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| history of christianity in japan: A History of Christianity in Japan: Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox missions Otis Cary, 1909 |
| history of christianity in japan: In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians John Dougill, 2016-09-15 In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians is a remarkable story of suppression, secrecy and survival in the face of human cruelty and God’s apparent silence. Part history, part travelogue, it explores and seeks to explain a clash of civilizations—of East and West—that resonates to this day. For seven generations, Japan’s ‘Hidden Christians’ preserved a faith that was forbidden on pain of death. Just as remarkably, descendants of the Hidden Christians continue to practise their beliefs today, refusing to rejoin the Catholic Church. Why? And what is it about Japanese culture that makes it so resistant to Western Christianity? |
| history of christianity in japan: Handbook of Christianity in Japan Mark Mullins, 2018-12-24 This volume provides researchers and students of religion with an indispensable reference work on the history, cultural impact, and reshaping of Christianity in Japan. Divided into three parts, Part I focuses on Christianity in Japanese history and includes studies of the Roman Catholic mission in pre-modern Japan, the 'hidden Christian' tradition, Protestant missions in the modern period, Bible translations, and theology in Japan. Part II examines the complex relationship between Christianity and various dimensions of Japanese society, such as literature, politics, social welfare, education for women, and interaction with other religious traditions. Part III focuses on resources for the study of Christianity in Japan and provides a guide to archival collections, research institutes, and bibliographies. Based on both Japanese and Western scholarship, readers will find this volume to be a fascinating and important guide. |
| history of christianity in japan: A History of Christianity in Japan Richard Henry Drummond, 1971 |
| history of christianity in japan: Essays on the Modern Japanese Church Aizan Yamaji, 2021-01-19 Essays on the Modern Japanese Church (Gendai Nihon kyokai shiron), published in 1906, was the first Japanese-language history of Christianity in Meiji Japan. Yamaji Aizan’s firsthand account describes the reintroduction of Christianity to Japan—its development, rapid expansion, and decline—and its place in the social, political, and intellectual life of the Meiji period. Yamaji’s overall argument is that Christianity played a crucial role in shaping the growth and development of modern Japan. Yamaji was a strong opponent of the government-sponsored “emperor-system ideology,” and through his historical writing he tried to show how Japan had a tradition of tolerance and openness at a time when government-sponsored intellectuals were arguing for greater conformity and submissiveness to the state on the basis of Japanese “national character.” Essays is important not only in terms of religious history but also because it highlights broad trends in the history of Meiji Japan. Introductory chapters explore the significance of the work in terms of the life and thought of its author and its influence on subsequent interpretations of Meiji Christianity. |
| history of christianity in japan: The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650 Charles Ralph Boxer, 1967 |
| history of christianity in japan: Christianity Made in Japan Mark R. Mullins, 1998-10-01 For centuries the accommodation between Japan and Christianity has been an uneasy one. Compared with others of its Asian neighbors, the churches in Japan have never counted more than a small minority of believers more or less resigned to patterns of ritual and belief transplanted from the West. But there is another side to the story, one little known and rarely told: the rise of indigenous movements aimed at a Christianity that is at once made in Japan and faithful to the scriptures and apostolic tradition. Christianity Made in Japan draws on extensive field research to give an intriguing and sympathetic look behind the scenes and into the lives of the leaders and followers of several indigenous movements in Japan. Focusing on the native response rather than Western missionary efforts and intentions, it presents varieties of new interpretations of the Christian tradition. It gives voice to the unheard perceptions and views of many Japanese Christians, while raising questions vital to the self-understanding of Christianity as a truly world religion. This ground-breaking study makes a largely unknown religious world accessible to outsiders for the first time. Students and scholars alike will find it a valuable addition to the literature on Japanese religions and society and on the development of Christianity outside the West. By offering an alternative approach to the study and understanding of Christianity as a world religion and the complicated process of cross-cultural diffusion, it represents a landmark that will define future research in the field. |
| history of christianity in japan: Christianity in Early Modern Japan Ikuo Higashibaba, 2001-01-01 This volume provides a new history of Christianity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Japan by depicting the world of ordinary Japanese Christians. It examines their religious expressions, as well as textual expositions given to them, within the context of Japanese religious culture. |
| history of christianity in japan: A History of Christianity in Japan: Protestant missions Otis Cary, 1909 |
| history of christianity in japan: A History of Japanese Theology Yasuo Furuya, 1997 This is the first book on the history of Japanese theology written by Japanese theologians. The authors clarify the tumultuous history of Japanese Christianity and describe the context, methodology, and goals shaping Japanese theology today. |
