종교와 사회발전- 조만식의 실사구시적인 사회사상과 시민사회운동

Abstract

This study traces the social thought of Cho Man-Sik. For this, I paid attention to his writings left on newspapers, magazines, etc., and discussed his socio-political walking as well as his social thought and social movement especially under the severe political situation of Japanese imperial occupation of Choson peninsula. For more specific discussion, first, I tried to figure out what kind of epistemological orientation he had kept. As a result, we came to know that he had a reality based attitude in which any truth is being searched from facts or reality. At the same time, his own meaning system of life was not static but open and inclusive. Second, we found out that, even under the severe situation of Japanese occupation, Cho Man-Sik never showed any pessimistic or optimistic attitude toward socio-political situation, but maintained very realistic attitude. This fact is enough to tell us that his social thought is so open that he was seeking for very utilitarian results. In a word, his social participation was accompanying objective reflection and subjective participation. Third, I tried to analyze his social movement. I got the idea that though it is not so systematic and refined, his thought on social movement was very advanced one. Especially, his encouragement and emphasis on the formation of ‘central organizations' as voluntary associations were nothing but mobilizing Korean people’s dynamic force of social movement under Japanese dominating political and economic systems. It shows Cho Man-Sik’s foresight that is similar to today’s civil society movement that as a third sector stands against the political and economic logics of modern society. Finally, in this study I tried to show that Cho Man-Sik, within himself, solved the contradictions among different social thoughts. In a word, he never showd satisfaction to, and was content on any specific thought and ideology. This is from his epistemological orientation that recognized the historicity of thought. So he could not accepted any solidified idea or thought. Also he was aware of the particularistic limitations of any thought. Of course, the foundation of his social thought was on the Christian faith that transcends the ideological level and seeks for the universality of God.