Shinjin, Faith, and Sacramental Metaphysics

Ever since the Jesuits came to Japan and first met True Pure Land Buddhists in Japan, Christians have drawn parallels between Shinran's thought and the Protestant doctrine of salvation by faith alone. For the Jesuits, this was more an accusation than a compliment, but later scholars, not limited to Protestant ones, have been more sympathetic to this purported affinity. It is not unheard of to translate Shinran's favored term shinjin as "faith," even in Buddhist circles. However, this is not without its perils. The potential for misunderstanding is magnified by the lack of consensus even among Christians, let alone English-speakers more widely, about just what such "faith" might mean. Regardless of whether one is Catholic, Protestant, or something else entirely, Christian scholars formed within the English-speaking world live in a world where "faith communities" are distinguished from a supposedly neutral secular mainstream and where "faith" itself is assumed as the polar opposite of reason. Even those who insist, with the likes of St. Anselm, that faith is a prerequisite to reason are not immune to the effects of the Enlightenment air they breathe. One may therefore approach the imputation of "faith" to Shinran, which is necessarily a comparative endeavor, with some trepidation.