Also, this researcher attempts a synesthetic explanation and understanding of the work by analyzing the text of the work based on the analysis of this writing background and by considering the political, social, and religious backgrounds of the time.

동방정교회 신화론(神化論)의 개신교회 수용 가능성 연구

이문균 ( Moon Kyoon Lee ) 한국조직신학회 2012 한국조직신학논총 Vol.32 No.-

This paper seeks to find the major points of the Orthodox Church`s soteriology, embedded in the concept of deification, that Protestant churches can accept. Protestant theologies of justification and soteriology had a different context and development in history from the Orthodox theology of deification. While both churches are different in theological orientation and terminology to explain the way of salvation, they share a common purpose of true relationship and union with God. Thus we need to discuss how the Protestant church can accept the Orthodox Church`s insights for salvation in the concept of deification (theosis). These insights can complement and extend Protestant soteriology. Deification was not strange to the Reformers; Luther and Calvin were well aware of the Church Fathers` idea of deification. Nevertheless, the Protestant Church narrowed the understanding of salvation down to justification alone. The theology of deification can expand our understanding of salvation as follows: First, deification helps us to better understand salvation from a wider perspective in the Bible. It helps Protestant churches expand the meaning of salvation from a human problem in relation to sin to encompass God`s purpose for creation. Moreover, Protestant churches can complement the forensic metaphor with an analogy of respectful fellowship in order to uncover the inclusive and dynamic meaning in salvation. Furthermore, Protestant churches can express more affluently the understanding of salvation according to the Orthodox Church`s insights by explaining the basis and purpose and the power and possibility of salvation in terms of the Triune God: by accepting the Orthodox Church`s insight of deification, Protestant churches can emphasize that salvation is not simply the restoration of the original state of humankind before the Fall but that it entails participation in the love and life of the Triune God.

