Christianity Made in Japan: A Study of Indigenous Movements

Chapter 9. The Broader Context of Japanese Christianity

183 CHAPTER NINE The Broader Context of Japanese Christianity S INCE THE INITIAL transmission of Roman Catholicism to Japan in the sixteenth century, Christianity has generally been regarded as an intrusive force in Japanese society and often referred to as a “foreign” and “evil” religion. Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles—cultural discontinuity , social stigma, and, until ³fty years ago, strict government control—numerous transplanted and independent churches have managed to establish an organizational presence in Japan. In this study I have tried to look at this process not through the eyes of the foreign missionaries but from the perspective of the Japanese, who were not mere passive recipients of transplanted Christianity but active agents who reinterpreted and reconstructed the faith in terms that made sense to them. Over the years most representatives of Protestant mission CHRISTIANITY MADE IN JAPAN 184 churches have regarded these indigenous developments as unfortunate expressions of syncretism and a deviation from normative Christianity. As we have seen, however, to the Japanese founders themselves their elaboration of the Christian faith was nothing other than the ful³llment of Jesus’ promise to his disciples that “when the Spirit comes he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). However much the views of these Japanese leaders may have clashed with Protestant missionary theology, their approach was ³rmly rooted in Christian tradition. As early as the second century a similar process of Christian interpretation was advanced by Justin Martyr (c. 100–165), whose primary concern was to relate his faith to the Greek philosophical and cultural traditions. Although Justin did criticize many ideas in Greek philosophy, there were others he esteemed as compatible with his understanding of Christianity. In fact he accorded certain elements of truth in Greek philosophy a position similar to that of the Old Testament. These “pre-Christian” truths in Hellenistic culture were regarded as a “preparation” for the coming of Christ, the divine Logos. According to Justin’s First Apology, the pre-incarnate Logos not only was working through the Greek philosophers, but they were also Christians to the extent that they lived according to the Logos. The implications of this interpretation were far-reaching, as Jean Danielou has suggested: To renounce idolatry and to accept Christianity ceases for the Greek to be a betrayal of his tradition, and becomes instead an act of loyalty to the best elements of it. Socrates is a forerunner of Christ no less than Moses, and Christianity is the plenary manifestation of something which sages had possessed only in a partial revelation.1 Like Justin Martyr, the indigenous leaders we have considered played a similar role in providing Japanese Christians with a sense of cultural continuity. Commitment to Christ for them did not necessitate a total rejection of the past or a “betrayal” of Japanese traditions, as many Protestant missionaries maintained . Rather, the best elements of this pre-Christian past could be af³rmed as a part of the Christian way. Particulars aside, the mere phenomenon of these indigenous movements testi³es to the fact that a number of Japanese have succeeded in disengaging Christianity from its Western orientation and the negative associations with which it has been encumbered for several centuries. It is not that they set out to gainsay the contribution of Western Christian traditions and missionary efforts, but simply to recognize that the inµuence of that contribution is subject to limits in other religious histories and contexts. THE BROADER CONTEXT OF JAPANESE CHRISTIANITY 185 THE “WAYS” OF JAPANESE CHRISTIANITY In the course of the previous chapters we have seen how differents streams of foreign inµuence have blended in diverse ways with indigenous elements to produce a number of alternative Japanese Christian traditions. It has become clear that, despite certain ingredients shared in common by these movements, each of them represents a distinct gestalt and subculture. Notwithstanding the popular myth of the homogeneous Japanese, these movements point to a considerable degree of cultural and religious diversity beneath the surface harmony and order for which modern Japan prides itself. In a largely unknown work published over three decades ago (which I found buried in the archives of the United Church of Christ in Japan), a certain Miyazaki Akira insists that in order to make sense of the development of Christianity in Japan one must take into account the cultural pluralism of Japanese society . “Japanese culture is not a single uni³ed culture ,” he...