Christianity Made in Japan: A Study of Indigenous Movements

Preface

vii Preface THERE IS IN JAPAN another Christianity than the familiar array of churches left behind by missionaries from the West, one virtually unknown abroad and as yet largely neglected by scholars of religion. It is the Christianity of indigenous movements established in a direct act of resistance to the failure of imported varieties of Christianity to reach deeply into the Japanese soul. This is a book about those movements: where they came from and how they developed. Contrary to what one might at ³rst expect, resources concerning Japan’s indigenous Christian movements are plentiful, but since most of these groups publish their own materials and distribute them privately for use by the faithful, the literature rarely attracts the attention of those outside their own circles. From the time I began my visits to different movements, I was amazed—not to say in some cases dismayed by the work that lay in store—to discover that the collected works of individual founders alone typically ran to ten or twenty volumes , in addition to which most of the movements publish their own magazines and journals. As obscure and arcane as much of the material is, in sheer volume it is an embarrassment of riches. Extensive contact with members of these movements, their leaders, and in some cases even their founders, has provided a healthy counterbalance to the written resources. My observation and interviews were by and large concentrated in the Kantõ and Kansai areas of Japan’s main island, where movement headquarters or larger churches tend to be located, but my ³eldwork also took me on occasion to the islands of Shikoku, Kyðshð, and Okinawa, and to as far north as Sendai. Over the years I have participated in a wide range of religious services, from subdued memorial services for the dead to emotional revival meetings and charismatic healing services. I have sat with believers to study the Confucian classics following Sunday worship services, received training in meditation in summer seminars, and even celebrated a Friday evening sabbath meal with Japanese Christian Zionists singing in Hebrew in an isolated monastic retreat in the mountains outside of Kyoto. One particular group even made it their special mission to teach me how to speak in tongues. (To their collective disappointment, I turned out to be a slow learner.) Needless to say, a project of this kind relies from start to ³nish on the cooperation of many people, and I count myself fortunate to have received so much kindness from so many. Religious leaders regularly opened their archives PREFACE viii to my curious eyes and arranged for me to attend services and conduct interviews around the country. I cannot begin to record the names of all the individuals who welcomed me into their homes and churches, and who responded so patiently to my academic prying. The warm hospitality they showed through so many hours of conversation was a constant encouragement. At the same time, I suppose that not a few of those who thus shared in this study must be wondering about now what has happened to all the notes I was scribbling and all the experiences I had in their midst. I would like to say that this book is the answer, but the fact is, I have had to leave out far more than I have been able to put in in order to attempt a coherent interpretation of a dozen different movements. Each of them deserves an in-depth treatment of its own, and I trust that this labor lies in the near future of some other scholars. Meantime, I must content myself with scratching the surface of this unexplored world so as to focus on a broader perspective for placing these experiments in indigenous Christianity within the religious history of Japan. The project has not been without its share of personal challenges. Like anyone who is a committed member of a church that has transplanted itself in Japan, the scholar’s objectivity often proves thin armor against the sharp and often telling criticisms of Western Christianity put forward by leaders of indigenous movements. If my remarks ring defensive at times, I can only beg the reader to pass them over indulgently. My greater intention is to allow these Japanese Christians to speak their own minds in these pages. In redirecting scholarly attention away from the study of Western missionary Christianity and its problems with self-inculturation to the indigenous and independent expressions of Christianity, I mean to do more...