基督敎神學槪論 · Jeong Kyeong-ok Wroot Press · preview
基督敎의 絕對性 · 1939 edition, pp. 138–144

Chapter 5. The Absoluteness of Christianity1

p. 138 "Absoluteness" means supreme and without equal, or final and ultimate. To speak of the absoluteness of Christianity is to say that Christianity, whether in its essence or compared with other religions, stands at the summit, so that there is no religion better than it, and that, even seen in itself, it is complete, with no room to develop further. Most of those who hold the Christian faith believe that the religion of Christ p. 139 stands in a transcendent position, beyond comparison with other religions. They claim that Christianity is not one religion belonging among the many kinds of religion, but the absolute revelation that stands above all religions.

Then in what sense can Christianity be called the absolute religion? The question can be considered in two parts: first, the question of its intrinsic absoluteness, within itself; second, the question of its absoluteness over against others, in its relation to other religions.2

First: if Christianity, seen historically, has passed through a process of growth and development, and is of a nature to go on progressing, in what sense can it be called the absolute religion? That is the question. Christianity has developed through many stages until now, and it is a fact that it has changed at least somewhat. Not only have its forms changed; its thought has shifted too, and even its spirit3 has not stayed fixed. Can Christianity, then, in the midst of such change, claim to be the absolute religion?

Second: now that the study of the world's religions is intense and the historical place and value of particular religions have begun to be recognized, can Christianity alone claim to be eternal truth and reject every other religion as false religion and heresy? That is the question. Is it not that each of the world's religions has its own distinctive features, of a nature fitted to the particular surroundings and circumstances in which it arose and developed? Then does not Christianity too, with its own particular structure and content, hold only a relative value? In p. 140 what sense can Christianity, one among the world's many religions, be called the absolute religion?

Below we shall discuss these two questions briefly, in order.

(1) Intrinsic Absoluteness

The claim for the absoluteness of Christianity is argued, broadly, in two ways. One holds that Christianity keeps divine authority as a once-for-all supernatural revelation; the other, that its truth is founded on general principles and has an eternal, unchanging certainty. The first calls on external authorities (miraculous revelation, the tradition of the church, the letter of Scripture) to secure its truth; the second rests on a static view of the universe and asserts that truth is essentially fixed. Both alike generally regard the truth of Christianity as a fixed, ready-made pattern. But to deny the fact of development in Christianity is a view that ignores the character of the vital experience of religion and the general principles of the process of culture. Christianity is a religion that makes things grow and grows itself. It is not that "I have already obtained it all,"4 nor, on the other hand, that our present attitude is wrapped in clouds of doubt. We must go forward with sure conviction, looking always toward what is true. Christianity, like other historical religions, is not so much a search for truth as the proclamation of a truth already gained in experience. Faith, therefore, is not doubt but the acceptance of revealed truth and a firm reliance upon it. Yet that embodied religious truth, being at once a Way and a teaching, keeps its identity and continuity as one thing, and passes again, in our actual living, through a second stage of embodiment;5 and here the p. 141 truth of Christianity comes to show the richest change and unbroken development.

When the divine significance of Christian truth is grounded in external authority, this can mean nothing other than that all knowledge, goodness and beauty were not constructed subjectively out of human desire or interest, but were given to humanity heteronomously. Truly, the truth of Christianity is the word of God, sent down6 from above to humanity sunk in ignorance and sin. But the heteronomy of God's word will be determined by the essence of the truth as the subject recognizes it, and obedience to that word is not coerced but an act of freedom. The objectivity and heteronomy of Christian truth, therefore, do not come from its being a miraculous revelation, but from its having, by the nature of truth, such an inner authority in itself. The absolute authority of Christianity, therefore, lies in the purity of revelation and the nobility of conduct. When the spirit, the ideals and the life of Christ, at every step of our living, rouse a sense of moral obligation, answer our sense of truth and exercise a complete authority, then the absoluteness of Christianity can be claimed.

(2) Absoluteness over against Other Religions7

The attitudes of Christianity toward other religions are various. With the rise of modern Romanticism the value of the classics came to be recognized anew; as their study grew steadily more intense, knowledge of the world's religions, once met with prejudice and ignorance, has advanced day by day to the present. Accordingly it is a fact that Christianity's understanding of other religions, and its attitude toward them, are p. 142 in a process of gradual change. Because of this, can Christianity hold fast to its own absoluteness? Here some praise the religions of the world unconditionally and are vague in an eclectic attitude toward Christianity; others curse other religions without any criticism and claim that Christianity alone is the true religion. That many Christians in Europe and America8 today, after a bird's-eye view of the religions of the East, are cooling in the ardor of their faith is truly an unfortunate phenomenon.

