사회는 인간의 산물이면서 인간은 사회의 산물이다. 이와 같이 인간과 사회는 상호 형성의 변증법적 관계에 있지만, 개별자로서의 우리 앞에 마주 서 있는 사회는 우리에게 압도해 오는 거대한 힘이다. 불교학 연구의 새 시대를 연 불연 이기영 선생의 학문 또한 이러한 맥락에서 그 의의를 확인해 볼 수 있다. 그는 일제 식민지와 제2차 세계대전, 해방 후의 외세와 정치적 혼란 그리고 6.25전쟁을 두루 겪으며 변방의 지식인으로서의 자기 정체성을 탐색하게 되는 것은 자연스러운 일이다. 불교학, 원효 사상은 이러한 사상적 탐색의 귀결점이다. 불연의 ‘학문’은 객관성만을 담보하는 서구적 의미의 학문이 아니다. 그의 학문이 불교라는 점, 특히 ‘귀일심원 요익중생’의 원효 사상에 초점이 놓여 있다는 점은 수행과 괴리되지 않는 학문이 되도록 한다. 사회적 실천이 뒤따라야 한다는 것이다. 그를 좁은 의미의 ‘학자’이기만 한 것이 아니라 시민 사회의 ‘교육자’로 활동하게끔 한 이유이다.
It is inevitable that we live in a certain period of historical era and should be a member of a community. At this time, the era and the community stand right opposite us as a overwhelming power, and as a result we must internalize the norm or the spirit of the era and the community which we live in. On the other hands, the human being is not solely passive, he is active in creating the society, and such an ability of man may be called the externalization of man’s power. In such a way the human being and the society have the relationship of dialectical process between them. We can find the similar process in the formation of the scholarship of Prof. Rhi who was widely known as to open the new age in the field of Korean Buddhist Studies. He lived in the age of Japanese colony, the 2nd world war, the political conflict between the communist and the democratic parties caused by the foreign influences and the Korean War which have brought utter destruction all over the state. And he could observe West European imperialism and the race discrimination as a foreign student while he stayed in Louvain and Paris between 1954 and 1960. It would be highly possible that Prof. Rhi has reached - as a reactionary response to the tide of the age - at the studies of Buddhism and especially to the thought of Monk Wonhyo which had become the basic foundation of Korean culture. Though he can be regarded as a nationalist scholar in such a case, it should be remembered that he became to have such mind in the long spiritual quest to find the answer for his existential questions. The scholarship in the oriental meaning inevitably includes the practice of self-discipline especially when that scholarship refers to Buddhist studies. Wonhyo’s catch phrase which was paraphrased by Prof. Rhi, ‘Return to the source of one-mind, and Profit widely to all people’, also reflects this compound meaning of scholarship. And the career of Prof. Rhi after returning to his country can be explained in this respect. He started his career as a professor at a university, but he devoted his life before long to the education of the ordinary citizens which brought him a great reputation and gave great opportunities for the ordinary people to approach to their brilliant tradition. The society which confronts us now is the world which Prof. Rhi had poured himself so passionately during his life. It would be quite right that Prof. Rhi would have merits and demerits in a certain sense. But like Prof. Rhi at his time, in our age we ourselves are responsible to create our future.
目次
I인간과 사회 그리고 불연 이기영. 5 II 불연의 시대와 삶. 10 III 그의 학문 세계. 14 IV 불연이 제시하는 학문의 길. 24 V 맺음말. 26
