한국근대유교와 종교운동

The modern transformation of the Korean Confucian society was a process of responses to the impact of the Western powers, and it proceeded in the general trend of accepting the Western cultures. So, according to the nature of the Western power toward which they were directed, the responses of the Confucian intellectuals can be summarized in three modes: first, the intellectuals recognized `religion` as the spiritual basis of the strength of the West, and therewith came the self￢understanding of Confucianism as a religion; second, at the collapsing of the social organization and the loss of the sovereignty, the intellectuals raised criticism against the Confucian tradition in two ways: the one was `anti-Confucian critique` which totally denied the premodern and irrational nature of the tradition and doctrine, and the other was `inner￢Confucian reflection` which reconsidered the evil practices and institutional contradictions of the tradition; third, in the process of getting deprived of the sovereignty by the imperial Japan, the Confucian intellectuals became awakened to the national consciousness. Noticeably, on losing their government that had secured the Confucian social organization, the Confucian intellectuals planned to reorganize their society by reforming Confucianism, and they developed this plan as a religious movement. It is also noteworthy that their modes of responses were significantly influenced by the Chinese Confucian intellectuals who were standing on the similar historical situation then.<BR> Most of the Neo-Confucians of the late Great Han Empire period were firmly attached to the defensive protection of their tradition and even had a tendancy to avoid showing interest in any new concept. However, recognizing Confucianism as a religion was an issue rather widely accepted among the Confucian intellectuals who participated in the patriotic enlightenment. The important problems that followed this issue were 1) the relation between the orthodox Confucianism and the Confucianism as the national religion, 2) Confucianism as the universal truth, 3) Confucius as the founder of the Confucian religion, and 4) the self-understanding of Confucianism through comparison with other religions.<BR> The period when Confucian reformism appeared and became active coincides with the period when the Korean national consciousness was culminating, and so Confucian reformism includes the awakening of the national consciousness as one of its basic features. Confucian reformists awakened the national consciousness by recognizing its relatedness to the historical consciousness, and the national consciousness here was a combination product of the study of the Confucian canons and history. Therefore the peculiarity of Confucian reformism is the linkage of two tasks: reinterpreting the organization, the institutions and the doctrines of Confucianism by religious awakening, and reinforcing the responsibility for the people and the history by national aw