영국의 정체성: 연속성과 순응성의 역사적 고찰

A Historical Survey on British Identity

&nbsp;&nbsp;This paper deals with British identity by focusing on the characteristics shown in the fields of religion, parliament, literacy, and thoughts.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The various Christian denominations in the United Kingdom have emerged from the schisms that divided the church. The greatest of these occurred in England in the 16th century, when Henry VIII rejected the absolute supremacy of the pope. This break with Rome facilitated the adoption of some Protestant tenets and became the foundation of the Church of England. In the 17th century further schisms divided the Church of England; these were associated with the rise of the Puritan movement, which, with its desire for simpler forms of worship and government, led to a proliferation of nonconformist churches, such as those of the Baptist and the Congregationalists. The great Evangelical revivals of the 18th century, associated with John Wesley and others, led to the foundation of Methodist churches. Seeing the growth of various denominations we can say that the freedom of religion has been given to the people of United Kingdom and Christianity has greatly contributed to the building up the consciousness of British people. The acceptance of diverse denominations has become a major characteristic of British identity and closely associated with political mind of British people.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The origin of parliament system goes back to the 13th century. Edwards I fostered the concept of community of the realm and the practice of calling representative knights of the shire and burgesses from the towns to Parliament. Many used to refer to the 1295 assembly as the model parliament because it contained all the elements later associated with the word parliament. The development of Parliament suggests that the British has reached reconciliation by means of active debate and discussions. There lies reasonable and rational way of thinking beneath the activity of debate and discussion.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;British mind based on reason, experience, and scientific method has been greatly influenced by Empiricism. John Lock‘s ’Essay Concerning Human Understanding(1690)‘ was devoted to account for the genetic origins of the reason that had proved so successful. The school of so called British Empiricism (John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume) dominated the perspective of Enlightenment philosophy. The school of Empiricism emphasized experience rather than innate necessary principles, and spread to other areas including literature beyond philosophy, hence it took a major role for building up modern British mind.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;The following characteristics can be regarded as a part of British identity: tolerance towards various thoughts, compromise through exchanging of opinions, and way of thinking based on reason and practical evidence.