신학이 정치를 만날 때 - 해방 후 신학갈등과 교회분열

Abstract

After liberation from the Japanese colonialism, the Korean Church, especially the Presbyterian Church of Korea has suffered inner theological conflicts and a several church divisions. We can find background and causes of the conflict in diversity of theology formed during the Japanese occupation of Korea. And the diversity of theology had originated mainly in various personal beliefs and theologies, ranging from the ultra conservative fundamentalism to the radical liberal theology, of the foreign missionaries who contributed to the growth and development of the Korean Church. In addition to this, the missionaries, belonging to the denominational church and mission board, tried to build up denominational Churches in Korea by training the native preachers in their denominational theological schools. As a result, theological tendency of the presbyterian pastors who had studied in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang were conservative or fundamental, while that of the methodist pastors who had been trained in the Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul were progressive or liberal. And yet the missionaries, who had experienced the interdenominational revival meetings in homeland, also tried to promote ecumenical and cooperative union movement in mission field, to match the theological concept of "evangelical" for overcoming exclusive denominationalism. As a result, the Korean Christian, by the foreign missionaries, had experienced a variety of theology that could be the cause of division or integration of the Church. The Korean Church, with the liberation, confronted a task to liquidate the distorted history of surrendering and adaptation to Japanese imperialistic religious policy and non-religious activities of the Church leaders, especially committing of worship the Japanese Shino shrine, in the late Japanese colonial period. There must be sincere reflection and repentance for that wrong history for reconciliation and building up new-born Church after liberation. The Korean Presbyterian Church, however, failed to solve such challenges successfully so had to experience division of the Restoration Presbyterian Church in 1946 and the Kosin Presbyterian Church in 1950, both of which were founded by the suffered Christians who were put into the jail for their anti-shinto shrine movement under Japanese imperialism. And leaders of the Kosin Presbyterian Church also established a new Korea Theological Seminary(later Kosin University) in Pusan as their own denominational seminary in the notion of restoration and succession of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pyongyang which had been closed down by Japanese government for it’s anti-shinto shrine policy in 1938. They invited Dr. Hyung Ryong Park, the former professor of Pyongyang Seminary and the most representative fundamental theologian in Korea, as the principal of new founded seminary. At the time of liberation, the only denominational seminary of the Korean Presbyterian Church was the Chosen Theological Seminary(later Hansin University) in Seoul which was founded in 1940 by some liberal theologians such as Chai Choon Kim who was critical to the missionary-dominated fundamental theological education of the late Pyongyang seminary. So many students who had received very conservative religious education from their Pyongyang seminary alumni pastors in local Churches, could not accept the liberal theological education in the Chosen Theological Seminary, especially such as Biblical criticism and neo-orthodox theology which were perceived as heretical theology in terms of Pyongyang Seminary theology based on Biblical literal inspiration and infallibility. At last in 1947, 51 students of Chosen Seminary filed a petition at the General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian Church asking to verify theology of Chosen Seminary. From then began the verification and criticism on theology of professor Chai Choon Kim by the conservative Church leaders and theologians such as Hyung Ryong Park who leaved Korea Theological Seminary in Pusan and founded a new Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul. And the Korean presbyterian Church, after long controversy and accusation between the opposites and supporters of Professor Kim and Chosen Seminary, was again divided into the Christian Presbyterian Church(later the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea) and the Protestant Presbyterian Church(later the Presbyterian Church of Korea, PCK) in 1953. It was second division of Korean Presbyterian Church after liberation and, from then, liberal theology and conservative theology had begun to sharpen each other around their own denominational seminaries. In the late of 1950’, there occurred third division of Korean Presbyterian Church in the PCK. It was provided a clue in a case of appropriation of school finance, in 1957 by Dr. Hyung Ryong Park the principal of the Presbyterian Seminary newly founded by the General Assembly of the PCK. That case had embraced a fatal blow to Dr. Park who was admired as the only successor and tutelar of the apostolic and orthodox theology against theological modernism and liberalism. In this situation, Seminary professors and Church leaders of PCK had been split into opposition and support of Dr. Park. And the supporters of Dr. Park, in conjunction with the National Association of Evangelicals(NAE), the American united organization of the conservative Churches, criticized the opposites for their favor of the ecumenical movement by the World Christian Council(WCC) and the National Council of Churches in Korea(NCCK) with charging on their theological tendency of liberalism and acceptation of communism. And at last in 1959 both sides, after two years of fiery debate and quarrel, organized General Assemblies of PCK separately.