To say that Christianity is the absolute religion is not to claim that the place or value of religions other than Christianity is wholly denied. On the contrary, it may be said that to recognize the truth of other religions makes Christianity's absolute position all the more complete. What, then, are the grounds on which Christianity can claim a superior position among the religions? First, viewed historically, we cannot but say that Christianity has contributed more than any other religion to modern civilization and culture. Christianity conquered Greece, rich in a profound philosophical inheritance; it subdued Rome, which put power and institutions first; and it gave moral and spiritual satisfaction to the people of the East, keen-eyed for custom and practical gain.9 Of course it is not that Christianity has left no trace of failure in its long history. Nor do we mean to praise and extol wholesale the modern civilization with which Christianity has been most bound up. Christianity led humanity toward the best with the most earnest10 attitude and steady effort; but since that attitude and that effort contained human elements, they were not without errors and failures. Yet on the other side of those failures there p. 143 were still more valuable fruits. Indeed, today we cannot understand modern civilization without knowing Christianity, so great a part did Christianity play in making this age. Christianity is the mother of modern culture. It is a fact that art, literature, music, ethics, education, politics and economics all began in Christianity and grew up in its cradle.

Second, Christianity holds within it the fragmentary truths of the various religions. As Tolstoy said, "The true religion will be the fundamental principle that agrees with the fundamental truths of all other religions."11 This does not mean that Christianity is a mixture of various religions, like an encyclopedia. It means that if Christianity possesses the most complete system of the truth that a religion ought to have, then the truths other religions assert, so far as they are truths, not only do not conflict with Christianity but are contained or implied in Christian truth. So if some part of the truth Christianity asserts is asserted in other religions as well, this does not lower the value of Christianity; rather, the more such likenesses or points of identity there are, the more the universality of Christian truth is secured by them. Christianity therefore seeks to supply what is lacking in the truth the other religions already have, and so to complete the other religions through Christianity.12 Accordingly we by no means wish to deny or slight the value of whatever truth a religion other than Christianity asserts. Rather, we see a human meaning in the many-sided historical expressions of the development of religion. But p. 144 whoever believes that Christianity represents the best and the whole of religious truth will not accept the existence of other religions as set over against Christianity, but will believe that Christianity, from its absolute position, completes the truth-claims of all religions.13

Notes

  1. 絕對性 "absoluteness." The question and the word recall Ernst Troeltsch, Die Absolutheit des Christentums und die Religionsgeschichte (1902); 絕對宗敎 "absolute religion" is Hegel's and Troeltsch's term, used in My Creed. 最高無比 "supreme and without equal"; 終局 究竟 "final and ultimate." ↩
  2. 本質的絕對性 "intrinsic absoluteness," literally "essential absoluteness"; 對他的絕對性 "absoluteness over against others," literally "absoluteness toward the other." The chapter takes the two in turn. ↩
  3. 精神 "spirit." The word holds together "spirit" and "mind" (German Geist); here, beside the forms and the thought of Christianity, it names its inner life, and the English takes "spirit," as it does for 그리스도의 精神 "the spirit of Christ" (p. 141) and 精神的 "spiritual" (p. 142). ↩
  4. 내가 이미 다 얻었다고 하는것도 아니요 echoes Phil. 3:12 ("Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect"); the English keeps Jeong's "I." ↩
  5. 道인 同時에 敎 "at once a Way and a teaching." 具體現 "embodiment," as in the previous chapter (p. 135); 第二階段의 具體現 "a second stage of embodiment": truth once embodied in history is embodied again in the believer's living. ↩
  6. Printed 내려워, for standard 내려와 "come down" (ㅝ for ㅘ), as on p. 135 in the previous chapter; the form occurs twice and is kept as Jeong's spelling, without mark. ↩
  7. The heading reads 對外的絕對性, literally "outward absoluteness"; the chapter's opening (p. 139) named the same question 對他的絕對性, "absoluteness over against others," and the English keeps that wording for both. ↩
  8. 歐米 "Europe and America," with 米 for America as in Japanese usage (Korean also writes 歐美). ↩
  9. The contrast of Greek philosophy, Roman power and Eastern practicality is a commonplace of the apologetic literature of the time [Rall?]. 東洋 "the East." ↩
  10. 眞嚴 "earnest," printed clearly and uncommon (perhaps 眞摯 "earnest" and 嚴肅 "solemn" run together); kept without mark. In the same sentence 要素가 包含한 以上, "since... contained human elements," prints an active verb where a passive (包含된) is expected, and is translated by the sense. ↩
  11. Leo Tolstoy, printed 「톨쓰토이」. The saying is not traced; it resembles the argument of his late writings on religion (for example What Is Religion?, 1902) that true religion agrees with the fundamental truths common to all religions [Rall?]. ↩
  12. The view that Christianity fulfils or completes the other religions is the "fulfilment" theology of the Protestant missionary movement, stated in J. N. Farquhar's The Crown of Hinduism (1913) and debated at the International Missionary Council's conferences at Jerusalem (1928) and Tambaram (1938) [Rall?]. 趣意 (below) "meaning." ↩
  13. Part Three ends here, on p. 144; the rest of the page is blank. The second section gives two grounds (first, second) and closes without a conclusion to the chapter. Part Four, on the doctrine of God (第四編 神論), begins on p. 145. ↩

