단군의 비교종교학적 연구

Abstract

Dangun is usually regarded as the progenitor of Korean people and the founder of the first Korean country about five thousand years ago. However. it has been controversial whether Dangun myth is true or false, and Korean scholars of the twentieth century who study Dangun, especially comparing it with elements in other religious traditions. can be divided into three groups according to their positions. The first group are nationalistic historians who believe in Dangun and try to prove the historicity. The second are Christian theologians who interpret Dangun myth as a sort of Christian story and utilize it in missions. The third are those who connect Dangun with myths of the ancient Near East. Though these studies are academically significant. their comparisons are methodically inexact and problematic. They have comparative problems such as Jonathan Z. Smith indicated explaining encyclopedic. evolutionary, ethnographic and morphological modes of comparison.