말레이시아 선교의 아버지제임스 토번(James Mills Thoburn, 1836-1922)

Abstract

Southeast Asia is significant in that many Korean Protestant missionaries (about 5,000 in 2013) are doing missions works in there. However, Korean church historians and missiologists have not concerned about the mission histories in the Southeast Asian countries (i.e., Thailand, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam). This paper is a biographical study in terms of one of the most important missionaries in Asia (e.g., India and Malaysia) during the early American protestant mission era. His name is James Mills Thoburn (1836-1922). After arriving in Calcutta, India in 1859, Thoburn started missions works in Lucknow, North India. In particular, during his early time in India he had contributed to a variety of matters from the inception of woman’s foreign missions of American Methodist Church (the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, Methodist Episcopal Church), low-cast missions, people movement, invitation of a great American evangelist (William Taylor, 1821- 1902), and Calcutta Methodist Mission. With his outstanding evangelical works and contributions, Methodist missions developed in many areas from North India to the capital of India (Calcutta). In addition, Thoburn established Malaysian missions. At that time, Malaysia was not a national, geographical concept but a racial idea including many places where Malay race people lived (e.g., Malay peninsular, Singapore, Borneo Island, Philippines Islands). This means that Thoburn played a significant role for the Methodist missions in Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, and Philippines. Thoburn’s missionary works in Rangoon, Burmah (now, Myanmar) started in 1879. As the intermediate place between China and India, Singapore became an important missional place, so Thoburn considered Singapore Mission from 1883 and sent William Fitzjames Oldham to Singapore. Under the prayerful support of Thoburn, Oldham successfully accomplished mission tasks in Singapore. Futhermore, Thoburn supported Methodist missionaries, such as Drs. West and Leuring, who went to Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. Also, after becoming the first Missionary Bishop for India and Malaysia in 1888, Thoburn was interested in the Philippines missions. Thoburn visited in the Philippines in 1899 and 1900. Especially, when his second visit, Thoburn ordained Nicholas Zamora (1875-1914) as the first indigenous pastor. Through this biographical study, people can not only understand the early mission history in Southeast Asian countries, but also learn various missional insights for the future of the Southeast Asian missions.