초기 한국기독교의 제례 및 상장례 담론에 대한 종교학적 재평가

Abstract

Korean Christianity was received as a foreign religion. It had to grope for desirable relationship between church and traditional worldview constantly from the beginning. Every religion has its own cognition system about ‘death’ and ‘after death’, and the system always establishes central worldview of each religion. Cognitive system about death in Korean Christianity also became an acute and core theme in the process of making desirable relationship between the two. ‘Ancestral rites’ and ‘funeral rites’ are key elements to compose traditional cognition system of Korean society. This essay suggested the necessity of revaluating this process at the standpoint of religious studies after analyzing discourses about traditional cognition system of early Korean Christianity and discussing the meaning of impact that influenced Korean traditional cognition system about ‘death’ and ‘after death’. As a result, I ascertained that the discourses of funeral rites had strong tendency of acceptance, while ancestral rites had that of exclusion. There are three issues which need strict interpretation to understand the diverse aspects of correspondence. First, the discourses dealing with ancestral and funeral rites were formed at the stage of ‘religion’ or ‘morale(custom)’. Second, the different attitudes dealing with death of ancestors. Third, historical experience around ancestral rites. Therefore I think that the discourses of Korean funeral rites and ancestral rites should be revaluated through strict interpretation about above-mentioned three elements.