Abstract
My dissertation focuses on the violence associated with two Korean Catholics from the late Chosŏn dynasty. My first subject, Alexius Hwang Sayŏng, wrote a letter during the anti-Catholic suppression of 1801 to the bishop of Beijing proposing that a Western armada invade Korea to force the Chosŏn state to tolerate Catholicism, only to be arrested and executed for treason. In 1909, my second subject, Thomas An Chunggŭn, assassinated Itō Hirobumi, the first resident-general of Korea, in hopes that his death would lead to the restoration of Korean independence. Through the study of their writings, interrogation reports, court records, public pronouncements, newspapers, missionary letters and journals, I reveal the different types of violence they sought to justify, suffered, and were reacting to.

While Hwang and Neo-Confucian officials both believed that violence could be legitimately deployed in order to actualize the worldviews mandated by their respective religions, the centrality of religion had largely been eclipsed by the secular ideologies of nationalism, Social-Darwinism, and Pan-Asianism, by An‟s time. This situation led to a struggle within and between An and foreign missionaries over the proper relationship between nation, state, and religion, and eventually to An‟s decision to kill Itō for both religious and secular reasons, even as the Catholic Church forbade violent resistance to Japan‟s colonial project.

Through a comparison of the violence associated with Hwang and An, I show that religion can both encourage and discourage violence at the same time, and that its influence can be shaped, magnified, or diminished by secular worldviews, proving the difficulty in simply labeling violence as “religious” or “secular,” and the essentially ambiguous nature of violence. I therefore propose that, in contravention to scholars who argue that religion is somehow more violent than secular ideologies, it is not so much whether a type of violence can be labeled as secular or religious, but the contents of that worldview, its relationship with other worldviews within an individual, and the historical context in which it is actualized, that is more important in determining its propensity for violence.

Local access dig.pdf. [Rausch-Ambiguity of violence.pdf]

Part I : The road to persecution -- Korea at the end of the eighteenth century -- Confucian criticisms of Catholicism -- The birth of the Korean Catholic Church -- A decade of hopes and fears -- Nationalism and evaluations of Hwang Sayŏng and his Silk Letter -- Part II : In their own words -- A Conversation on Catholicism by Sunam Ahn Chŏngbok -- The Silk letter of Hwang Sayŏng.

Korea's first significant encounter with the West occurred in the last quarter of the eighteenth century when a Korean Catholic community emerged on the peninsula. Decades of persecution followed, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Korean Catholics. Don Baker provides an invaluable analysis of late-Choson (1392-1897) thought, politics, and society to help readers understand the response of Confucians to Catholicism and of Korean Catholics to years of violent harassment. His analysis is informed by two remarkable documents expertly translated with the assistance of Franklin Rausch and annotated here for the first time: an anti-Catholic essay written in the 1780s by Confucian scholar Ahn Chongbok (1712-1791) and a firsthand account of the 1801 anti-Catholic persecution by one of its last victims, the religious leader Hwang Sayong (1775-1801). Confucian assumptions about Catholicism are revealed in Ahn's essay, Conversation on Catholicism. The work is based on the scholar's exchanges with his son-in-law, who joined the small group of Catholics in the 1780s. Ahn argues that Catholicism is immoral because it puts more importance on the salvation of one's soul than on what is best for one's family or community. Conspicuously absent from his Conversation is the reason behind the conversions of his son-in-law and a few other young Confucian intellectuals. Baker examines numerous Confucian texts of the time to argue that, in the late eighteenth century, Korean Confucians were tormented by a growing concern over human moral frailty. Some among them came to view Catholicism as a way to overcome their moral weakness, become virtuous, and, in the process, gain eternal life. These anxieties are echoed in Hwang's Silk Letter, in which he details for the bishop in Beijing his persecution and the decade preceding it. He explains why Koreans joined (and some abandoned) the Catholic faith and their devotion to the new religion in the face of torture and execution. Together the two texts reveal much about not only Korean beliefs and values of two centuries ago, but also how Koreans viewed their country and their king as well as China and its culture. -- From book jacket.

