세기 전환기의 한국 기독교 연구: 2000-2006년에 발간된 영미권 단행본을 중심으로

Abstract

This review article, which scrutinizes the English scholarly books on Korea Christianity published during 2000-2006, aims to recognize the currency and central issues of Foreign Korean studies on Christianity. Though this review only covers limited range of books, it shows the change of scholars focus on Korean Christianity at the beginning of 21th century. Taken a glance of the books in this period, we can get the following three key words concerning Korean Christianity: the relation between Korean Christianity and politics, Korean culture and Christianity, and the religious life of Korean-Americans. In spite of the significance of Korean Christianity from the perspective of international religious studies, the reference system to which scholars of religion can refer has not been enough to reflect the reality of this field. In this sense, the books published at this period contribute to pose new problematics in this field. Chung-shin Parks work is valuable in that he tried to describe the political place of Korean Christianity objectively. The recent publication of David Chungs thesis written in 1950s contributes to provide the referent point to reevaluate the theological studies concerning the relation between Korean culture and Christianity. The increase of the studies on the religion of Korean-Americans provides new perspectives from Korean Christianity outside Korea. We can conclude that the studies on Korean Christianity published in English at the turn of century are reflecting on the problematics inherited from 20th century and transforming them into new ones.