전도부인(Bible Woman), 한국 근대소설 속 신여성(New Woman) 이전의 여자들

김예람(Ye-ram Kim) 구보학회 2023 구보학보 Vol.- No.34

본 논문은 개화기 신소설부터 일제 식민지기 근대소설에 이르기까지 신여성(New Woman)에 앞서 기독교를 통해 근대성을 내면화하기 시작한 전도부인(Bible Woman)에 착안하여 전도부인이 구여성과 신여성을 매개하는 과도기적 여성 인물이자, 근대작가들로 하여금 한국 여성과 일상화된 기독교 사이에 존재했던 여성주제들에 대한 탐색을 심화시킨 문학적 제재였음을 밝혔다. 신여성 작가의 소설과 신여성 모델소설이 창작되기 이전 전도부인은 석진형, 김일엽, 전영택의 소설에서 구여성에게 전통적 여성의 삶과 획기적으로 구분되는 새로운 삶의 가능성을 제시하고, 여성계를 대표하는 직업여성으로 부각된다. 나아가 전도부인은 신여성 인물이 정착한 이후에도 여러 장편소설에서 기독교 농촌계몽운동, 기독교적 혼인율, 여성해방과 기독교에 관한 다양한 여성주제를 탐색하도록 만든 유용한 소재였다. 전도부인 최용신(崔容信)을 모델로 한 심훈의 『상록수』는 채영신을 세속화된 전도부인으로 형상화하여 종교적 열정을 농촌계몽운동에 수렴시킨 소설이고, 김말봉의 『밀림』은 전도부인 삽화를 통해 신자 간의 결혼만을 허용하는 기독교적 혼인율에 대한 윤리적 문제를 제기한 작품이며, 채만식의 『인형의 집을 나와서』는 봉건적 부덕을 상징하는 소재로서 전도부인을 설정하여 그와 대립하는 여성해방의 주제를 전달한 소설이다. 전도부인은 근대적 여성 인물의 모색이라는 소설사적 과제에 과도기적 역할을 담당한 문학적 전형이자, 신여성에 편중된 근대적 여성상의 한 측면을 새롭게 드러내는 역사적 존재다. This article focuses on the Bible Woman(傳道婦人), who began to internalize modernity through Christianity before the New Woman(新女性), from the New Novels of the enlightenment period to the modern novels of the Japanese colonial period. Bible Women were transitional female characters that mediated between old women and New Women. By the Bible Women as subject matters, modern writers deepened their literary exploration on feminist themes existed between Korean women and generalized Christianity. Before modern novels by New Women writers and roman à clefs on real New Women, Bible Women presented old women with new life possibilities that were radically different from traditional women's lives as well as stood out as career women representing the women's world in the novels of Jin-hyeong Seok, Il-yeop Kim, Young-taek Jeon. Even after New Woman characters were settled in Korean modern novels, Bible Women, in addition, proved to be useful matters for a number of novels to explore a variety of feminist themes; Christian v narod movement, Christian marriage law, women's liberation. Modeled on Bible Woman Yong-shin Choi(崔容信), Hoon Shim's Evergreen Tree is a novel that concentrates religious fervor on v narod movement by characterizing Young-shin Chae as a secularized Bible Woman. Mal-bong Kim's Jungle raises ethical questions about the Christian marriage law, which only allows marriages between believers by means of the episode of the Bible Woman character. Man-sik Chae's After Leaving A Doll's House is a novel that conveys the theme of women's liberation by characterizing the Bible Woman as a symbol of the virtues of feudal women. To conclude, the Bible Woman is a literary type that played a transitional role in the Korean modern novel's historical task of finding a modern female character, and a historical being that reinforced an aspect of the modern female figure that was biased toward the New Woman.