The 1939 text, transcribed as printed: one line per printed column, set vertically and read right to left. [sic] marks a printing error, corrected in the notes.

p. 一三八, cols. 11–14
第五章 基督敎의 絕對性
p. 一三九
른 宗敎와는 比較할것도 없이 超然的 地位에 있다는것을 믿는다。基督敎는 다른 여러 宗敎 部類에 屬 한 一個의 宗敎라고하는것보다 모든 宗敎위에 있는 絕對의 啓示라고 主張하는것이다。 그러면 基督敎는 어떠한 意味에 있어서 絕對의 宗敎라고 할수 있을가。이 問題는 두가지 方面으 로 나누어 考察할수 있다。첫째는 그 自體 안에 있어서의 本質的絕對性에 對한 問題이요 둘째는 다른 宗敎와의 關係에 있어서의 對他的絕對性에 對한 問題이다。 첫째로 基督敎는 歷史上으로 보아서 生長發達의 過程을 밟았고 앞으로도 繼續하여서 進步하여 나 아갈 性質의것이라면 어떠한 意味에서 基督敎를 絕對의 宗敎라고 할수있을가 하는것이 問題이다。基 督敎는 그동안 幾多의 階段을 밟아 發展하여왔고 적어도 多少 變遷한것이 事實이다。그 形式이 變 하였을뿐 아니라 思想도 바꾸이고 精神까지도 一定한것이 아니었다。그렇다면 이러한 變遷의 途中에 있 는 基督敎로서 絕對의 宗敎인것을 主張할수가 있을가。 둘째로 오늘날 世界 各宗敎의 研究熱이 熾烈하고 特殊宗敎의 歷史的地位와 價値를 認定하기 시작 한 이때에 基督敎만이 永遠한 眞理의 主張이요 다른 宗敎는 다 邪敎요 異論이라고 排擊할수 있을 가 하는것이 問題이다。世界 各宗敎는 各各 獨自의 特徵을 具有하여 그 宗敎가 發生하고 發達한 周 圍와 環境의 特殊性에 適應할수 있는 性質의것이 아닐가。그러면 基督敎 亦是 그 自體의 特殊한 機 構와 內容을 가지고 相對的價値를 保有할뿐이 아닌가。世界의 數多한 宗敎中에 하나인 基督敎가 어
p. 一四〇
떠한 意味에 있어서 絕對의 宗敎라 할수 있을가。 以下에 우리는 이 두가지 問題를 順次로 略論하려고 한다。
p. 一四一
敎의 眞理는 가장 豐饒한 變化와 間斷없는 發展을 보게 된다。 基督敎의 眞理의 神的意義를 外部的權威에 根據할 때에 이는 一切의 知識과 善과 美가 사람의 慾 望이나 利益을 인하여 主觀的으로 構造한것이 아니라 他律的으로 人間에게 賦與된것이라는 意味 以外 에 다른 뜻이 없을것이다。 實로 基督敎의 眞理는 위로부터 無知와 罪惡 가운데 浸潤된 人間을 向 하여 내려워 주신 하느님의 말씀이다。그러나 하느님의 말씀의 他律性은 主觀에 認識된 眞理의 本 質에 依하여 決定될것이요 그 말씀에 對한 服從은 强制的인것이 아니요 自由의 行爲이다。그러므로 基督敎의 眞理의 客觀性과 他律性은 그것이 異蹟的인 啓示이기때문에 그런것이 아니요 眞理의 本 質로 보아서 그러한 內的權威를 스스로 가지고 있기때문이다。 그러므로 基督敎의 絕對權威는 啓示 의 純正과 行爲의 高潔에 있다。그리스도의 精神과 理想과 生活이 우리 生活의 一步一步에있어서 道德的義務感을 挑發하고 眞理感에 應答하여서 全的權威를 發揮함에 있어서 基督敎의 絕對性이 主張될 수 있는것이다。
p. 一四二
