1920년대 중국의 ‘非基督敎運動’ 재평가 -反基督敎에 대한 이성적 비판의 관점에서-

Abstract

The anti-Christian movement of the 1920s had many clear differences with the anti-Christianity movement of late Qing China, and it also well reflects the maturity of the Chinese society. At the time, anti-Christian figures criticized Christianity and all religions through rational, logical and open debates based on western thinking. The anti-Christian movement of the 1920s mainly comprised of students and intellectuals was combined with the nationalist ideas and it was expressed as a method for anti-imperialist political movements. In the National Revolution era after 1924, it developed into a movement to recover education rights that western Christianity possessed. In result, the anti-Christian movement of the 1920s from a political perspective triggered the praising of democratic thoughts, nationalistic consciousness of the public and patriotic passions. At the time, it was an incident that set off its development into an anti-imperialist and anti-military revolutionary movement. However, voices of rational criticism on the anti-Christian movement that unfolded fiercely under such trends of the times had no choice but to be silenced. The spirit of the May 4 Movement can be called critical thinking based on ‘democracy and science’ presented from the New Culture Movement that began in 1915. Unlike the May 4 Movement, however, the anti-Christian Movement of the 1920s used ‘science’ to criticize ‘unscientific’ religion’, and furthermore, ‘science’ actually became a type of religion, thus burying the movement for rational criticism on Christianity and anti-Christianity. While Christianity in China was the target of concentrated attacks by those against Christianity, this suffering was not in vain from the perspective of Christians. Through this, they were able to introduce the Christian doctrine on paper to Chinese intellectuals and scholars and it acted as an opportunity to look back on and reflect on one’s self. In result, there were growing calls for independence by Chinese churches after the anti-Christian movement, thus acting as a catalyst for the naturalization of Chinese churches.