캐나다 선교사 제임스 게일(James Scarth Gale, 1863~1937)은 1888부터 1927년까지 40년을 조선에서 사역했다. 게일은 선교사, 목사, 신학자였을 뿐만 아니라, 대표적인 한국학 학자이자 교육가였다. 게일이 만난 조선은 콜레라 전염병이 창궐한 불안정하고 불확실한 세상이었지만, 게일은 ‘하나님의 백성’ 으로서의 신앙적 헌신뿐만 아니라, ‘그리스도의 제자’로서의 사회적 책임을 다하고자 노력했다. 게일은, 조선 역사와 문화를 존중하고 사랑하며, 이를 세계에 소개했던 독보적이고 다재다능한 인물이었다. 이 글의 목적은, 부산과 서울 곤당골(현재의 중구 남대문로1가와 을지로1가 인근)에서 행한 “착목쟈” 제임스 게일의 초기 사역과 경험이, 이후 조선에서의 40년 동안의 그의 복음전도와 사회활동에 어떤 영향을 끼쳤는지를 연구하는 것이다. 이를 위해, 게일의 초기 사역에 깊은 영향을 준, 헨리 데이비스(1856~1890), 존 헤론 (1856~1890), 해리엇 헤론(1860~1908)에 대한 연구와 함께, 부산과 서울 곤당 골에서의 사역을 정동(貞洞)과 비교하여 연구한다.

Despite his popularity, the Rev. James S. Gale has not been given sufficient scholarly attention. How could it be? It appears that while Gale has been known as a missionary and a scholar of Korean studies, this two-fold identity has not been appreciated in a comprehensively way: scholars tend to interpret two aspects of his identity as contradictory ones or simply juxtaposed ones rather than as mutually interacted ones. In this context, in the area of Korean studies, they have seen him mainly as a Korean expert, without paying attention to his being a missionary; on the other hand, in the realm of Korean Christian studies, they have largely viewed him as a missionary, without properly relating this to his expertise in Korean studies. This article aims to overcome this discrepancy in the understanding of Gale in the contemporary studies, secular and Christian, in Korea. The thesis of this article is that the mutually integrated two-fold identity of Gale is the key to the understanding of his thought and work; that is, he was a scholar of Korean studies as a missionary. Such characteristics of his being a scholar of Korean studies as a missionary can be summarized as follows: first, he prepared himself as a missionary in Korea through cultural identification, through which he gradually overcome his paternalism; second, he equipped himself with expertise in Korean studies, which enabled him to be a first-class cultural missionary, namely, a theologian of missionary indigenization; and last, he bequeathed his legacy as a missionary scholar, which paves the way for Korean studies as mission. Thus, he challenged the understanding of both missionary works and a missionary.