일제강점기 번역ㆍ저술가 채성석(蔡聖錫)의 생애와 활동

초록

Studies on the people who translated and introduced modern ideas and culture to Korea remain relatively underdeveloped. In church history as well, scholarship has focused mainly on missionaries and pastors, with little attention to the laypeople who worked with them. This article therefore reconstructs the life of Chae Seong-seok, a Korean lay intellectual active from the late Korean Empire into the Japanese colonial period, and examines his translation and writing activities. Using sources from Korean studies, history, and newspaper and magazine databases, together with additional materials identified through further comparison, this study reconstructs his life and summarizes his writings and translations. Born around 1881, Chae graduated from a government middle school, taught at several Methodist-affiliated schools, studied in the United States for seven years, and then returned to Korea, where he engaged actively in translation and authorship. His contributions are twofold. First, by translating and writing on the Christian temperance movement, he helped spread temperance ideas in Korea. Second, in the early 1920s, he served as a channel through which Western scholarship and literature were introduced to Korea. His book “Advice to Young Men” is an example of how eugenic ideas were transmitted to Korea. “How to Compose English Letter” is the first English letter-writing manual published in Korea. In addition, he introduced Western literature to Korean readers by publishing works such as Shakespearean plays in the journal “Theological and the World.”

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