| history of christianity in japan: Rediscovering Japan, Reintroducing Christendom Samuel Lee, 2010-03-01 In Rediscovering Japan, Reintroducing Christendom Japan's unvoiced Christian history and cultural roots are examined from an alternative perspective. It is commonly believed that Christianity was introduced to Japan by the Spanish and Portuguese missionaries during the 1500s; however, Samuel Lee draws on various forms of cultural, religious and linguistic evidence to argue that Christianity was introduced to Japan through the Lost Tribes of Israel, who were converted to Christianity through the missionary efforts of the Assyrian Church of the East around A.D. 500. Much of the evidence he discusses has become submerged into many Japanese folkloric songs, festivals and is to be found in temples. There are, for example, approximately 300 words in Japanese and Hebrew/Aramaic that are similar. Further, Dr. Lee outlines the history of Catholicism in Japan during the 1500s, the systematic persecution of Christians from 1600s to the 1800s, and the rise of Protestant Church in Japan. The historical portion of the book ends with an analysis and discussion of 21st century Japanese society. Lastly, in Rediscovering Japan, Reintroducing Christendom, Samuel Lee questions the missiological methods of Western Christianity and advocates an approach based in dialogue between Christianity and other cultures. |
| history of christianity in japan: Japan and Christianity John Breen, Mark Williams, 2016-07-27 Much has been written of the 'success' of the early missions to Japan during the decades immediately following the arrival of the first Jesuits in 1549. The subsequent 'failure' of the faith to put down roots strong enough to survive this initial wave of enthusiasm is discussed with equal alacrity. The papers in this volume, born of a Conference marking the centenary of the Japan Society of London, represent an attempt to reassess the contact between Christianity and Japan in terms of a symbiotic relationship, a dialogue in which the impact of Japan on the imported religion is viewed alongside the more frequently cited influence of Christianity on Japanese society. Here is a dynamic cultural encounter, examined by the papers in this volume from a series of political, literary and historical perspectives. |
| history of christianity in japan: The Invention of Religion in Japan Jason Ānanda Josephson, Jason Ananda Josephson Storm, 2012-10-03 Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of what we call “religion.” There was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning. But when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. In this book, Jason Ananda Josephson reveals how Japanese officials invented religion in Japan and traces the sweeping intellectual, legal, and cultural changes that followed. More than a tale of oppression or hegemony, Josephson’s account demonstrates that the process of articulating religion offered the Japanese state a valuable opportunity. In addition to carving out space for belief in Christianity and certain forms of Buddhism, Japanese officials excluded Shinto from the category. Instead, they enshrined it as a national ideology while relegating the popular practices of indigenous shamans and female mediums to the category of “superstitions”—and thus beyond the sphere of tolerance. Josephson argues that the invention of religion in Japan was a politically charged, boundary-drawing exercise that not only extensively reclassified the inherited materials of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto to lasting effect, but also reshaped, in subtle but significant ways, our own formulation of the concept of religion today. This ambitious and wide-ranging book contributes an important perspective to broader debates on the nature of religion, the secular, science, and superstition. |
| history of christianity in japan: The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Christal Whelan, 1996-09-01 In 1865 a French priest was visited by a small group of Japanese at his newly built church in Nagasaki. They were descendants of Japan's first Christians, the survivors of brutal religious persecution under the Tokugawa government. The Kakure Kirishitan, or hidden Christians, had practiced their religion in secret for several hundred years. Sometime after their visit the priest received a copy of the Kakure bible, the Tenchi Hajimari no Koto, Beginning of Heaven and Earth, an intriguing amalgam of Bible stories, Japanese fables, and Roman Catholic doctrine. Whelan offers a complete translation of this unique work accompanied by an illuminating commentary that provides the first theory of origin and evolution of the Tenchi. Today, the few Kakure Kirishitan communities still in existence view the Tenchi as strange and flawed, expressing a distorted form of Christianity. It is, however, the only text produced by the Kakure Kirishitan that depicts their highly syncretistic tradition and provides a colorful window through which to examine the dynamics of religious acculturation. |
| history of christianity in japan: Deus Destroyed George Elison, 2020-03-17 Japan’s “Christian Century” began in 1549 with the arrival of Jesuit missionaries led by Saint Francis Xavier, and ended in 1639 when the Tokugawa regime issued the final Sakoku Edict prohibiting all traffic with Catholic lands. “Sakoku”—national isolation—would for more than two centuries be the sum total of the regime’s approach to foreign affairs. This policy was accompanied by the persecution of Christians inside Japan, a course of action for which the missionaries and their zealots were in part responsible because of their dogmatic orthodoxy. The Christians insisted that “Deus” was owed supreme loyalty, while the Tokugawa critics insisted on the prior importance of performing one’s role within the secular order, and denounced the subversive doctrine whose First Commandment seemed to permit rebellion against the state. In discussing the collision of ideas and historical processes, George Elison explores the attitudes and procedures of the missionaries, describes the entanglements in politics that contributed heavily to their doom, and shows the many levels of the Japanese response to Christianity. Central to his book are translations of four seventeenth-century, anti-Christian polemical tracts. |
| history of christianity in japan: A History of Christianity in Japan: Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox missions Otis Cary, 1970 |
