2000년대 이후 토마스(R. J. Thomas) 죽음 논쟁에 대한 이해 및 접점 모색: 역사학자 한규무와 교회사학자 박용규의 주장을 중심으로

Abstract

R. J. Thomas’s Death is one of the heated debates in Korean Christian history. Professional historians insist that Thomas was executed during his imperialistic missions. Conversely, Korean church historians argue that Thomas died a martyr during his mission work abroad. They do not yield an inch on the matter. Nevertheless, many researchers have not paid much attention to studies on the understanding/reconciling of the two arguments. The purpose of this paper is to understand the martyrdom theory of church historian and the Execution theory of professional historian Since 2000 and to seek the Contact Points of the Two in the debate on R. J. Thomas’s death. To achieve this, I will follow these procedures: First, section two focuses on Kyu-Moo Han, a representative historian who argues that Thomas was not martyred and Thomas’ martyrdom is a beautiful story and Yong-Kyu Park, a representative church historian who claims that Thomas was martyred. Moreover, I will explore why they argued like that by answering three questions: 1) who are they? 2) what communities do they belong to? and 3) which situations did they argued like that? Second, section three seeks the Contact Points of the Two through studies on postmodern history, public theology, and faith/scholarship of the American Christian historiography. In section four, I will organize the contents thus far and suggests an opinion about the debate/this paper’s strengths and weaknesses. The Contribution of this paper relates to reflecting on the two competing arguments and providing a beginning of reconciliation and harmony in the debate on R. J. Thomas’ death.