프로테스탄트 인문주의적 윤리의 가능성과 한계 : 『요정여왕』 제 2 권 Book Two of The Faerie Queene = The Possibilities and Limits of Protestant Humanistic Ethic

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Renaissance with its strong emphasis on man's potential is bound to conflict with the Reformation that regards man's aspiration for greatness as sinful pride. But in Book Two of The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser, as a Protestant humanist, attempts to unite the two conflicting tendencies dynamically, which results in a profound exploration of the possibilities and limits of Protestant humanistic ethic.
Spenser's thorough examination of classical and Christian understandings of the nature of man offers him a powerful tool to analyze man's ethical potential and its limit. Amavia's tragic death begins to sharpen the contrast between the two different views of man. The House of Medina is an allegorical place that suggests the fundamental inadequacy of classical ethic. Moreover, the Cave of Mammon reveals that classical ethic is not only inadequate but also dangerous because the devil is behind extreme passions and exploits them to destroy man's soul and body. The episode criticizes Guyon's too much confidence in his ethical potential and suggests that he needs a Christian concept of ethic that aims not to rationally control passions but to radically oppose the powers of sin, death and the devil, that exploit the passions in order to destroy man. But it does not mean that his ethical efforts themselves should be given up; they should be reoriented to serve God's Grace. However, even such a Christian ethic does not guarantee Guyon the final victory over his enemies because he remains a sinful man through and through. His ethical efforts should always go with his humble contrite heart, without which his Protestant humanist ethic is bound to lead him to self-righteousness and corruption.
After realizing the aim of Christian ethic in the Castle of Alma, which represents the ideal state of man's soul and body, Guyon visits the Bower of Bliss, which aims to enslave man to sensuality with a diabolical intention. He grasps the demonic and idolatrous character of the place and ruthlessly destroys it. This episode most dramatically reveals the possibilities and limits of Protestant humanistic ethic. His ethical efforts transcend the limit of classical ethic solely depending on man's rational control. But he still cannot escape from the possibility of sin. A Protestant humanistic ethic that asserts its own innocence from sin can transform itself into a mere political ideology and become a means of justifying the imperialistic conquest and oppression of other non-Protestant cultures as Greenblatt persuasively points out. But what Greenblatt's new-historicist view of the episode obscures is that Spenser maintains the dynamic tension between the secular and Christian views of man's ethical potential. Thus in the Bower of Bliss Guyon walks along a dangerous and ambiguous border line between the need for struggle against demonic idolatry and the imperialistic urge to conquer and oppress the demonized Other.