| history of christianity in japan: Christian Converts and Social Protests in Meiji Japan Irwin Scheiner, 2020-06-01 Nowhere has there been a discussion of the confusion necessarily generated by the rapidity of the change or of the agony created in the lives of many whose attitudes, expectations, and even success depended on the continuance of now abolished institutions. Historians have ignored the settled conditions of most samurai and instead concentrated on the study of the minority of activist samurai leaders who, with the backing of only a few Han (feudal domains) sought to overthrow the old order and whose success in doing so has made the study of the modernization of Japan the prime concern of historians. The history of the Meiji period may have been an overall political and industrial success story, but for a fuller understanding of the conditions of that success it is also necessary to understand what it was really like for the members of the old elite to be estranged from the proponents of revolution and what many members did to assure their own social and psychological position in a world they had not expected. In this book the author attempts to show that the impact of the Meiji Restoration destroyed the meaningfulness of the Confucian doctrine for these declasse samurai. Through Christianity, the samurai attempted to revive their status in society by finding a doctrine that offered a meaningful path to power. But in doing so, they had to accept a new theory of social relations. Ultimately, as the convert's understanding of society became totally informed by the Christian doctrine, they accepted a transcendent authority that brought them into conflict with society about them. Therefore, to understand the development of a Christian opposition in Meiji society we must begin with the conversion experience itself. [intro] |
| history of christianity in japan: Christ's Samurai Jonathan Clements, 2016-04-07 The sect was said to harbour dark designs to overthrow the government. Its teachers used a dead language that was impenetrable to all but the innermost circle of believers. Its priests preached love and kindness, but helped local warlords acquire firearms. They encouraged believers to cast aside their earthly allegiances and swear loyalty to a foreign god-emperor, before seeking paradise in terrible martyrdoms. The cult was in open revolt, led, it was said, by a boy sorcerer. Farmers claiming to have the blessing of an alien god had bested trained samurai in combat and proclaimed that fires in the sky would soon bring about the end of the world. The Shogun called old soldiers out of retirement for one last battle before peace could be declared in Japan. For there to be an end to war, he said, the Christians would have to die. This is a true story. |
| history of christianity in japan: American Missionaries, Christian Oyatoi, and Japan, 1859-73 Hamish Ion, 2010-07-01 Japan closed its doors to foreigners for over two hundred years because of religious and political instability caused by Christianity. By 1859, foreign residents were once again living in treaty ports in Japan, but edicts banning Christianity remained enforced until 1873. Drawing on an impressive array of English and Japanese sources, Ion investigates a crucial era in the history of Japanese-American relations the formation of Protestant missions. He reveals that the transmission of values and beliefs was not a simple matter of acceptance or rejection: missionaries and Christian laymen persisted in the face of open hostility and served as important liaisons between East and West. |
| history of christianity in japan: Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, 1549-1650 Haruko Nawata Ward, 2016-12-05 Meticulously researched and drawing on original source materials written in eight different languages, this study fills a lacuna in the historiography of Christianity in Japan, which up to now has paid little or no attention to the experience of women. Focusing on the century between the introduction of Christianity in Japan by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in 1549 and the Japanese government's commitment to the eradication of Christianity in the mid-seventeenth century, this book outlines how women provided crucial leadership in the spread, nurture, and maintenance of the faith through various apostolic ministries. The author's research on the religious backgrounds of women from different schools of late medieval Japanese Shinto-Buddhism sheds light on individual women's choices to embrace or reject the Reformed Catholicism of the Jesuits, and explores the continuity and discontinuity of their religious expressions. The book is divided into four sections devoted to an in-depth study of different types of apostolates: nuns (women who took up monastic vocations), witches (the women leaders of the Shinto-Buddhist tradition who resisted Jesuit teachings), catechists (women who engaged in ministries of persuasion and conversion), and sisters (women devoted to missions of mercy). Analyzing primary sources including Jesuit histories, letters and reports, especially Luís Fróis' História de Japão, hagiography and family chronicles, each section provides a broad understanding of how these women, in the context of misogynistic society and theology, utilized resources from their traditional religions to new Christian adaptations and specific religio-social issues, creating unique hybrids of Catholicism and Buddhism. The inclusion of Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese texts, many available for the first time in English, and the dramatic conclusion that women were largely responsible for the trajectory of Christianity in early modern Japan, makes this book an essential reading for scholars of women's history, religious history, history of Christianity, and Asian history. |
| history of christianity in japan: A History of Christianity in Japan Otis Cary, 1982 |
