초기 한국교회가 여성인권 신장에 끼친 영향에 관한 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine what efforts the early Korean church made to protect the human rights of late Korean women who were not treated appropriately by the Confucian tradition that men were superior to women is to clarify. This study is based on literature research. The materials used in this study are the history of the Korean Church, the literature of the first Korean missionaries, and the bulletin of the Korean Presbyterian Society. First, I analyzed the church’s efforts to open schools and expand human rights, focusing on newspaper projects. The researcher investigated the women’s human rights situation at the time of the early Korean missions, and the missionaries’ perceptions and efforts toward women’s rights based on the decisions of the Missionary Council and Solo Presbytery. Even after 140 years of missionary work in South Korea, the Confucian idea that men are superior to women is still present not only in society but also in the church. They still face direct and administrative discrimination against men. Just as early Korean church missionaries made efforts to restore women’s human rights, today’s Korean churches must also reflect on the restoration of women’s human rights and combine efforts for human rights equality with a correct missionary attitude.