동학 신 관념의 세 가지 사상적 연원 - 무속·천주학·유학과의 관계를 중심으로 -

Abstract

This paper explores how the concept of the deity in Donghak (Eastern Learning) is related to shamanism, Catholicism, and Confucianism, and attempts to expound the significance of the deity in Donghak which conflated the highest entities in the three religious traditions. Choe Je-u’s religious experience is similar to the shamanic trance, and his idea of the deity came partly from the ancient faith in heaven. Even so, his understanding of the deity is more related to Catholic theism in that his religious experience occurred consciously through rational and personal conversations, and he criticized the pantheistic element of shamanism from the monotheistic viewpoint. Choe seems to have lived in a period when the persecution of Catholic christians was not severe, and he identified the deity he experienced with God in Catholicism and called it Tianju. But he argued that Catholicism just stresses the transcendant and personal aspects of the deity and criticized Catholicism for not acknowledging the immanent and non-personal aspects. His emphasis on the immanent and non-personal facets of the god reveals his Confucian approaches. Donghak is distinguished from Confucianism since it endorses a transcendant personal god, but it also has Confucian influence in that it holds that the transcendant being is immanent in human beings. This understanding of the deity was succeeded by Choe Si-hyeong, who emphasized the natural immanence of the deity and conflated the Catholic transcendant personal god and Confucian concept of heaven and earth. The concept of deity in Donghak is the amalgam of the deities in shamanism, Catholicism, and Confucianism, and its significance can be summarized into the following three points. First, in a religious point of view Donghak’s concept of deity adopted shamanic and Catholic elements and can be viewed as a balanced outcome between faith and reason. Second, in terms of the divine and human relationship, Donghak embraced Catholic and Confucian ideas and emphasized self inner cultivation and respect for others while keeping faith in the transcendant personal deity. Third, in terms of the relationship between the deity and nature, Donghak conflated Catholic and Confucian approaches and held that the deity created and natures all things and human beings have divine sacred elements. This understanding of the deity and nature functioned as an ideological encouragement for humans to respect for life and practice moral values.