| history of christianity in japan: Christianity, Social Justice, and the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II Anne M. Blankenship, 2016-10-07 Anne M. Blankenship's study of Christianity in the infamous camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II yields insights both far-reaching and timely. While most Japanese Americans maintained their traditional identities as Buddhists, a sizeable minority identified as Christian, and a number of church leaders sought to minister to them in the camps. Blankenship shows how church leaders were forced to assess the ethics and pragmatism of fighting against or acquiescing to what they clearly perceived, even in the midst of a national crisis, as an unjust social system. These religious activists became acutely aware of the impact of government, as well as church, policies that targeted ordinary Americans of diverse ethnicities. Going through the doors of the camp churches and delving deeply into the religious experiences of the incarcerated and the faithful who aided them, Blankenship argues that the incarceration period introduced new social and legal approaches for Christians of all stripes to challenge the constitutionality of government policies on race and civil rights. She also shows how the camp experience nourished the roots of an Asian American liberation theology that sprouted in the sixties and seventies. |
| history of christianity in japan: Essays on the Modern Japanese Church Aizan Yamaji, 2020-08-06 Essays on the Modern Japanese Church (Gendai Nihon kyokai shiron), published in 1906, was the first Japanese-language history of Christianity in Meiji Japan. Yamaji Aizan’s firsthand account describes the reintroduction of Christianity to Japan—its development, rapid expansion, and decline—and its place in the social, political, and intellectual life of the Meiji period. Yamaji’s overall argument is that Christianity played a crucial role in shaping the growth and development of modern Japan. Yamaji was a strong opponent of the government-sponsored “emperor-system ideology,” and through his historical writing he tried to show how Japan had a tradition of tolerance and openness at a time when government-sponsored intellectuals were arguing for greater conformity and submissiveness to the state on the basis of Japanese “national character.” Essays is important not only in terms of religious history but also because it highlights broad trends in the history of Meiji Japan. Introductory chapters explore the significance of the work in terms of the life and thought of its author and its influence on subsequent interpretations of Meiji Christianity. |
| history of christianity in japan: Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan Garrett L. Washington, 2022-01-31 Christians have never constituted one percent of Japan’s population, yet Christianity had a disproportionately large influence on Japan’s social, intellectual, and political development. This happened despite the Tokugawa shogunate’s successful efforts to criminalize Christianity and even after the Meiji government took measures to limit its influence. From journalism and literature, to medicine, education, and politics, the mark of Protestant Japanese is indelible. Herein lies the conundrum that has interested scholars for decades. How did Christianity overcome the ideological legacies of its past in Japan? How did Protestantism distinguish itself from the other options in the religious landscape like Buddhism and New Religions? And how did the religious movement’s social relevance and activism persist despite the government’s measures to weaken the relationship between private religion and secular social life in Japan? In Church Space and the Capital in Prewar Japan, Garrett L. Washington responds to these questions with a spatially explicit study on the influence of the Protestant church in imperial Japan. He examines the physical and social spaces that Tokyo’s largest Japanese-led congregations cultivated between 1879 and 1923 and their broader social ties. These churches developed alongside, and competed with, the locational, architectural, and social spaces of Buddhism, Shinto, and New Religions. Their success depended on their pastors’ decisions about location and relocation, those men’s conceptualizations of the new imperial capital and aspirations for Japan, and the Western-style buildings they commissioned. Japanese pastors and laypersons grappled with Christianity’s relationships to national identity, political ideology, women’s rights, Japanese imperialism, and modernity; church-based group activities aimed to raise social awareness and improve society. Further, it was largely through attendees’ externalized ideals and networks developed at church but expressed in their public lives outside the church that Protestant Christianity exerted such a visible influence on modern Japanese society. Church Space offers answers to longstanding questions about Protestant Christianity’s reputation and influence by using a new space-centered perspective to focus on Japanese agency in the religion’s metamorphosis and social impact, adding a fresh narrative of cultural imperialism. |
| history of christianity in japan: Understanding Japan Through the Eyes of Christian Faith Samuel Lee, 2006-01-01 Understanding Japan through the eyes of Christian Faith is a fascinating book, combining Sociology and Christian world view in a systematic manner and simple language. Samuel Lee, has skillfully examined various facets of the Japanese society and culture looking for answers of why Christianity is not widely accepted and practiced in Japan. After dealing the historical background of Christianity in Japan and describing the socio-cultural condition of the nation, the author comes up with strategies and suggestions of how Christianity should approach Japan and suggests that Christianity should be reintroduced in Japan. Understanding Japan through the eyes of Christian Faith is a sociological and spiritual handbook for missionaries, mission organizations, churches, Christian Universities/Colleges and every Christian who is interested in reaching Japan. |
| history of christianity in japan: A History of Japanese Religion 笠原一男, 2001 Seventeen distinguished experts on Japanese religion provide a fascinating overview of its history and development. Beginning with the origins of religion in primitive Japanese society, they chart the growth of each of Japan's major religious organizations and doctrinal systems. They follow Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity, and popular religious belief through major periods of change to show how history and religion affected each-and discuss the interactions between the different religious traditions. |
