Japan And Christianity

Author : Mark R. Mullins
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1998-10-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0824821327

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Christianity Made in Japan by Mark R. Mullins Pdf

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.

Author : Joanna Reed Shelton
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2016-01-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781498224918

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A Christian in the Land of the Gods by Joanna Reed Shelton Pdf

In November 1877, three months after Emperor Meiji's conscript army of commoners defeated forces led by Japan's famous "last samurai," the Reverend Tom Alexander and his new wife, Emma, arrived in Japan, a country where Christianity had been punishable by death until 1868. A Christian in the Land of the Gods offers an intimate view of hardships and challenges faced by nineteenth-century missionaries working to plant their faith in a country just emerging from two and a half centuries of self-imposed seclusion. The narrative takes place against the backdrop of wrenching change in Japan and Great Power jockeying for territory and influence in Asia, as seen through the eyes of a Presbyterian missionary from East Tennessee. This true story of personal sacrifice, devotion to duty, and unwavering faith sheds new light on Protestant missionaries' work with Japan's leading democracy activists and the missionaries' role in helping transform Japan from a nation ruled by shoguns, hereditary lords, and samurai to a leading industrial powerhouse. It addresses universal themes of love, loss, and the enduring power of faith. The narrative also proves that one seemingly ordinary person can change lives more than he or she ever realizes.

Author : John Breen,Mark Williams
Publisher : Springer
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2016-07-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781349243600

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Japan and Christianity by John Breen,Mark Williams Pdf

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.

Author : Otis Cary
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 450 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1909
Category : Japan
ISBN : UCAL:$B68901

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A History of Christianity in Japan: Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox missions by Otis Cary Pdf

Author : Mark Mullins
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 435 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2018-12-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9789047402374

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Handbook of Christianity in Japan by Mark Mullins Pdf

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.

Author : Mark R. Mullins
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 1998-10-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780824861902

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Christianity Made in Japan by Mark R. Mullins Pdf

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.

Author : Aizan Yamaji
Publisher : U of M Center For Japanese Studies
Page : 207 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2021-01-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9780472038299

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Essays on the Modern Japanese Church by Aizan Yamaji Pdf

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.

Author : Kiri Paramore
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2010-09-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9781134067657

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Ideology and Christianity in Japan by Kiri Paramore Pdf

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.

Author : Otis Cary
Publisher : Psychology Press
Page : 372 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0700702628

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A History of Christianity in Japan by Otis Cary Pdf

First Published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Author : Jason Ānanda Josephson,Jason Ananda Josephson Storm
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 402 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2012-10-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226412344

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The Invention of Religion in Japan by Jason Ānanda Josephson,Jason Ananda Josephson Storm Pdf

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.

Author : Ikuo Higashibaba
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2001-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9004122907

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Christianity in Early Modern Japan by Ikuo Higashibaba Pdf

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.

Author : Charles Ralph Boxer
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 1967
Category : Japan
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-1650 by Charles Ralph Boxer Pdf

Author : George Elison
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 564 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2020-03-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9781684172795

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Deus Destroyed by George Elison Pdf

"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."

Author : Otis Cary, D.D.
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
Page : 378 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2008-09-15
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781462912339

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History of Christianity in Japan by Otis Cary, D.D. Pdf

Despite the relatively small number of formal Christian believers in japan—less than one percent of the total population—Christianity has become and is likely to continue to be an important strand in modern Japanese culture. The Christian social message of the early decades of the twentieth century has become a lasting part of social welfare attitudes. The strong emphasis on education of the Christian missionary movement has left a visible legacy throughout Japanese education, primarily in the teaching of women. Author, Otis Cary's impressive work, first published in two volumes, appears here in a convenient one-volume edition. The first part deals with Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox missions; the second, with Protestant missions. The story begins with the arrival of Francis Xavier in Japan in 1549, unfolds through the early successes of the Roman Catholic missions and the subsequent age of hideous persecutions and the virtual extirpation of Christianity in the seventeenth century, and moves forward to its revival in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is in many ways an absorbingly dramatic tale, and Cary tells it exceedingly well.

Author : Notto R. Thelle
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2021-05-25
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780824846909

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Buddhism and Christianity in Japan by Notto R. Thelle Pdf

The modern dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity in Japan is reaching new depths and insights and is being recognized today as a challenging and promising point of contact between two cultures. This volume is based on the premise that an understand­ing of the past is important for meaningful interaction in the present. By placing the Buddhist-Christian dialogue in historical perspective, the author provides an essential element for critical and creative reflection on today's dialogue. Thelle's historical examination begins with the arrival of Francis Xavier in 1549, which initiated the "Christian century." However, his main emphasis is on the nineteenth century, when relations between the two reli­gions moved from confrontation to conciliation. The opening of Japan in 1854 initiated a confrontation that was more than a reli­gious conflict; the meeting of the two faiths was part of an all-inclusive cultural clash. The confrontation of Buddhism and Chris­tianity is interpreted in a broad cultural and sociopolitical context and reveals how strong­ly both religions were influenced by the social and ideological upheavals in nine­teenth-century Japan. The vital issue was which religion would become the spiritual basis for the "new" Japan. Christianity, in­troduced as the spiritual backbone of West­ern power, was associated with ideas of modernization and democracy. Buddhism, regarded as part of the old culture, was in serious crisis. But the conflict was not resolved in victory and defeat. Radical changes took place within the two religions, and by the turn of the century confrontation had moved toward conciliation. The author examines the origins of emerging peaceful dialogue and uncovers the complex process by which it grew out of an atmosphere of animosity and distrust. Thelle's central themes are the connection between Christian expansion and Buddhist anti-Christian campaigns, religion and na­tionalism, Christian impact on Buddhist re­form movements, attempts at unifying the two faiths into a new religiosity, and the development of an indigenous Japanese the­ology. He throws light on cross-cultural interactions far beyond the specialized area of religion and theology. With its broad cultur­al and sociopolitical scope, this book will in­terest all students of Japanese history and culture.