한국개신교 건축사의 신학적 비평

Abstract

This study is a theological criticism on the history of the Korean Protestant Church architecture. Previously, studies in this field were carried out by scholars of architecture engineering. The purpose of this article is to make a reliable discourse on the Korean Protestant church architecture via theological interpretation or criticism. In former researches, the historical change of the Korean Protestant church architecture was classified according to the style of architecture. Former researches divided the era of the Korean Protestant church architecture history into five sections. This article will be divided into four sections: 1. before 1884: the era before the beginning of the Protestant mission, 2. 1884-1910: the era encompassing the beginning of the Protestant mission to the merge of Korea and Japan, 3. 1910-1945: the Japanese colonial era, 4.after 1945: from the liberation to the present time. The early Korean Catholic and Protestant churches accepted the Korean traditional building ‘Hanok’ as a church without any modifications. It was an era of natural indigenization of Korean church architecture. During the Japanese colonial era, the Korean Protestant churches adopted western style architecture. The Korean Methodist church tried to build a typical western style church building whereas the Korean Presbyterian church tried to build an indigenized church building according to the Korean tradition. After the emancipation of Korea from Japan in the year of 1945, the Korean Protestant church tried to build various types of modern architecture. As Korea accepted modernism, its influence brought about great changes in church architecture. In general, Catholic and Anglican chapels are built for rituals, whereas the Protestant chapels are built for sermons. This explains the typical characteristics of the Korean Protestant churches. The Korean Protestant church architecture reflects some historical problems: divisions among traditional social orders of class , conflicts between genders, conflicts of ideologies and differences of views on the idea of church growth. The Korean church has the social task to suggest a solution to sexual discrimination, social inequality and the lack of communication within the local society and it’s ministry. These needs should be taken in consideration in church architecture in the present and the future .