| history of christianity in japan: The Martyrs of Japan Rady Roldán-Figueroa, 2021-06-22 An examinination of the role that Catholic missionary orders played in the dissemination of accounts of Christian martyrdom in Japan. The author offers an overarching portrayal of the writing, printing, and circulation of books of “Japano-martyrology.” |
| history of christianity in japan: Hidden Christians in Japan Kirk Sandvig, 2019-11-29 Hidden Christians in Japan: Breaking the Silence examines the contemporary issues facing hidden Christian communities in Japan, looking at how these issues have resulted in the discontinuation of hidden Christian practices, and how these communities adapt to their changing communities. For those who have disbanded or are deciding to disband, this book examines the ways these groups deal with keeping both the traditions and rituals of the hidden Christians alive and how it affects their communal identity as a whole. The way these communities choose to either leave their practices behind as a forgotten legacy of their ancestors or publicly preserve their artifacts and traditions through various means can have a dramatic impact on how the world is able to finally understand their views, but more importantly, how hidden Christian communities cope with the loss for these familial traditions. |
| history of christianity in japan: Xavier's Legacies Kevin M. Doak, 2011-03-01 Japan has had three Catholic prime ministers, and its current empress was raised and educated in the faith. How did a non-Christian nation come to foster more Catholic leaders than the United States, particularly when Protestantism is said to define Christianity in Japan and Catholicism is believed to be but a fleeting element of Japan’s so-called Christian century? Far from being a relic of the past – something brought to Japan by sixteenth-century missionaries such as Francis Xavier and then forgotten – Catholicism offered, and continues to provide, an authentic way for Japanese believers to shape their cultural identities. This volume documents the appeal of Catholicism, not only among farmers and fishers but also among scientists, diplomats, novelists, and members of the imperial household who have found in Catholicism an alternative way to keep “tradition” and negotiate modernity since the late nineteenth century. |
| history of christianity in japan: The Christian Faith in Japan Herbert Moore, 2023-07-18 In this fascinating study, Moore examines the history of Christianity in Japan, from the arrival of Portuguese missionaries in the sixteenth century to the challenges facing the church in the modern era. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including interviews with Japanese Christians, he provides a nuanced and insightful analysis of the complex and evolving relationship between Christianity and Japanese culture. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| history of christianity in japan: Knowing Me, Knowing God Richard Brash, 2021-02-18 In the Bible, God gives us knowledge of himself and of ourselves, so that through these two intertwined strands we may receive what Calvin called 'true and sound wisdom'. In pursuit of this wisdom, many Christians have learned to interpret Scripture chrono-logically, following the Bible's developing story from creation, through fall, to redemption, and ultimately to restoration. But what of a complementary theo-logical approach to Scripture, one which focuses on the Bible's main 'characters' - God and human beings - and the nature of their relationship? Richard Brash presents such an approach, introducing six theological keys to Scripture which help us better to know God and ourselves in the three fundamental areas of being, knowing, and acting. At each stage, he develops the theme of the gracious condescension of the infinite, incomprehensible, and holy God in his relation to finite human beings: creating us as his image, establishing a proportion between his own knowledge and ours, and overcoming sin to take a people for himself through the love-gifts of his Son and his Spirit. If you are looking for an enlarged vision of God and a renewed understanding of your own vocation before the Lord, take up this book and be refreshed in your love for God in heart, soul, and mind. |
| history of christianity in japan: Christianity and Imperialism in Modern Japan Emily Anderson, 2014-12-18 Christianity and Imperialism in Modern Japan explores how Japanese Protestants engaged with the unsettling changes that resulted from Japan's emergence as a world power in the early 20th century. Through this analysis, the book offers a new perspective on the intersection of religion and imperialism in modern Japan. Emily Anderson reassesses religion as a critical site of negotiation between the state and its subjects as part of Japan's emergence as a modern nation-state and colonial empire. The book shows how religion, including its adherents and the state's attempts to determine acceptable belief, is a necessary subject of study for a nuanced understanding of modern Japanese history. |
| history of christianity in japan: Holy Anime! Patrick Drazen, 2017-07-31 Christianity has been in Japan for five centuries, but embraced by less than one percent of the population. It’s a complicated relationship, given the sudden appearance in Japan of Renaissance Catholicism which was utterly unlike the historic faiths of Shinto and Buddhism; Japan had to invent a word for “religion” since Japan did not share the west’s reliance on faith in a personal God. Japan’s views of this “outsider” religion resemble America’s view of the “outsider” Islamic faith. Understanding this through the book Orientalism by Edward Said, Patrick Drazen samples depictions of Christianity in the popular Japanese media of comics and cartoons. The book begins with the work of postwar comics master Tezuka Osamu, with results that range from the comic to the revisionist to the blasphemous and obscene. |