초기 개신교선교사들의 한국샤머니즘 이해 -선교인류학의 관점에서-

조흥윤 ( Cho Hung Yun ) 연세대학교 국학연구원 2004 동방학지 Vol.125 No.-

초기 제주도 개신교 형성사: 이기풍 선교사 이전 현지인 신앙공동체를 중심으로

박정환 한국기독교역사학회 2013 한국기독교와 역사 Vol.39 No.-

Generally, Protestants say that Christian history of Jeju-do began by the mission of Rev. Lee Gee Pung in 1908. However, it had already become a mission field by the Catholic Church in 1899 before Rev. Lee arrived. Furthermore, the faith community of Protestant Church had been in activity in Jeju-do at that time. The Presbyterian Church of Korea(PCK) recognized the existence of this community, which had started in 1904. Then PCK sent Rev. Lee to the island, where he worked with the native islanders. According to records, before mission of PCK, there were two faith communities in Jeju-do. “Ihori Community” started in 1904 was founded by an evangelizing of Kim Jae Won. This community requested that PCK would send a missionary to Jeju-do. Ihori Community became the base camp of missionary work, and paved a way to establish other churches in Jeju-do. “Kumsungri Community,” the second faith community established in 1907 by Cho Bong Ho, showed deep interests in the modernization and education for Jeju-do. Kumsungri Community put the christian faith alongside the patriotic spirit. Two themes in the church history of Jeju-do can be confirmed through these communities. First, the natives conducted the service meeting and they pulled together with missionary, and then churches of Jeju-do were sprung up. This showed the same patterns as the forming context of early Korean churches. Second, these communities of Protestant Church were started during mission work of the Roman Catholic Church. Leaders of communities, in fact, were aware of the difference between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant Church. Also, they had the unquenchable thirst for the modernization of Jeju-do and thought that Protestant Church could answer some religious questions the natives had in mind. So far the oral tradition on Kim Jae Won and the existence of the faith community was presented industriously over the academic circles, but this was rarely recognized in the academic world of the history of the Korean church. Yet, Memories of Life in Korea by Oliver R. Avison keeps the record on Kim Jae Won straight. The contents of the Memories correspond closely with the oral tradition on Kim. The Memories is an excellent source for restructuring the shape and growth of Jeju-do communities. These two communities were joined in 1908. As a result, the distinct feature of Jeju-do churches was formed. That is, since the mission of Rev. Lee Gee Pung, two streams in early Jeju-do Protestant Church were consolidated into one. These streams were one : ‘Mission through the Treatments’ and the other : ‘Mission through Guidelines for Modernization.’ There was a good cooperation between the natives and Rev. Lee. Like this, the mission of PCK responded enthusiastically the needs of the natives with joining of the two communities. 일반적으로 한국교회의 교인들은 제주도 기독교의 역사가 1908년 이기풍 목사의 선교로 시작되었다고 말한다. 그러나 제주도는 이기풍 목사가 도착하기 전인 1899년 이미 천주교의 공식적인 선교가 이루어진 곳이었다. 더구나 그 시기에 제주도에는 개신교 현지인 신앙공동체가 활동하고 있었다. 한국장로교회는 신앙공동체의 존재를 알고 있었는데, 이 공동체는 1904년에 시작되었다. 그래서 한국장로교회는 이기풍 목사를 그 섬에 보냈으며, 그는 그곳에서 현지인들과 함께 선교활동을 펼쳤다. 기록에 의하면, 한국장로교회의 선교 이전, 제주도에는 두 신앙공동체가 있었다. “이호리 신앙공동체”는 김재원의 전도에 의해 1904년에 시작되었다. 이 공동체는 선교사를 제주도로 보내달라고 한국장로교회에 요청했다. 그리고 이 공동체는 선교사업의 베이스캠프가 되었으며 제주도에서 여러 교회들이 설립될 수 있는 여건을 만들었다. 조봉호에 의해 1907년에 설립된 두 번째 “금성리 신앙공동체”는 제주도를 위한 근대화 및 교육에 깊은 관심을 보였다. 이 공동체는 기독교의 신앙을 애국하는 마음으로 연결시켰다. 이들 공동체를 통해 제주도 기독교 역사에서 두 가지 사실을 확인할 수 있다. 첫째는 현지인들이 예배모임을 가졌고 그들이 선교사를 요청했으며, 그로 인해 제주도 교회들이 성장하게 되었다는 사실이다. 이것은 한국에서 초기에 교회들이 형성되는 맥락과 동일한 패턴을 보여주었다. 둘째는 개신교 신앙공동체들이 천주교의 선교활동이 진행 중일 때 시작되었는데, 사실상, 신앙공동체의 지도자들은 천주교와 개신교 사이의 차이점을 인식하고 있었다는 점이다. 또한 지도자들은 제주도의 근대화에 대한 간절한 열망이 있었으며, 개신교를 통해 현지인들이 품고 있었던 종교적인 질문에 답할 수 있었다. 지금까지 김재원에 대한 구전과 신앙공동체에 대한 존재가 끊임없이 학계에 소개되었다. 그러나 한국교회사 관련 학계에서는 이 사실을 좀처럼 인정하지 않았다. 그런데, 에비슨 선교사의 회고록 Memories of Life in Korea에 김재원에 대한 사실이 기록되어 있었다. 회고록의 내용은 김재원에 관한 구전과 거의 일치했다. 에비슨의 회고록이 제주도 신앙공동체의 시작과 성장을 재구성하는 데 좋은 자료가 된 셈이다. 이 두 신앙공동체는 1908년에 합류되었다. 그 결과, 초기 제주도 교회의 모습이 형성되었다. 즉 이기풍 목사의 선교활동과 함께, 초기 제주도 개신교의 두 개의 흐름이 하나로 합류되었던 것이다. 이 공동체들의 특성은 한편으로 ‘질병의 치유를 통한 선교’와 다른 한편으로 ‘근대화를 향한 선교’였다. 여기에는 현지인들과 이기풍 목사의 좋은 협력이 있었다. 이와 같이 한국장로교회의 초기 제주도 선교는 두 공동체들의 합류를 통해서 현지인들의 요청에 적극적으로 응답했다고 하겠다.