초기 개신교 전도부인의 교육과 여성선교

장진경(Jin Gyeong Jang) 한국기독교교육정보학회 2008 기독교교육정보 Vol.21 No.-

The objective of this article is to study the curriculum and contents of the education for Korea Bible Women who served as the first women workers for Korean women mission from the years of 1884 to 1910 and thereby to find out the impact of the education on their evangelical work. The years of 1884-1910 were a significant period in Korean church history. During this time, the Korean church started and extended its inland mission, and, under the strong supervision of the Western women missionaries, the Bible Women were trained and began to enlarge their missionary work. Due to the difficulty in finding Korean female converts at that time, the Bible Women mostly consisted of people of the lower classes such as widows and concubines who were abandoned by their husbands. These women lived a miserable life with no socio-political status and became believers by accepting the new religion from West, but their conversion was not simply a religious change but an entrance into the modem life and new social being in the age-old traditional society. Educating the Bible Women began to meet the demand of the mission field, and they were taught about the basic doctrines and theological learning by Western women missionaries. Though their educational institute developed from Bible study, Bible class into women seminary, the education standards were little moved from level of laity and thus so were the curriculum and contents of Bible Women as the early female church leaders, because of the Western missionary's faulty policy on training Korean church leaders. Converted in poor living conditions and met by hard pressure of persecutions, the Bible Women, with strong faith and passion, went into mission field, built up numerous churches and took care of diverse evangelical demands, but they sometimes found themselves unable to answer the basic questions raised by people they met. Though this problem began to decrease after 1920s when Bible Women were replaced by the graduates of high school and female church members with higher education. the educational level of Korean church leaders had limits. The limits played an significant role in holding Korean women's theology and faith not to emerge from the strong influence of blessing-centered shamanism and religious experimentalism

Protestant Bible Education for Women: First Steps in Professional Education for Modern Korean Women

Lee-Ellen Strawn 서강대학교 종교연구소 2013 Journal of Korean Religions Vol.4 No.1

Bible education in the Korean Protestant Church is a notable strain of modern education for women in the early twentieth century. Not only did these opportunities provide many Korean women with basic literacy skills, but the advanced training for certified Bible Woman status represented the initial steps in women’s professional education. Such professional education of Bible Women, open to women from all walks of life, was an avenue for self-betterment, professional transformation and social mobility. With a focus on theological and practical training, Bible classes, Bible institutes and Bible training schools provided women with heretofore unavailable opportunities to meet publicly with women of diverse backgrounds and to be taught and led by Korean women. Bible classes provided some of the first opportunities for professional female leadership in modern Korea and thus they portrayed a pattern of transmission of the Bible both for and by Korean women. In this way, Bible education for women deserves to be recognized as the first steps in women’s leadership and professional education in modern Korean society.

Multiple Roles of the Bible Women in the Early Korean Church

오현선 한국기독교교육학회 2012 기독교교육논총 Vol.31 No.-

The Bible Women had done very important works in the early Korean mission field. In this paper, I considered the role of the Bible Women in the early Korean Christianity according to three categories: the church, baptism, and Christian education based upon the missionaires’ journal The Korea Mission Field. The Bible Women were people who helped missionaries in the early period of mission in Korea. The expansion of Korean Christianity from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century based upon their great roles of the Bible Women. Missionaries had influenced on Korean women’s lives that had been marginalized from the male, upper-middle class focused socio-cultural system in the early 19th century. Learning and practicing Christian gospel with the missionaries, the uneducated and marginalized women could have an opportunity to be human beings. The opportunity to be a Bible Woman was the opportunity to transform one’s life. Numerous women were liberated from the traditional patriarchal oppression through their new occupation as Bible Women. They served as preachers, Christian teachers, leaders and evangelists in the early Korean church community. Overcoming the limitations of the Contemporary Korean protestant churches, such as materialism, individualism, and expansionism, we need to look closely at the works and roles of the Bible Women in the early Korean Christian era. As evangelists, ministers, national leaders, and Christian educators, the Bible Women should be remembered in the Christian educational community.

Korean Bible Women’s Success: Using the Anbang Network and the Religious Authority of the Mudang

Lee-Ellen Strawn 서강대학교 종교연구소 2012 Journal of Korean Religions Vol.3 No.1

Korean Bible Women were successful in their work of evangelization because they utilized the women’s anbang network and borrowed the authority of other female religious figures in the anbang, specifically that of the mudang (female shaman). Bible Women shared their new package of western Protestant ideas with Korean women by entering into the women’s quarters, borrowing the accepted female mudang’s religious authority in that sphere, and coherently merging traditional women’s practices and perspectives with modern Protestant views regarding women and their roles in society. In this respect, the work of Korean Bible Women was thoroughly Korean and thus effective despite the conservative Confucian milieu that circumscribed female activity. This paper illuminates the culturally authentic work of Bible Women in Korea by presenting an overview of the Bible Woman system, by examining the importance of the anbang in women’s daily lives, by discussing the exorcisms by Bible Women that occurred therein, and by analyzing the functional similarities between female mudang and Korean Bible Women. In fact, the presence of the Bible Woman, as a female religious leader meeting needs previously met by mudang, was easy enough to assimilate for many Korean women because of the presence of female mudang in the women’s anbang for centuries. In some regards, the similar functions between mudang and Bible Women may have made Bible Women’s Christian work seem more Korean and less western.