Chosŏn hugi Ch'ŏnjugyosa yŏn'gu ŭi kich'o 조선 후기 천주교사 연구 의 기초  /  Cho Kwang 조 광.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

목차
머리말
제1부 조선 전통사회와 천주교 신앙
 Ⅰ. 조선후기 서학 사상의 사회적 기능
  1. 머리말 = 3
  2. 서학 수용의 사회적 특성 = 5
  3. 18ㆍ19세기 서학사상의 특성 = 10
  4. 서학 사상의 사회적 기능 = 15
  5. 맺음말 = 20
 Ⅱ. 조선후기의 교회와 국가
  1. 머리말 = 22
  2. 교회의 국가에 대한 인식 = 24
  3. 국가의 교회에 대한 인식 = 36
  4. 국가의 천주교 전파에 대한 대책 = 46
  5. 맺음말 = 53
 Ⅲ. 조선후기 천주교 수용자와 수용논리
  1. 서학과 사학 = 56
  2. 서학 수용자의 사회적 특성 = 57
  3. 서학 수용의 양상 = 61
  4. 서학사상의 사회적 기능 = 65
  5. 맺음말 = 70
 Ⅳ. 조선교구설정의 역사적 의미
  1. 머리말 = 72
  2. 근대사회의 형성촉진 = 73
  3. 근대문화의 형성촉진 = 89
  4. 민족운동에의 기여 = 111
  5. 맺음말 = 119
 Ⅴ. 한국 전통 신관에 관한 이해의 연구사적 검토
  1. 머리말 = 122
  2. 구미인의 한국 신관에 대한 이해 = 125
  3. 식민지 시대의 한국 신관 연구 = 136
  4. 맺음말 = 142
제2부 조선후기 천주교사의 사료 연구
 Ⅰ.『사학징의』의 사료적 특성
  1. 머리말 = 147
  2.『사학징의』의 존재 확인 = 148
  3. 외적 특성에 관한 검토 = 155
  4.『사학징의』의 내용 검토 = 165
  5. 맺음말 = 171
 Ⅱ. 신유박해 전후 순교자에 관한 연구
  1. 머리말 = 182
  2. 연구의 자료 = 184
  3. 시복(諡福)을 위한 기존의 노력 = 189
  4. 시복 조사 작업의 문제점과 과제 = 197
  5. 시복 조사 대상 인물의 기준 설정 = 204
  6. 맺음말 = 208
 Ⅲ.『동국교우상교황서』의 사료적 가치
  1. 머리말 = 210
  2. 사료의 제명 및 작성자 = 211
  3. 사료 발굴의 경위 = 217
  4. 사료의 형태 = 222
  5. 작성 배경 및 제작 시기 = 226
  6. 사료의 내용 = 230
  7. 맺음말 - 사료의 가치 = 236
 Ⅳ. 조선왕조실록의 천주교사 자료 연구
  1. 머리말 = 239
  2. 실록의 편찬과 관리 = 241
  3. 조선후기의 실록 편찬 = 250
  4.『고종실록』의 사료적 가치 = 259
  5. 실록에 수록된 천주교사 자료 = 265
  6. 맺음말 = 270
 Ⅴ. 신유박해 연대기 사료의 정리
  1. 용어에 대한 이해 = 272
  2.『신유박해 자료집』의 편찬 = 274
  3. 자료의 발췌와 번역 = 275
  4.『신유박해 자료집』의 특성 = 278
  5. 부록 = 280
찾아보기 = 339

Loacal access dig.pdf. [Baker-Choson Chonjugyo.pdf]

Han'guk kŭnhyŏndae Ch'ŏnjugyosa yŏn'gu  한국 근현대 천주교사 연구  /  Cho Kwang  조 광.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

 『한국 근현대 천주교사 연구』는 근대천주교사의 전개과정에서 독특한 위치를 차지하고 있는 안중근에 관한 연구를 시도한 책이다. 안중근은 개항기 황해도 지역의 대표적 신도였고, 개항기 이래 민족운동가들의 역할모델을 제공해 주었던 인물이기 때문이다. 이 책에서는 먼저 안중근에 관한 학문적 연구업적을 정리한 후, 안중근이 전개했던 애국계몽운동과 일본 제국주의 침략에 대항하는 독립운동에 대해서도 주목했다. 이어 안중근의 순국 이후 그 가족과 친족들에 의해 계승되었던 독립운동의 실상도 함께 검토한다.

목차