| history of christianity in japan: A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. II Samuel Hugh Moffett, 2014-07-30 The story of Christianity in the West has often been told, but the history of Christianity in the East is not as well known. The seed was the same: the good news of Jesus Christ for the whole world, which Christians call the gospel. But it was sown by different sowers; it was planted in different soil; it grew with a different flavor; and it was gathered by different reapers. It is too often forgotten that the faith moved east across Asia as early as it moved west into Europe. Western church history tends to follow Paul to Philippi and to Rome and on across Europe to the conversion of Constantine and the barbarians. With some outstanding exceptions, only intermittently has the West looked beyond Constantinople as its center. It was a Christianity that has for centuries remained unashamedly Asian. A History of Christianity in Asia makes available immense amounts of research on religious pluralism of Asia and how Christianity spread long before the modern missionary movement went forth in the shelter of Western military might. Invaluable for historians of Asia and scholars of mission, it is stimulating for all readers interested in Christian history. -- |
| history of christianity in japan: Japan Story Christopher Harding, 2019 This is a fresh and surprising account of Japan's culture from the 'opening up' of the country in the mid-nineteenth century to the present. 'How much I admired it, what a lot I learned from it and, above all, how very much I enjoyed it ... Masterly.' Neil MacGregor It is told through the eyes of people who greeted this change not with the confidence and grasping ambition of Japan's modernizers and nationalists, but with resistance, conflict, distress. We encounter writers of dramas, ghost stories and crime novels where modernity itself is the tragedy, the ghoul and the bad guy; surrealist and avant-garde artists sketching their escape; rebel kamikaze pilots and the put-upon urban poor; hypnotists and gangsters; men in desperate search of the eternal feminine and feminists in search of something more than state-sanctioned subservience; Buddhists without morals; Marxist terror groups; couches full to bursting with the psychological fall-out of breakneck modernization. These people all sprang from the soil of modern Japan, but their personalities and projects failed to fit. They were 'dark blossoms': both East-West hybrids and home-grown varieties that wreathed, probed and sometimes penetrated the new structures of mainstream Japan. |
| history of christianity in japan: The Dilemma of Faith in Modern Japanese Literature Massimiliano Tomasi, 2018-04-19 The first book-length study to explore the links between Christianity and modern Japanese literature, this book analyses the process of conversion of nine canonical authors, unveiling the influence that Christianity had on their self-construction, their oeuvre and, ultimately, the trajectory of modern Japanese literature. Building significantly on previous research, which has treated the intersections of Christianity with the Japanese literary world in only a cursory fashion, this book emphasizes the need to make a clear distinction between the different roles played by Catholicism and Protestantism. In particular, it argues that most Meiji and Taishō intellectuals were exposed to an exclusively Protestant and mainly Calvinist derivation of Christianity and so it is against this worldview that the connections between the two ought to be assessed. Examining the work of authors such as Kitamura Tōkoku, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and Nagayo Yoshirō, this book also contextualises the spread of Christianity in Japan and challenges the notion that Christian thought was in conflict with mainstream literary schools. As such, this book explains how the dualities experienced by many modern writers were in fact the manifestation of manifold developments which placed Christianity at the center, rather than at the periphery, of their process of self-construction. The Dilemma of Faith in Modern Japanese Literature will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese modern literature, as well as those interested in Religious Studies and Japanese Studies more generally. |
| history of christianity in japan: Japan's Hidden Christians Ann Harrington, 1993 |
| history of christianity in japan: Japanese Traditions of Christianity Montague Paske-Smith, 2020-06-30 Published in 1930, this book traces the long history of Christianity in Japan. Paske-Smith details the journey of the early missionaries from the west, the conflict that arose from the introduction of Christianity to Japan and how Christianity's influence transformed some of the Japanese cultural landscape. |
| history of christianity in japan: Ideology and Christianity in Japan Kiri Paramore, 2010-09-30 Ideology and Christianity in Japan shows the major role played by Christian-related discourse in the formation of early-modern and modern Japanese political ideology. The book traces a history development of anti-Christian ideas in Japan from the banning of Christianity by the Tokugawa shogunate in the early 1600s, to the use of Christian and anti-Christian ideology in the construction of modern Japanese state institutions at the end of the 1800s. Kiri Paramore recasts the history of Christian-related discourse in Japan in a new paradigm showing its influence on modern thought and politics and demonstrates the direct links between the development of ideology in the modern Japanese state, and the construction of political thought in the early Tokugawa shogunate. Demonstrating hitherto ignored links in Japanese history between modern and early-modern, and between religious and political elements this book will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese history, religion and politics. |
| history of christianity in japan: Japanese Traditions of Christianity M Paske-Smith, 2018-12-21 Published in 1930, this book traces the long history of Christianity in Japan. Paske-Smith details the journey of the early missionaries from the west, the conflict that arose from the introduction of Christianity to Japan and how Christianity’s influence transformed some of the Japanese cultural landscape. |
Oratio: The History of Christianity in Japan - 国土交通省
The Christian religion passed through three phases in Japan: a first phase of arrival and flourishing; a second of being outlawed and forced underground; and a third of revival after the …
Select Bibliography of Christianity in Japan with Special Reference …
1976 A History of Christianity in Japan: Roman Catholic , Greek Or- thodox , and Protestant Mission (Rutland, Vt.: C.E. Tuttle). [reprint of 1909 ed. published by F.H. Revell, N.Y.).