한국적 탈식민주의 여성신학적 성서해석 -"간음한 여인"(요한 7,53-8,11)을 중심으로-

이연수 ( Yeon-soo Lee ) 한신대학교 종교와문화연구소(구 한신인문학연구소) 2014 종교문화연구 Vol.- No.23

이 글은 두 가지 전제에서 시작한다. 하나는 서구 중산층 백인 남성 성서학자에 의해 주도되어온 식민주의적 성서해석에 대한 환기이고, 다른 하나는 이를 극복하기 위해 한국 여성신학자의 눈으로, 특히 ‘탈식민주의적 성서해석’이라는 성서비평을 주요 방법론으로 제시하는 것이다. 오늘날 한국 성서학계의 현실을 고려할 때, 실험적 성격을 띤 이 글의 학문적 성취 여부는 후자의 성공에 달려 있다. 이러한 탈식민주의적 성서해석은 성서학계에서 주류방법론으로 자리 잡은 역사비평이 저자의 의도에 집중해 그것의 해석을 통해 하나의 일관된 의미를 찾아내고자 하는 것과는 거리를 둔다. 곧, 서구의 성서해석에서 배제되고 소외된 다양한 ‘타자’의 소리에 귀를 기울여 다양한 성서해석을 시도하는 것이다. 그러나 이 글은 그것을 ‘여성’에 국한하여, ‘간음한 여인’(요한 7,53-8,11)이라는 성서 본문에 대해 탈식민주의 방법론인 ‘상호상황적 성서해석’을 시도한다. 곧, 성서의 역사적 상황과 한국 현실 속의 ‘윤금이 씨 사건’을 일방적인 성서의 시각이 아니라 상호적 맥락 안에 놓아서로 대화하게 함으로써 성서의 ‘과거’를 현재화하는 것이다. 이를 통해 ‘그때 거기’의 말씀이 ‘지금 여기’라는 현재 우리 삶의 자리에서 재해석되어, 한여인의 강제된 죽음이 어떻게 ‘사회적 기억’으로서 하나의 ‘소리’가 되는지를 보여주고자 한다. 이것이야말로 이 글이 탈식민주의 여성신학적 성서해석은 해방과 치유를 주는 유효한 방법론이라고 주장하는 이유이기도 하다. This paper begins to presuppose two realities: One is the fact that interpretation of the Bible has been in the hands of the Western biblical scholars, particularly white middle class men. The other is to get over it by proposing a “postcolonial interpretation of the Bible” as a main methodology from a Korean women theologian’s perspective. Considering the current situation of academic world of the biblical studies in Korea, this paper’s achievement and success seem to be up to the latter which has been rarely visited and surely be an “explosive” one. Such a postcolonial view on the Bible keeps a certain but a definite distance from historical criticism in general focusing more on an intention of the Bible authors in order to get a consistent meaning from it. In other words, the proposing postcolonial interpretation will be an effort to “listen” to various “voices from the others” who have been isolated and segregated, so that it could try to make diverse interpretation of the voices available with regard to a bible interpretation. This paper, however, limits itself to women alone. It will interprets the Bible, particularly the story of “an adultery woman” (John 7:53-8:11), through what we call a “inter(con)textual interpretation of the Bible.” Put it differently, it will situate the bible story and the murder case of Miss Yoon Geum-E by a US soldier in Korean soil together, so the two stories could have a dialogue each other and the past story of the Bible could reborn to a present story. By so doing, the words in the Bible in the past could be revived in “here and now” in our lives. It is so that a woman’s murder could become a “social memory” in the society as a voice rejecting a social oppression to remain a silence. That is the point this paper purport to show through such postcolonial interpretation of the Bible which will the paper argues brings a liberation and healing to people especially women in Korea and the world.