過程에 있는것이 事實이다。이로 말미암아 基督敎가 그 自體의 絕對性을 固執할수가 있을가。이에 어 떤 사람은 無條件하고 世界의 諸宗敎를 讚美하여 基督敎와의 折衷的態度가 曖昧하고 또 어떤사람은 아무 批判이 없이 다른 宗敎를 詛呪하고 基督敎만이 참된 宗敎이라고 主張한다。오늘날 歐米의 많은 基 督敎人들이 東洋의 諸宗敎에 對한 鳥瞰으로 그들의 信仰熱이 冷却하여지고 있다는것은 實로 不幸한 現象이라 아니할수 없다。 基督敎가 絕對의 宗敎이란 말은 基督敎 아닌 다른 宗敎의 地位나 價値를 全的으로 否認하는 主張 이 아니다。오히려 다른 宗敎의 眞理를 認定하는것이 基督敎의 絕對的地位를 더욱 完全하게 한다고 할 수도 있을것이다。그러면 基督敎가 다른 宗敎에 比하여 優越한 地位에 있다고 主張할수 있는 根據가 무 엇인가。첫째로 基督敎는 歷史的으로 考察하여서 다른 宗敎보다도 現代文明과 文化에 貢獻한것이 가 장 많다고 아니할수 없다。基督敎는 深遠한 哲學的遺産이 豐裕한 希臘을 征服하였고 權力과 制度를 앞세우는 羅馬를 制壓하였으며 傳習과 實利에 눈이 밝은 東洋 사람에게 道德的 精神的 滿足을 주었다。 勿論 基督敎가 그 長久한 歷史를 通하여 失敗한 痕蹟이 全然 없다는것도 아니다。그리고 우리는 基 督敎가 가장 많이 關聯하여온 現代의 文明을 全的으로 禮讚하고 謳歌하려는것도 아니다。基督敎는 人 類로하여금 最善을 向하여 가장 眞嚴한 態度와 꾸준한 努力을 하게 하였으나 그 態度 그 努力 에 人間的인 要素가 包含한 以上 過誤와 失敗가 없지 아니하였다。그러나 그 失敗의 反面에는 값있
p. 一四三
는 成果가 더욱 많았다。實로 오늘날 우리는 基督敎를 알지 못하고는 現代文明을 理解할수 없을이만 큼 基督敎가 이 時代를 만들어내는데 있어서 重大한 役割을 하였던것이다。基督敎는 現代文化의 어머 니이다。藝術、文學、音樂、倫理、敎育、政治、經濟 모든것이 基督敎에서 시작되었고 基督敎의 搖籃에서 자라난것이 事實이다。 둘째로 基督敎는 여러가지 宗敎의 斷片的인 眞理를 含蓄하였다。「톨쓰토이」가 말한것과 같이「眞正 한 宗敎는 다른 모든 宗敎의 根本眞理와 調和되는 根本原理일것이다。」이말은 基督敎를 百科全書와 같이 여러가지 宗敎의 混合體라고 하는 말은 아니다。이는 基督敎가 宗敎로서 마땅히 가지고 있어야 할 眞理의 가장 完全한 體系를 所有하였다면 다른 宗敎에서 主張하는 眞理는 그것이 眞理인 以上 基督敎와 背馳되지 아니할뿐 아니라 基督敎의 眞理 안에 包含되어 있는것이거나 暗示되어 있다는것이 다。이렇게 基督敎가 主張하는 眞理의 어느 部分이 다른 宗敎에서도 主張되어 있다면 이는 基督敎의 價値를 低落시키는것이 아니오 오히려 그러한 類似 或은 同一點이 많으면 많을쑤록 이로 因하여서 基 督敎 眞理의 普遍性이 確保된다고 할것이다。그러므로 基督敎는 다른 여러 宗敎에 旣有한 眞理에 그 不足한것을 補充하여서 基督敎로써 다른 宗敎를 完成하려는것이다。따라서 우리는 決코 基督敎 아닌 다 른 宗敎가 主張하는 眞理가 있다면 그 價値를 否認하거나 輕視하려는것이 아니다。우리는 오히려 宗 敎의 發達過程에 있어서 그 歷史的 表現의 多角的인 곳에 人間的인 趣意가 있다고 본다。그러나 基督敎
p. 一四四, cols. 1–2
가 宗敎的 眞理의 最善과 全體를 代表하여 있는것을 믿는 사람은 基督敎와 다른 宗敎와의 對立的 存在를 容認하지 아니하고 基督敎의 絕對的 地位로서 모든 宗敎의 眞理 主張을 完成한다고 믿을것이다。