Rethinking the history of conversion to Christianity in Japan
This thesis explores conversion to Christianity in Japan during the 16th and 17th Centuries. It argues that conversion in Japan cannot be simplified to the issue of the acceptance or rejection …
02. RevHumTeolog 6 2.1b [202.244]QXP8:Layout 1 12/10/16 22:18 …
In this article I shall outline the history of the reception of Christianity in Japan. To understand how Christianity was accepted, or rather rejected, in Japan, it is indispensable to consider two …
Christians in Japan - Nanzan U
Protestant Christianity in Japan often refer to the three “bands,” or early Chris-tian communities, that were formed in Kumamoto, Yokohama, and Sapporo. While the influence of the …
History Of Christianity In Japan (PDF) - netsec.csuci.edu
history of christianity in japan: The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650 Charles Ralph Boxer, 1967 history of christianity in japan: Christianity Made in Japan Mark R. Mullins, 1998-10-01 For …
History of Christianity’s Spread and Development in Japan
This paper explores the early development history of Christianity and introduces the strong “civil religion” in modern Japan. Then a comparative analysis to explore the confrontation …
History of Christianity in Japan 1859-1908
Students of Christian history in Japan will welcome the publication of this handy volume of sketches which first appeared in the 1959 Protestant Centennial volume of the Christian Year …
History of Christianity in Japan - opensiuc.lib.siu.edu
historyofchristianityinjapan.1 The Rev. Hans Haas, a German Lutheran missionary to Japan, who through longresidence is veryfamiliarnotonlywiththe language butalsowiththe customs
Persecution (1587 The Expulsion of Christianity from Japan
Christianity in Japan received its final blow in 1637 when 37,000 peasants, including many Christians, started an uprising in Shimabara. The uprising convinced the Tokugawa regime …
The Passion of Christianity: the Japanese intepretation of the
Christianity arrived to the shores of Japan in 1549, in the middle of the nation-wide civil war known as the Sengoku-period. 7 The first missionaries were Catholic Jesuits from Portugal, who were …
SHINTO AND CHRISTIANITY John BREEN - Brill
Christianity's arrival in Japan, developments in Shinto have been of this nativistic order: that is, they have occurred at least in part as a response to perceived threats from Christianity and the …
On the History of Christian Studies in Japan - J-STAGE
To begin with the obvious, Christianity was introduced into Japan together with western culture and accepted in the whole context of the so-called "Enlightenment" in Japan (bunmei-
Christianity in Japan and its Impact on Literature: A Short
In all likelihood, and as far as historical record can show, the Japanese were introduced to Christianity for the first time with the arrival on their shores of the Jesuit missionaries, led by …
Japanese Christianity in the Meiji Era: An Analysis of Ebina Danjo's ...
This paper examines the perspective of Shintoistic Christianity of Ebina Danjo (1856-1937), a Japanese theologian, during the Meiji period, and how his view influences Japanese churches …
Hidden Christians and Non-Churches: Indigenized Christian …
Throughout Christianity's tumultuous history in Japan, there have been several traditions that have stood independent from Western missionary churches. Two such traditions are the …
The Persecution of the Christians in Japan in the Middle of the
The great decree text is in Ernest M. Satow, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of 46-48; M. Steichen, The Christian Daimyos (Tokyo, n.d.), 273-77; edict was the signal for the bloody …
Editors' Introduction: Christians in Japan
Protestant Christianity in Japan often refer to the three "bands;' or early Chris-tian communities, that were formed in Kumamoto, Yokohama, and Sapporo. While the influence of the …
The Origin of the Social Status of Protestant Christianity in Japan ...
