민주화 이후 한국의 개신교와 시민사회

Abstract

Thirty years after the democratization can be characterized as a series of trials and errors in the transition from procedural democratization to substantive democratization. During this transition, Korean Protestant Churches have revealed shameful demeanors tainted by anti-communist attitude, growth-oriented mind, and consumption capitalism. First, the ecumenical organization represented by the NCCK(National Council of Churches in Korea) revealed many predicaments including the weakening in the representative force of Korean Christianity, the enforcement of conservative hegemony, the diminution of social credibility, the lack of leadership and the identity crisis. Currently NCCK is faced with certain tasks for which it needs to withdraw from the pastor-centered movement and embrace the ecumenical capacity of laymen to set up a new framework of exercise, and to develop concrete agenda for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation(JPIC). Second, the Christian social movement has been exposed to a new issue involving the emergence of civil society movement to cope with the problems of the ordinary life of the world in connection with the evangelical social movement. There are also happening the cases where the contacting point between the ecumenical camp and the evangelical camp is getting expanded over the agenda such as environmental problems, inter-Korean sharing and reform of the church. On the other hand, the conservative powers which are represented by the Christian Council of Korea and mega-churches, have been confronted by the severe criticism in the public sphere due to their commercialization of beliefs and advocacy for the privileges vested in the conservative groups. Thus, the renewal of the church became one of the first and foremost tasks for the reformation of Korean society. At present, Korean Protestant churches are facing the challenge of recovering from the economic democratization and restoring social publicity through the renewal of the church.