캄보디아 장로교회가 캄보디아 개신교 선교에 미친 영향과 평가

장완익 ( Oan Ik Chang ) 아세아연합신학대학교 신학연구소 2015 ACTS 신학저널 Vol.24 No.-

The first protestant missionary came to Cambodia in 1923. Cambodia Protestant Church has 2,697 local churches and 168,887 believers as of 2012. It’s 1.19% of Cambodia population. The first Korean missionary came to Cambodia in 1993, who was a Presbyterian missionary. Cambodia Presbyterian Church was established at that time, and now it has around 10% of Cambodia Protestant Church. Historical development of The Presbyterian Church in Cambodia includes the establishment of CPCC (The Council of Presbyterian Church in Cambodia) on July 9th 2003, and the first Presbytery of PCC (The Presbyterian Church in Cambodia) on July 9th 2013. The Presbyterian Church in Cambodia has effected Cambodia Protestant Missions in three areas of ministry. The first is church ministry. Now the Presbyterian Church in Cambodia has 260 churches that were planted by foreign missionaries, even cooperated a few by local believers. Local church believers can be church planters themselves, not foreign missionaries, even from the start. Role of foreign missionary is training and support to them. The second is theological education and church leadership development. Cambodia has many bible schools and theological seminaries including Cambodia Presbyterian Theological Institute. There is a need to train not only pastor candidate but also lay minister like Sunday school teacher, deacon, elder candidate, and lay pastor. The third is general education, medical, regional development, diaspora and multi cultural ministry, mission research, strategy development, missions administrations, business as missions. Now many missionaries work for church planting. But there is a need to further develop the third area of ministry. The missionaries and local church members of the Presbyterian Church in Cambodia should follow biblical mission principles. That will be a real effects on Cambodia Protestant Missions.

예수 믿기 예수 살기 ; 슐라이에르마허의 나사렛 예수 이해에 관한 교회론적 고찰

김영복 한국대학선교학회 2004 대학과 선교 Vol.7 No.-

The Korean Christian church has developed with a speed unparalledled in the annals of Christian missionary history during the last several decades. Within the short period of 100 years, the Korean Protestant church rewrote the history of the Korean religions in the sense that Korean Christians no longer belong to the minority, rather they have become part of the majority. However, recently the Korean Protestant church, with the sudden slowdown of growth, has been confronted with its own identity crisis as a Christian church because the fast external growth of the church has ironically brought about spiritual problems of various colors. Without any theological questions about the content and goals of the church growth based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Korean church has enthusiastically centered on church growth itself. In doing so, the Korean church comes to be submerged in anti-Christian aspects, such as mammonism emphasizing only economic blessing as Gods blessing, individualism based on radical group egoism, and extremist disunionism etc. To overcome its identity crisis, this article introduces an ecclesiological study of Jesus of Nazareth in Friedrich Schleiermacher who has been called the father of modern Protestant ecclesiology as well as the father of modern Protestant theology, with the following questions how we should understand Jesus and how we should follow Jesus in our Christian life. Schleiermacher, unlike Kant and Hegel, as a New Testament scholar with his own philosophy of history as well as a Christian systematic theologian, successfully reinterpreted Jesus of Nazareth in relation to the Christian church. According to Schleiermacher, the Christian church as a spiritual community has been developed by Jesus of Nazareth as well as established by Him because Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Redeemer and therefore the Founder of the Christian church, works only through the Christian church in history. Therefore, Schleiermacher finds the essential identity of the Christian church in relation to Jesus of Nazareth. This article consists of five sections. In the first introductory section, we discuss the nature of the problem. In the second section, we consider the origin of the Christian church in relation to Jesus of Nazareth. In the third section, we deal with the archetypal personhood of Jesus of Nazareth. In the fourth chapter, we examine the redemptive activity of Jesus of Nazareth. In the concluding section, we summarize and evaluate the theological heritage of Schleiermachers ecclesiology in relation to Jesus of Nazareth to overcome the identity crisis of the contemporary Korean Protestant church.

