19세기 말～20세기 초 서양 선교사들의 한국종교 이해

Abstract

Western Missionaries' Understanding of Korean Religions from Late 1800s to Early 1900s Abstract Western Missionaries' Understanding of Korean Religions from Late 1800s to Early 1900s Kim Heung-Soo When western Protestant missionaries came to Korea in late 1800s, they found the absence of religions in Korea. Though they came to find religions soon, Shamanism was regarded as superstition, Confucianism as a mere system of morality, and Buddhism as a idol religion which lost their hold on the Korean people. They experienced a strong influence of popular religions among the Koreans to regard Shamanism as the real religion of the Korean people, and some of them understood the prominent feature of the pluralism of religions in the religious life of the Koreans. The negative attitude of western missionaries towards the Korean religions, which was shown among the early writings of missionaries, has been interpreted as a cultural and spiritual imperialism by the Korean scholars. This essay examines Protestant missionaries' understanding of the Korean religions such as folk religion, Confucianism, and Buddhism to understand their view on the Korean religions. Later, when missionaries learned and experienced the Korean history and culture, they became more sympathetic in their understanding of the Korean religions. Some of missionaries recognized truths included in other religions as fragments of Christian religion so that they recognized the positive value of other faiths. Though missionaries acknowledged the value of other religions and tried to find the points of contact between Christianity and the Korean religions, their final understanding was the superiority of the Christian religion over the Korean religions.