이 글은 개신교 선교사가 처음 활동을 시작한 시기, 주로 1890년대에 이루어진 불교와 개신교의 만남을 다룬다. 1880년대 말 한국에 처음 들 어온 서양인과 선교사들은 자신들이 거주했던 서울 도성 내에서 사찰을 볼 수 없었기에, 한국은 종교 없는 나라라는 선입관을 한동안 유지했다. 1890년대 들어 활동 반경이 서울 근교로 확장하자, 선교사들은 도성 바 깥에 있는 살아있는 불교와 바로 만날 수 있었다. 선교사는 머릿속에 있 던 우상숭배 관념을 불교를 통해 재확인하고 싶어 했다. 그들이 보기에 한국의 불교는 퇴락한 전통이고 승려들은 능력도 의지도 없는 사람들로 비추어졌다. 불교와 개신교 선교사의 만남은 의외로 휴양의 맥락에서 이루어기도 했는데, 그들이 삼막사에 머문 기록이 상세히 남아 있다. 한 달 이상의 만남과 접촉은 친밀함의 형성, 상대방 의례에 대한 면밀한 관찰로 이어졌 다. 한편 한국 전통에 다른 태도를 보인 성공회 선교사도 주목할 필요가 있다. 그들은 사제직과 수행 공동체를 존중하는 교단에 속했기에, 불교에 서 자신과의 유사성을 발견할 수 있었다. 개신교 선교사는 불교에 관한 부정적 관념이나 선입관에서 만남을 시 작하였다. 그러나 같은 공간 내에서 몸과 몸이 만나는 현실 속의 만남은 상호 이해의 가능성을 열어주었다. 또 이 만남의 기록은 조선 말기 한국 불교의 어려운 현실을 증언해 주는 생생한 자료를 제공한다.

Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary to the late Ming China, translated of Epictetus’ Enchiridion into Twenty-Five Sayings in Chinese for the purpose of Christian mission. His selection of the representative book in the Western stoic philosophy had specific purpose: Introducing one of religious semantic meaning in the Western Christianity, Stoic ethics and its religious similarities with Buddhist frameworks. By doing so, Ricci tried to demonstrate the Western Christianity was same in relation to ethical framework but different in regard to religious implications. He tried to find the point of contact and the point of difference at the same time by comparing Christianity’s stoic characters and China’s Buddhist ethics, which was different from traditional Confucian framework. The Chinese responses, however, show different outcomes. The Chinese intellectuals, who responded Ricci’s missiological intention, read his book with different perspectives. They showed their surprising interests in the newly translated book on the Western stoic philosophy in relation to promote and uphold their traditional Confucian values. The author claims that both missionaries and the responders of the new religious teaching tend to be confused by semantic values in the early period of cultural and religious contact. Without this awareness, both sides of cultural and religious contact would be confused in the proper understanding of the true religious meanings.

Korean Buddhism is located under the Mahayana school. That is quite different from the more original Theravada (or Hinayana) school. And it has developed its unique religious characteristics throughout the history of Korea since its arrival. As the result it is very different from other Japanese and Chinese Buddhism; and even more from Southeast Asian Buddhism. However it still shares much common ground with other kinds of Buddhism, as an offspring of the same parent Buddhism. Just as Buddhism and culture have been interwoven in other cultures, and become almost synonymous with the host cultures, Korean Buddhism also has developed into something unmistakably Korean in the Korean culturalhistorical context. The challenge is that Korean Buddhism is now numerically larger than Christianity, and is also faster growing than Protestant Christianity. This research draws some missiological implications from the characteristics of Korean Buddhist success and expansion. The first characteristic of Korean Buddhism is its syncretic openness to preexisting religions. That is clearly evident in the development of ‘Buddhist’ rites of passage. These syncretized rites have come to feel very essential to the lives of Koreans under Buddhist influence. Korean churches will need to develop contextualized rites of passage in order to for Koreans accept Christianity as the religion of their lives. The second characteristic is their variety of piety. Korean Buddhism is divided into different kinds of sects, although they share common ground. Different approaches need to be developed to different Buddhist denominations. The third characteristic is loyalty. Although their members do not understand their doctrines much and don’t read their scriptures much and don’t attend their worship regularly, they do not leave their religion because of their sense of belonging to the religion of their lives. The traditional way of Christian evangelism has been to compare and contrast doctrines. It has been proven a failure for evangelism. We need to study how to fulfill the religious and emotional desires of Korean Buddhists’ in a Christian way. The fourth characteristic is its family centeredness. Our mission strategy should focus on working with groups rather than individuals. The fifth characteristic is their integration of culture and religion. This challenges us to work hard to contextualize Christian culture to become a Korean religion of life. And our theological reaction to the Buddhist’s challenge to the identity of Jesus and the Bible should be well prepared, and be delivered with a humble and respectful attitude. The sixth characteristic of Korean Buddhism is their religious openness and tolerance. We need training on how to look with the love of God at Buddhism as a fellow religion. In the Korean Christian circles we desperately need to learn how to share our religious convictions politely. We need to do so with a deep understanding of where they are, yet without losing our identity. The seventh characteristic of Buddhism is their strong desire for inner peace. Their inner peace focus links them into oriental spirituality. A Christian spirituality based on prayer and meditation of the word of God would be more relevant to those already focusing on seeking inner peace. Korean Buddhism needs to be studied more deeply in many aspects to find missiological touching points with the various levels of Korean Buddhists. To do this more effectively, I recommend we establish study centers for crossfertilization and informationsharing of models found effective for the evangelism of the Korean Buddhists.

Korea is recognized home and abroad as a country where various religions exist without conflict or enmity which is rare in the world. However, it's certain that Korea is one of the country where social conflict can happen caused by religious conflict or enmity at any time. The conflict and enmity among religions are already deep and it can’t be solved by temporary measure. It will be difficult to overcome this problem without continuous and honest conversations among religions. This study was done with this issue and I aim at finding the new way for conversation and collaboration to reach peace among religions. In Korea, the portion of protestantism and buddhism is biggest and these two religions have the most serious conflict between them. In this situation, I analyzed two survey results. One is ‘the survey for social credit to Korean churches’ done by ‘Christian Ethics Movement of Korea’ with the aim of “evaluating the social credit of Korean churches and finding a way to enhance it.” The other is ‘social culture in Korea and survey of people about religion’ done by ‘Buddhism Society Institute,’ affiliated by Jogye Order of Korean Buddhist with the aim of “finding a indicator for religions in Korea including buddhism and to utilize as a fundamental data on social culture and religion in Korea.” The result of the study shows that the future of Korea churches will be pessimistic if they continue church individualism and aggressive evangelism for the growth of church. It is an urgent task to reform such a image. The way to reach the harmony and co-existence for the peace among religions may be different but being different does not mean wrong. I believe that we can reach harmony with the spirit of ‘Hwa-i-bu-dong’(peace in difference) which is admitting and respecting others. In this era, community spirit is required for rebuilding of community. Religion is not an exception of it. Furthermore, religion has more responsibility and duty compared to other sectors in the society to enhance community spirit and social spirit. Like this, it can be the way to reach the ultimate goal or original function of the religion. For conversation and collaboration among religions, the authenticity from the deep inside of people’s heart is required absolutely.