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영어

Kang Suk Joo (1909～2004) was an honorable Buddhist monk who played a central role in the realm of the modern Korean Buddhism.
Afterward, the various aspects of his life, his thoughts, and his Buddhist practices would be summarized and analyzed respectively. This thesis writing attempts to study the life of Kang Suk Joo in a view of the national Buddhism. The national Buddhism represent a concept which includes whatKorean Buddhist communities requested from the Buddhism as well as all sorts of Korean Buddhists'efforts and agonies engaged in campaigns for the Korean nationality. In another word, the national Buddhism indicates the naturalization of Mahayana Buddhism.
We should considerthe deep influence of both Zen school and Han Young Woun upon the life time activities of Kang Suk Joo. Kang Suk Joo became a Buddhist monk at a Zen school. And then he served Han Young Woun who stayed in the same Zen school, hence heexperienced the thoughts of Han Young Woun there. Han Young Woun was a famous monk who engaged in the campaign against Japanese colonial power for life, and also he was a representative of Korean people for the propagation of the March 1 Independence Movement under the Japanese colonial period. That is to say, such a person influenced the life of Kang Suk Joo so greatly.
In 1923, Kang Suk Joo became a Buddhist monk at a Zen school and took an ascetic devotee role for 6 years. During those years, he served the Buddhist monks who stayed around the Zen school as well as Han Young Woun who was discharged from Japanese imprisonment at that time. Throughout the period, he came to learn the national Buddhism of Han Young Woun. Additionally, his readings of various books about society and literature contributed to establish the foundations of his own thoughts. In 1928, Kang Suk Joo studied the Buddhism thoughts at the Buddhist lecture room in the Bum-Ouh temple. After 6 years of study on sutra teachings, he returned into a Zen school, and then he practiced Zen meditation at the Zen school. He was the chief director of the Kum-Jung temple in Bu-San at the end of the Japanese colonial period. And he also learned patriotism from Lee Chung Dam Sunim who was a resistant Buddhist monk against the Japanese colonial power at that time.
After the liberalization of the Japanese colonial period, he participatedin revolutionary activity in order to reform the Korean Buddhism sect at the time. Such activity was an attempt to change the Korean Buddhism realm in order to incarnate the national Buddhism learned from Han Young Woun. After the Korean War, he engaged in the campaign for the Korean Buddhism purification that would overcome the customs of the Korean Buddhism realm at the time, which were arisen from the Japanese colonial period. He had born with the following moral justifications. First, the Korean Buddhism should eliminate the unnatural factors that did not accord with the Buddhism at the time.
Second, the Korean Buddhism should be maintained by Buddhist ideology and commandments.
Kang Suk Joo had engaged in the above mentioned campaign naturally since he belonged to the Zen school whose objective was to purify the Korean Buddhism at the time. Once he was elected for a staff member of the Korean Buddhism purification executives, however, he did not participate in the radical doctrine. Nonetheless, he obviously kept his opinion that the traditional Korean Buddhism should be maintained throughout the purification process. He sustained his intention of the Korean Buddhism reformation and supported the reformation movement continuously even after the end of the purification process at the time.
The main contents of the reformation, which were insisted by Kang Suk Joo continuously, were to unfold and unify the whole properties of the Buddhism temples. He intended to use the Buddhism temples'assets in order to propagate the Buddhism and to set up the education business.
Hence, it is obvious that Kang Suk Joo's life time activities, represented by the movements of Korean Buddhism reformation, purification, and popularization, were deeply influenced by the national Buddhism of Han Young Woun. Nonetheless, Kang Suk Joo incarnated the Korean national Buddhism in his own life.

한국어

강석주(1909～2004)는 한국 현대불교의 중심에 있었던 큰스님으로 그의 삶, 사상, 수행에 대해서는 추후 다양한 관점에서 정리, 분석될 것이다. 이 글은 강석주의 삶을 민족불교의 관점에서 살피려 한다. 민족불교라 함은 민족 공동체가 불교에 요구하는, 불교가 민족을 위해 전개하였던 제반 활동과 고뇌를 묶은 개념이다. 이는 대승불교의 토착화이다.
강석주의 삶에는 선학원, 한용운을 제외할 수 없다. 그는 선학원에서 출가하고, 당시 그곳에 있었던 한용운을 시봉하면서 한용운의 사상을 체득하였다. 이렇게 강석주의 삶에 지대한 영향을 준 한용운은 3․운동 민족대표로 평생을 일제에 저항한 항일 승려로 유명하다.
강석주는 1923년 선학원에서 출가하여 행자로 6년을 지냈다. 그동안 그는 선학원에 거주하는 승려들을 도우면서, 당시 일제 감옥에서 나온 한용운의 시봉도 하였다. 그 기간에 그는 한용운의 민족불교를 배우게 되었다. 그리고 당시 읽은 사회 서적, 문학책도 그의 사상의 확립에 기여했다. 강석주는 1928년 범어사 강원에서 불교의 사상을 공부하였다. 6년간의 교학공부를 마친 그는 다시 선학원으로 왔다가, 이후에는 선원에서 참선수행을 하였다. 그리고 일제 말에는 부산 금정사 선원장을 맡았고, 저항 승려인 이청담에게서
도 애국정신을 배웠다.
해방 이후에는 교단 혁신의 활동에 가담하였다. 이는 한용운에게서 배운 민족불교를 구현하기 위해서 불교계 변화를 시도한 것이다. 한국전쟁 이후에는 불교계 내부의 식민지 체질을 극복하려는 불교정화의 대열에 가담하였다. 그는 교단 내의 비불교적인 요소를 제거하고 불교의 사상, 계율에 의거 불교계가 운용되어야 한다는 명분을 갖고 있었다.
강석주는 불교정화가 추진된 선학원에 있었기에 자연 그에 합류되었다.
그는 정화 집행부의 간부에도 피선되었으나 투쟁적인 노선에는 없었다. 그도 불교가 정화되어서 한국 전통불교가 수호되어야 한다는 소신은 분명하였다. 정화가 마감된 이후에도 불교혁신의 주장을 계속하고, 그 운동을 후원했다. 강석주가 지속적으로 주장한 혁신의 내용은 사찰재산 공개, 불교재산 통일이었다. 그를 통해 나온 재정으로 포교 및 교육 사업에 활용키 위함이었다.
이러한 강석주의 삶, 불교혁신과 정화, 불교대중화는 한용운의 민족불교에 영향 받았다. 그러나 그는 강석주의 삶이자 민족불교로 구현되었다.