초록 열기/닫기 버튼

18세기 감리교 운동에서 여성들은 속회와 반회의 지도자로 또한 평신도설교자로 왕성히 활동하였다. 그들은 비공식적으로 대중 앞에서 말하기 시작하여 점차 권면을 한다든가 성경을 주석해 준다든가 하면서 공식적인 평신도설교자로 발전하였다. 감리교의 창시자 존 웨슬리는 여성도 남성과 똑같이 영적인 능력을 부여받았으며 설교를 위한 특별한 은사를 지니고 있음을 보았다. 웨슬리가 여성설교를 공식적으로 승인하기까지는 오랜 시간이 걸렸지만, 그 이전부터 여성설교가들의 활동은 영국전역에서 활발하였고 웨슬리의 생애 말기에 이르러서는 절정에 달하였다. 웨슬리의 사후 감리교는 영국교회로부터 분리하게 됨으로 이제 하나의 독립교회로서 보다 체제를 공고히 할 필요가 있었다. 이와 함께 감리교 내에서는 정규목회직을 강조하게 되었고, 정규목회자로 오랫동안 인정받지 못했던 여성설교가들의 입지가 어려워지게 되었다. 이 연구는 존 웨슬리와 함께 시작된 감리교운동 안에서 여성 지도력이 어떻게 발전되어 갔고, 이와 관련하여 웨슬리가 어떻게 여성설교직을 승인하게 되었으며, 또한 웨슬리와 관련된 초기 감리교 여성설교가들의 활동과 그들이 만났던 문제들은 무엇이었는지를 역사적으로 고찰하였다.


How did female leadership, particularly female preaching, begin and develop in the Wesleyan Methodist movement? How did John Wesley, father of Methodism, come to approve of female preaching? What were the activities and roles of female preachers in the early Methodism? What were the problems which they faced? Answering these questions is the purpose of this study. This study tries to achieve its task by examining the possible sources from the female leaders of early Methodism and Wesley. Women in the Methodist movement of eighteenth century took on public religious roles in praying bands, class meetings, and love-feasts. To some women, leading prayers within these meetings was their first exposure to public speaking. It evolved into some form of ministry for them as they went out visiting people and praying for them. Women were also encouraged to speak of their spiritual life in public meetings and to exhort fellow Methodists to faith and repentance. The line between exhorting and preaching was thin. By the 1760s, there were scores of women preaching in Methodist societies all across the British Isles. Wesley thought that women were given spiritual ability as much as men and that they might possess an extraordinary gift for preaching. Although Wesley did not approve of the formal ordination of women, he did name them to serve as lay preachers. Wesley’s attitude and thought of female preaching changed or developed with a series of progression through the years, and, in the later period of his ministry, Wesley came to approve of female preaching by necessity and its fruits. In 1787 women’s right to preach in Methodism was finally sealed when Wesley gave an official authorization to Sarah Mallet. However, it was not long after Wesley’s death that the institutionalization of the evolving Wesleyan Methodist church and its reversion to patriarchal patterns of leadership became evident. Women were formally forbidden from functioning as preachers or were restricted in their activities in such a way as to severely impede their influence within the societies. However, the leadership of women, though discouraged, was still significant in the early Methodist life.