신마리아(1873-1921)의 공적 생애와 기독교

김은정 한국기독교역사학회 2022 한국기독교와 역사 Vol.- No.56

신마리아(1873~1921)는 초기 한국 개신교 여성으로서 근대 전환기 조선의 평범한 여성이 서양 종교인 기독교를 선택하여 위기 대처와 생존, 성장의 전략으로 활용하면서 신여성으로 이행하는 과정을 보여준다. 신마리아는 아버지가 선교사의 고용인이 되면서 정동에서 서양 기독교를 처음 접했다. 신마리아도 선교사 집의 아마도 고용되어 가사를 돕다가 기독교를 받아들이게 되었다. 그는 이후 미국 북장로회 한국선교회 소속 전도부인으로 활동하며 여선교사들과 교류했다. 20대 초반의 신마리아는 여학교에서 배우면서 가르치는 기회를 얻었고 그 기간 중 자녀와 남편·동생을 병이나 사고로 잃었다. 그는 기독교가 제공하는 여성교육의 기회에 참여하는 것으로 상실의 고통을 극복했다. 사경회와 평양여자성경학교에서 공부하고 자신과 비슷한 처지에 있는 여성들과 협력하면서, 그는 여성의 삶을 위한 새로운 가능성을 발견했다. 신마리아에게 기독교는 선과 악을 구별하게 하고, 선을 행할 수 있도록 돕는 종교였다. 자녀의 성장을 책임지는 어머니의 권세를 하나님이 부여했다는 발상을 통해 신마리아는 모권에 근거해서 여권을 옹호했다. 신마리아는 강연을 통해 교회 여성들을 지도하고 계몽하는 일로 말년을 보냈다. 그는 기독교 신앙을 근본으로 삼아 전통적인 여성의 미덕을 실천했다. 기독교 여성지도자이며 교육자 신마리아의 영향력은, 고등교육을 받은 신여성으로서 가정과 사회에 대한 책임에 충실하고자 노력했던 제자들을 통해 나타났다. A Christian educator and leader at the turn of the 20th century Korea, Maria Shin(1873-1921) exemplifies how Christianity shaped the public life of a Korean woman during the modernization. She encountered Christianity as her father first worked for a Western missionary in Chong-dong, Seoul. Maria Shin was hired in a missionary’s home where she was converted to Christian faith. She learned about the Bible from the missionary women and carried out the role of a Bible Woman in her neighborhood. In her early twenties she became a teacher at the girls' school, in which period she lost her husband, eldest son, and younger sister to illness and accident one after another. Her learning and service in the missionary girl’s school helped assuage her grief. She worked hard in the Bible classes of the Pyongyang Woman's Bible Institute and found new possibilities for women's lives in Christianity. She believed that God granted women, especially mothers, the power to take responsibility for their own and their children's growth. Maria Shin spent her later years guiding and enlightening women in the Korean church in advocacy for women's rights. Her influence was seen through her students, who, as new, higher-educated women, tried to remain faithful to their responsibilities to family and society.

