“하나님의 여행”의 동행자들 –스크랜튼 모자(母子)의 선교동기, 목적 그리고 방법에 대한 선교학적 성찰

서지정보

ㆍ발행기관 : 한국선교신학회 ㆍ수록지정보 : 선교신학 / 31권
ㆍ저자명 : 이후천

영어 초록

This article discusses and evaluates the ministry of an American laywoman missionary Mary Fletcher Scranton and her son William Benton Scranton, who founded the JungDong Hospital, SangDong Hospital, AhHyun Church, SangDong Church, and DongDaemoon Church. The writer first starts with the following questions: “How did they define their identity as a missionary?” The writer answers it in terms of their motive to apply for missionary and their direction for mission. Second, “What was their motive, method, and purpose of mission?” Third, “What was the heritage that they bequeathed to us and what lessons can we learn from?” Answering the above questions, the writer concludes missiological implications based on his research. In particular, he provides evidence supporting that Mary and William Scranton, as apposed to other western missionaries during that time era, did not try religious colonialization and did not intend to ingrain the western civilization into Korean society. In spite of the dangers they faced, they entered into Korea with strong aspirations of missions and in concretely have contributed to building the foundation for the evangelization of Korea by planting local churches and hospitals. The biggest contribution of Mary Scranton's ministry was to challenge the sexual discrimination imposed by Confucianist beliefs, by first starting a new school for women, and thus implanting a spirit that women can work cooperatively with men, not as an inferior, but as a partner, with equal rights. With the love of Christ, William Scranton also did his best to care for the poor and the weak by building new hospitals and pharmacies. In a word, Mary and William Scranton chose Korea to actualize their vision for world mission, and lived a successful life as the Christ’s disciples by understanding the history and culture of Korea and by serving for the poor people in Korea. In spite of their just and healthy motives, method, and purpose for their mission, they, like other western missionaries in that era, lacked to provide the missional church model to Korean Christianity. We cannot learn simply out of their deep dedication and desire to develop the missional church in Korea, enlarging the kingdom of God on earth and adapting to the Korean indigenous culture. This deficit came from their lack of missional theology, being simply lay missionaries, the Scrantons lacked the proper educational background in theology. Despite their deep passions, well intended will, and endless love of Christ, they were not able to grasp the bigger picture of the missional theology, thus falling short in accomplishing God's purpose for the Korean people and the world mission.

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