After Protestantism was introduced to East Asia in the 19th century, Christian thoughts began to be widely translated and distributed in East-Asian languages. At that time, terms were firstly translated into Chinese in China and then distributed to Japan and Korea. In the case of Korea, Christianity was mainly introduced through tracts which were translated from Chinese books for about 20 years before the Bible translation was completed, and those terms even affected the Bible-translating work. Unlike preceding researches which are mostly focused on the Bible translation, this study focuses on Franklin Olinger(1845-1919), who came to Korea in 1887 as a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church and made great contributions to the translation and publication of the early Korean Protestant tracts until 1893, and his six tracts. Through a comparative study with the original Chinese versions, this study examines the transformation of terms. Olinger was the only missionary who used to work in China before coming to Korea among those missionaries who were in charge of translation in Korea at the time. Compared to others, he often brought Chinese terms directly. Considering that Korean Christians now use Chinese terms more commonly than Korean vernacular terms created at the time, it assumes that some of Olinger's bestsellers, such as Leading the Family in the Right Way had a considerable impact on Korean believers, and terminologies he suggested, having experience in translation and missionary work in China, had a great influence on the formation of Korean Christian terminology.

Authors:
Hyewon Lee, Yonsei University, South Korea

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Hyewon Lee is a research Professor of Institute of Christianity and Korean Culture, Yonsei University, Korea. Her research embraces Asian Christian history and currently focuses on the study about the formation of Christian Terms in East Asia.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

Bookmark