근대 기독교선교 출판문화의 맥락에서 살펴본 여성의 글쓰기와 연대

이고은 이화여자대학교 한국여성연구원 2020 여성학논집 Vol.37 No.2

19세기 말, 수백 년 동안 가정 내부로 활동 영역이 제한되었던 한국 여성들은 어떤 과정을 통해 공적 영역으로 진출하게 되었을까? 기존 연구에서 근대 계몽기 한국에서 페미니스트 의식이 발생하게 된 계기와 장을 여성 교육과 기독교계 여학교를 중심으로 설명했다면, 본 연구에서는 여성들이 근대 기독교 출판문화를 통해 “글쓰기”라는 행위로 공적 영역 진출과 여성의 연대 형성이라는 가능성을 발견하게 되는 과정을 고찰한다. 특히 미국 여성 선교사와 전도부인, 배운 여성의 연대를 주목하며, 당시 여성들의 인식 변화와 영역 확장 과정을 고찰한다. 먼저 조선조 여성의 글쓰기가 어떠했는지 간략히 서술한 뒤, 개화기 개신교계에 의해 근대식 출판문화와 인프라가 도입되면서 ‘여성의 대중적 글쓰기’가 실현되는 여건이 마련된 배경을 설명한다. 당시 미국 여선교사들은 전도문서와 교양서적을 번역·저술하는 한편 한국 여성을 교육하여 문해력을 증가시키고, 사역의 기회를 제공했다. 전도부인은 여선교사를 통해 문해력을 습득하는 한편, 자신의 인맥을 활용해 여선교사와 한국 여성을 연결했다. 그 결과 전도부인은 다른 여성을 교육하는 기회를 얻었고, 서적을 유통하며 여성 독자를 양성하는 등 여성의 활동 영역을 확장하는데 공헌했다. 이들의 노력으로 얻어진 배운 여성들은 여학교뿐 아니라 교회 공동체에서 조직 활동에 참여하거나 후원자가 되었으며, 성경과 잡지, 신문 등의 독자로서 민족적 정체성을 형성하며 전국 여성들의 연대를 형성하는 데 일조했다. 동시에 이들이 마주해야 했던 한계를 지적하여 이들의 연대가 제한될 수밖에 없었던 양상을 짚어본다. In the late 19th century Korea, how did Korean women reach out to the public domain, breaking from the long secluded women’s sphere? While many previous studies attributed to girls’ education from mission schools in explaining the change, this paper suggests that such a transformation could have been possible because of women’s writing, a behavior that had long been discouraged in Korea but gradually popularized after the introduction of Christian modern printing culture. Particularly, it will call for attention to the solidarity formed among the American women missionaries, Korean Bible women and the learned women educated by the two groups, which transformed women’s social awareness and expanded their domain to the public, such as writing for newspaper opinions. I first provide a brief overview of women’s writing during the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), and then move on to explain the context, the introduction of modern printing culture in Korea focusing on the Protestant missionaries’ modern printing presses and distribution of books for the public, regardless of social classes, age and gender. At the center of this were women missionaries, who exemplified the possibility of women’s writing for the public by translating and writing evangelical books. Besides, they aided Korean women by providing education and job opportunities. In this way, Korean Bible women gained literacy and mediated women missionaries and other Korean women, utilizing their personal network. They also nurtured other women to become readers by teaching them how to read and distributing books for them. Under their leadership, the learned women became active participants of church communities and formed their identity as a social member of the country while reading the Bible, newspapers and periodicals. Meanwhile, there were institutional and social boundaries in those days that limited these women’s solidarity.

한국여성신학과 성서

최영실(Young Sil Choi) 한국기독교학회 2013 한국기독교신학논총 Vol.90 No.-

Korean Women Theology which was united by the 1980 pro- democracy uprising in Gwangju recognized that the history of Korean women`s Han resulted from not only simply the patriarchal culture but also the structure of imperial invasion and domination, South- North division. Therefore Korean women theology, unlike existing Western women theology, criticizes the biblical interpretations and doctrines focused on the West, First World, White and men through the eyes of “Korean Minjung women who had been suffering most from the reality of foreign power`s rule and division. Also, it has been seeking out life-saving ‘interpretation of life’ in ‘the way of the confluence of two stories’ understanding the reality of Korean Minjung women as a text and the Bible as a context. “The interpretation of life` reconstructs women`s histories behind the Bible and proclaims them creatively beyond the biblical texts interpreted by fundamentalism and literalism. The existing Bible itself, which has been used to depreciate women and justify the violence against them, is criticized and the texts in question are re-interpreted. And the issues of ‘the image of God as a father’ forming a basis for the suppression of women, ‘empire’ and ‘the conflict between Church and State’ are interpreted differently through the eyes of the Third World, Korean Minjung women. Lastly, the texts of reconciliation, peace and forgiveness in the Sermon on the Mount which silence the injustice of power are analyzed and the injustices of an empire which threatens a powerless state and our own people in North Korea by the logic of power and capital in today`s reality of the twenty-first century, are denounced. In this Paper, I criticize that ‘the Bible’ becomes a political tool to oppress the powerless Minjung women and expect that true justice, peace and reunification may be fulfilled in this land through ‘The interpretation of life’ beyond ‘the Bible.’

An Analysis of the Human Resources of "Bible Woman" As a Growth Engine in the Early Korean Church

Heeja Kim 한국기독교교육정보학회 2011 Journal of Christian education information tech Vol.0 No.19

The purpose of this study is to explore the contributions of women on the growth and development of early Korean churches from 1885 to 1945. Sources rely on Korean historical documents and mission reports. The Bible Women's four growing engines for the early Korean church have been categorized and identified in relationship to Korean historical turmoil. Descriptive studies have been conducted in the method of historiography, which were recorded in American missionary reports during 1885-1945 and documented by Korean church historians who have represented Korean women's role in Korean church history. In conclusion, Korean women's Christian faith was the main resource of their own survival and sacrifice and was a way to maintain the family's religion, while at the same time their faith contributed to the growth and development of the Korean church.