초기 기독교의 혼인담론 -조혼, 축첩, 자유연애를 중심으로-

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the characteristics of early Korean protestant discourses on marriage, focusing on “early marriage,” “concubinage,” and “free love.” Protestant church from late 19th century to early 20th century produced the new marriage ethics, revealing the harmful effects of “early marriage” and “concubinage,” prevailed in Korea, by weapon of modern knowledge, such as eugenics. Protestantism tried to reinforce the image of “the religion of civilization and modernization,” at the same time reinforcing the religious identity of believers, by criticizing the traditional marriage customs. Since the 1920s, however, the major cultural enemy of protestantism was not the traditional culture but the secular culture. In the 1920-30s, the secularized culture introduced a new concept, “free love” and produced a new marriage ethics, “marriage based on love.” They were regarded as dangerous to the church leaders. Protestant church, therefore, tried to oppress the chaos and danger produced by such concepts and ethics. In early modern Korea, “early marriage,” “concubinage,” and “free love” had a close mutual relationship. For example, the “second wife” was a triple product of “free love,” “concubinage” and “early marriage.”