한국기독교 초기 유교지식인의 기독교 사회윤리 연구: 월남 이상재를 중심으로

Abstract

In the late 19th century, Protestantism was received by the Korean society. During this course, Confucian intellectuals, who were the traditional ruling class, began to join the Christian community. Missionaries of Korean churches at the time observed Confucianism for missionary purposes and showed an amicable attitude towards Confucianism. However, they stated that ‘ancestor rituals’were meaningless and classified it as ‘idol worship’, expressing their negative stance for Confucianism. This belief is displayed in Koreans who accepted Christianity. In the name of becoming ‘civilized’, they critized and ostracized Confucianism. Yi Sang Chai, who became a Confucian intellectual at the end of the Greater Korean Empire, first came into contact with Christianity while working with the Enlightenment Faction. Unlike the negative perspective of the Korean church,he accepted Christianity without opposing the metal world of Confucianism,which made up a part of his life. Rather than severing Confucian ethics, he reinterpreted it as a continuity in the Christian social ethics. He did not perceive Confucianism and Christianity to contradict each other, but rather saw Christianity as an improved, or perfected, version of the Confucian belief. He understood the ethics of Confucianism within the Bible. He perceived that the moral ethics of Confucianism was integrated and perfected within the ethics and moral values, which was a key medium in Christianity. He ultimately placed the Christianity-oriented values in the Kingdom of God, and he perceived that this was expressed through ethics. Thus, from a social ethics standpoint, he aimed for the Kingdom of God as an ethical community.