최병헌의 불교 인식과 기독교 변증 - 「성산명경」의 불교 논쟁을 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to consider “Seongsanmyeonggyeong”, a Christian short story of Choe Byeong-heon, the very first dialectical theologian of Korean Christianity, within the connectivity with Manjongillyeon, which is his theological thought. Choe Byeong-heon presents the religious demonstration of Christianity and traditional religions, such as Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, by focusing on the arguments of ‘Shin Cheon-ong’ and three characters of the short story. This study focuses on analyzing the logical evidence which demonstrates the superiority of Christianity by refuting the critical recognition and fictiveness of Buddhism through the developed arguments between ‘Shin Cheon-ong’ and ‘Won-gak’. Especially, it presumes the falsity of Buddhism in three perspectives, such as Theism, Eschatology and Christian theology, which Choe Byeong-heon has consistently applied to the all religions in Christian demonstration. Moreover, it drew attention that Choe Byeong-heon criticizes the fictiveness of Buddhism in two aspects in this study. First of all, the argument is based on the fictiveness inherent in the birth of Sakyamuni and the miracle stories, and the illogic within the Buddhist creationism. The Christian dialectic is valid in the way that the miracles and creationism of Buddha lack in preciseness and logical causality compared to the birth and miracles of Jesus, and the creationism of Christianity. Second is the argument on the antisocial and unethical aspect on the tradition of monks leaving home in Buddhism. Additionally, the unethical aspect of Buddhism raises criticism, which originated from the mistaken impression on the nature and human viewed in monistic perspectives. In conclusion, this study confirms the fact that “Seongsanmyeonggyeong” conforms to Christian dialectic and the critical impression on Buddhism as shown in Manjongillyeon, Choe Byeong-heon's theological ideology.