일본감리교회의 조선전도 양상 연구 -기관지 『호교』(護教) 언설 분석을 중심으로-

Abstract

The fact that Japanese Christianity was introduced to modern Korea is not well-known. However, in modern Korea, American Christian and Japanese Christian missionaries were simultaneously competing and coexisting. Modern imperialism was not a project of individual nations. In this study, imperialistic theory is applied to the evangelistic situation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Japan, leading to the following three conclusions. First, the evangelism of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Japan began as cooperation with foreign missionaries’s requests in Korea, targeting specifically Japanese settlers in Colonial Korea. Second, following the forced annexation of Korea by Japan in 1910, a need arose within the Methodist Episcopal Church in Japan to expand the target audience beyond Japanese settlers to include Koreans. However, due to unpreparedness to overcome linguistic barriers and differences in customs and lifestyles, the church continued to focus on evangelizing Japanese settlers. Third, a merger of the Methodist churches in Japan and Korea was proposed after the forced annexation. This merger led to the integration of a Japan-centric Christianity, contributing to the expansion of the Japanese Empire.