1970년대 갈릴리교회 지식인들의 민중･민족이해와 분단체제— 문익환ㆍ안병무ㆍ서남동을 중심으로—

Abstract

This article is an experimental study on the awareness of the reality of liberal democracy by critical Protestant intellectuals in the history of the Korean National Democratic Movement in the 1970s. Specifically, the layman church of Galilee’s understanding of the Peoples(Minjung) and the Nations which was created in 1975, was approached with liberal democracy. The March 1st Democratic Declaration in 1976 is a historical event that arose from the declaration of the restoration of liberal democracy by Protestant intellectuals designated as the Galilee Church. The perception of the Protestant intellectuals in the text of the Bible requires a historical understanding of religious language. In the 1970s, the universal language of the People, Liberation and salvation of the Protestant intellectuals is the advocacy of the liberal democratic system. the liberal democracy of Protestant intellectuals is expressed as a human rights advocate for the people(the Minjung) who have emerged as a historical entity since industrialization in the 1970s. For Protestant intellectuals, the absoluteization of state power under the Yushin Constitution is an illegal act that goes beyond the government’s limited power, In this case, the people’s resistance is justified. Therefore, the declaration of the restoration of the free democratic system, which is the main element of the March 1 Democratic Declaration, constitutes a political declaration aimed at protecting the rights and interests of the absolute majority of the people. In the reality of inter-Korean competition in the 1970s, Galilee church intellectuals’ logic of free democratic system contrasted with the Yushin government’s hostile logic of victory in military and economic superiority, while it was highly likely that they would be included in the theory of competition for the divided system between the two Koreas. Given that Protestant human rights advocacy is in stark contrast to totalitarianism, the Protestant intellectuals’ understanding of the people(Minjung) results in the advocacy of freedom and democracy, eading to the resistance to the South’s Yushin dictatorship and the North’s dictatorship in the 1970s.