특집논문2 : 한국"근대종교"의 탄생 ; 한국 개신교 지형의 형성과 교파정체성: 장로교, 감리교, 성결교를 중심으로

이진구 ( Jin Gu Lee ) 한국종교문화연구소 2012 종교문화비평 Vol.22 No.22

해방 이전 한국의 개신교지형은 정교분리, 종교자유, 종교시장의 논리와 친화성을 지닌 ``교파교회``의 공존으로 특징지어지며 주요 교파는 장로교, 감리교, 성결교였다. 따라서 이 논문에서는 세 교파가 상호 유사성과 차이의 문제를 어떻게 해결했는가를 중심으로 교파정체성을 살피고 이를 토대로 한국 개신교의 지형도를 그려보았다. 이 세 교파는 서로간의 차이에도 불구하고 천주교를 ``공동의 적``으로 설정하면서 교리, 의례, 조직 등 거의 모든 영역에서 공세적 인 비판의 논리를 전개하였다. 나아가 개신교인과 천주교인의 결혼을 금지하고, 신의 명칭을 천주교의 ``천주`` 대신 ``하나님``으로 표기하고, 신교-구교의 이분법을 통해 개신교와 천주교의 차이를 강조하는 ``차별화 전략``을 구사하였다. 세 교파의 타교파 인식에는 일정한 차이가 발견되었다. 장로교의 경우 교단헌법에서는 교파 사이의 협력을 강조했지만 구체적 현실에서는 교파 우월주의의 모습을 자주 드러냈다. 특히 장로교 신조와 장로교 정치가 장로교의 우월성을 나타내는 무기로 자주활용되었다. 장로교 중심주의는 장로교를 ``피라미드``의 정점에 위치시키고 그 밑에 감리교, 성결교, 침례교, 안식교의 순서로 교파를 배치하는 ``교파의 위계화`` 전략을 구사하기도 하였다. 감리교는 타교파에 대해 매우 개방적인 태도를 취하면서도 감리교의 정체성을 강조하였다. 감리교의 경우 헌법만이 아니라 대표적인 지도자들도 타교파와의 차이를 존중하는 교파 다원주의의 모습을 보였다. 그러나 주일예배나 신자교육의 장에서는 감리교의 정체성을 강조하였다. 따라서 감리교의 교파의식은 자기정체성을 강조하는 교파 다원주의라고 할 수 있다. 성결교의 교파정체성은 ``회복의 수사학``과 ``진입의 정치``로요약된다. 성결교는 담론의 차원에서는 타락 이전의 ``순수 감리교``를 회복한 것이 성결교라고 주장했고, 실제의 차원에서는 장로교와 감리교가 지배하는 개신교지형의 중심부로 진입하고자 하였다. This paper attempted to describe the religious landscape which consisted of protestant denominations in modern Korea, focusing on the relationships between presbyterianism and methodism and holiness church. Most of Korean protestant denominations regarded Roman catholicism as a dangerous enemy in mission field. They criticized Roman Catholic church`s doctrines, rituals, organizations, and institutions in terms of protestant theology. Korean protestant denominations also tried to make a differentiation strategy, putting a stress on the differences between protestantism and Roman catholicism, for example, name of God. In the eye of Korean protestantism, after all, Roman Catholic church was a converted form of Christianity. Presbyterian church, the largest denomination in Korea, revealed the self-centered attitudes to other denominations. Presbyterian theologians and leaders regarded presbyterian creeds and policy as the best. They also tried to make a hierarchy between presbyterian church and other denominations. Methodist church took open attitude to other denominations, empathizing the cooperation between protestant denominations. At the same time, methodist church put a stress to the formation of methodist identity by religious education. In short methodist church showed a denominational pluralism based on self-identity. Holiness church, a minor group, commanded a rhetoric of recovery, arguing that holiness church, as a "pure methodism," is a substitute for "secularized methodism." According to holiness movement, a true heir of Wesleyanism is holiness church. Also holiness church leaders had a dream of becoming a major group among Korean protestant denominations.