SOCIAL STATUS OF PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY treaties, and instead to devise realistic plans to induce the West to recognize the existence of a modernized Japan and number it …
From Prohibition to Toleration: Japanese Government Views
14 Mar 2017 · Detailed descriptions of the spread of Christianity in Japan during the latter half of the sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth are given by Watsuji (1963, pp. 251 …
Oratio: The History of Christianity in Japan - 国土交通省
The Christian religion passed through three phases in Japan: a first phase of arrival and flourishing; a second of being outlawed and forced underground; and a third of revival after the …
Select Bibliography of Christianity in Japan with Special …
1976 A History of Christianity in Japan: Roman Catholic , Greek Or- thodox , and Protestant Mission (Rutland, Vt.: C.E. Tuttle). [reprint of 1909 ed. published by F.H. Revell, N.Y.).
Rethinking the history of conversion to Christianity in Japan
This thesis explores conversion to Christianity in Japan during the 16th and 17th Centuries. It argues that conversion in Japan cannot be simplified to the issue of the acceptance or …
02. RevHumTeolog 6 2.1b [202.244]QXP8:Layout 1 12/10/16 22:18 …
In this article I shall outline the history of the reception of Christianity in Japan. To understand how Christianity was accepted, or rather rejected, in Japan, it is indispensable to consider two …
Christians in Japan - Nanzan U
Protestant Christianity in Japan often refer to the three “bands,” or early Chris-tian communities, that were formed in Kumamoto, Yokohama, and Sapporo. While the influence of the …
History Of Christianity In Japan (PDF) - netsec.csuci.edu
history of christianity in japan: The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650 Charles Ralph Boxer, 1967 history of christianity in japan: Christianity Made in Japan Mark R. Mullins, 1998-10-01 …
History of Christianity’s Spread and Development in Japan
This paper explores the early development history of Christianity and introduces the strong “civil religion” in modern Japan. Then a comparative analysis to explore the confrontation …
History of Christianity in Japan 1859-1908
Students of Christian history in Japan will welcome the publication of this handy volume of sketches which first appeared in the 1959 Protestant Centennial volume of the Christian Year …
History of Christianity in Japan - opensiuc.lib.siu.edu
historyofchristianityinjapan.1 The Rev. Hans Haas, a German Lutheran missionary to Japan, who through longresidence is veryfamiliarnotonlywiththe language butalsowiththe customs
Persecution (1587 The Expulsion of Christianity from Japan
Christianity in Japan received its final blow in 1637 when 37,000 peasants, including many Christians, started an uprising in Shimabara. The uprising convinced the Tokugawa regime …
The Passion of Christianity: the Japanese intepretation of the
Christianity arrived to the shores of Japan in 1549, in the middle of the nation-wide civil war known as the Sengoku-period. 7 The first missionaries were Catholic Jesuits from Portugal, who were …
SHINTO AND CHRISTIANITY John BREEN - Brill
Christianity's arrival in Japan, developments in Shinto have been of this nativistic order: that is, they have occurred at least in part as a response to perceived threats from Christianity and the …
On the History of Christian Studies in Japan - J-STAGE
To begin with the obvious, Christianity was introduced into Japan together with western culture and accepted in the whole context of the so-called "Enlightenment" in Japan (bunmei-
Christianity in Japan and its Impact on Literature: A Short
In all likelihood, and as far as historical record can show, the Japanese were introduced to Christianity for the first time with the arrival on their shores of the Jesuit missionaries, led by …
Japanese Christianity in the Meiji Era: An Analysis of Ebina Danjo's ...
This paper examines the perspective of Shintoistic Christianity of Ebina Danjo (1856-1937), a Japanese theologian, during the Meiji period, and how his view influences Japanese churches …
Hidden Christians and Non-Churches: Indigenized Christian …
Throughout Christianity's tumultuous history in Japan, there have been several traditions that have stood independent from Western missionary churches. Two such traditions are the …
The Persecution of the Christians in Japan in the Middle of the
The great decree text is in Ernest M. Satow, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of 46-48; M. Steichen, The Christian Daimyos (Tokyo, n.d.), 273-77; edict was the signal for the bloody …
Editors' Introduction: Christians in Japan
Protestant Christianity in Japan often refer to the three "bands;' or early Chris-tian communities, that were formed in Kumamoto, Yokohama, and Sapporo. While the influence of the …
The Origin of the Social Status of Protestant Christianity in Japan ...
SOCIAL STATUS OF PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY treaties, and instead to devise realistic plans to induce the West to recognize the existence of a modernized Japan and number it …
From Prohibition to Toleration: Japanese Government Views
14 Mar 2017 · Detailed descriptions of the spread of Christianity in Japan during the latter half of the sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth are given by Watsuji (1963, pp. 251 …
