Theology of Culture in a Japanese Context

Theology of Culture in a Japanese Context PDF Author: Atsuyoshi Fujiwara
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 163087647X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 439

Get Book

Book Description
The Christian faith has always stood in a place of tension between its transcendent nature and the surrounding culture. On the one hand, Christian faith claims to originate in the revelation of God, which transforms culture itself. On the other hand, all such revelation is inevitably received and interpreted by humans in concrete situations. It is no exaggeration to say that two millennia of church history have continually demonstrated the struggle between Christian faith and culture. In an effort to address this struggle, this book explores relevant issues pertinent to the relationship between faith and culture in the particular context of Japan. In this unique work, the context of Japan, well known as a desolate swamp for Christian missions, provides the setting for a re-exploration of issues pertaining to theology of culture. As such, Japan provides both a concrete and challenging context to work out a theology of culture. This book also helpfully illuminates for Western readers some key problems that may not have appeared fully in their contexts yet but will do so as the post-Christendom era continues.

Theology of Culture in a Japanese Context

Theology of Culture in a Japanese Context PDF Author: Atsuyoshi Fujiwara
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 163087647X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 439

Get Book

Book Description
The Christian faith has always stood in a place of tension between its transcendent nature and the surrounding culture. On the one hand, Christian faith claims to originate in the revelation of God, which transforms culture itself. On the other hand, all such revelation is inevitably received and interpreted by humans in concrete situations. It is no exaggeration to say that two millennia of church history have continually demonstrated the struggle between Christian faith and culture. In an effort to address this struggle, this book explores relevant issues pertinent to the relationship between faith and culture in the particular context of Japan. In this unique work, the context of Japan, well known as a desolate swamp for Christian missions, provides the setting for a re-exploration of issues pertaining to theology of culture. As such, Japan provides both a concrete and challenging context to work out a theology of culture. This book also helpfully illuminates for Western readers some key problems that may not have appeared fully in their contexts yet but will do so as the post-Christendom era continues.

Religion and National Identity in the Japanese Context

Religion and National Identity in the Japanese Context PDF Author: Hiroshi Kubota
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3825860434
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 301

Get Book

Book Description
This book focuses upon the relationship between religion and socio-cultural or socio-political aspects in the history of religions in Japan. Religious and ideological justifications in the course of forming a political and national identity, and the mutual relation between political, national and cultural issues can be noticed in every region of the world before the onset of secularization processes, but also in modern nation-states today. In Japan as well, just like in most modern societies, political, cultural and religious elements are closely interrelated. In a comparative approach the sixteen papers in this volume elucidate the intellectual undercurrent in Japanese history of putting positive perspectives on national achievements and cultural-religious uniqueness into service of establishing and refurbishing a national identity.

Theology of Culture in a Japanese Context

Theology of Culture in a Japanese Context PDF Author: Atsuyoshi Fujiwara
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1606088637
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Get Book

Book Description
In dialogue with H. Richard Niebuhr, John Howard Yoder, and Stanley Hauerwas, this work examines Japanese culture, suffering, and three theologians: Kazoh Kitamori, Yasuo Furuya, and Hideo Ohki.

Christ in Japanese Culture

Christ in Japanese Culture PDF Author: Emi Mase-Hasegawa
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047433211
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book

Book Description
Shedding light on a wide range of cross-cultural concerns and encounters, going far beyond narrow theological specialisation, the author argues that any successful process of missiological inculturation demands a serious antholopological consideration of indigenous faith.

Japanese Understanding of Salvation

Japanese Understanding of Salvation PDF Author: Martin Heißwolf
Publisher: Langham Publishing
ISBN: 1783683716
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 534

Get Book

Book Description
It is no secret that Christianity has been widely rejected in Japan with less than two percent of the population identifying as Christian. The dominant worldview in Japan is deeply animistic, with beliefs such as the Japanese mana-concept, ki (気), the Japanese soul-concept, and the concept of God/god(s), kami (神), being deeply rooted in the culture and fundamentally influencing society. Dr Martin Heißwolf, with his years of experience in Japan, critically examines Japanese animism in light of core Christian beliefs, such as the concepts of “peace” and “salvation.” Central to Japanese people’s rejection of Christian truth is the diametric opposition of its supernatural message to the natural focus of Japanese animistic folk religion. Heißwolf’s meticulous study is framed squarely within missiological thought and praxis so Christians serving in Japanese contexts are better able to communicate the message of the gospel by more fully understanding Japanese people, people by whom God wants to be known.

A History of Japanese Theology

A History of Japanese Theology PDF Author: Yasuo Furuya
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 9780802841087
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Get Book

Book Description
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.

Art and Faith

Art and Faith PDF Author: Makoto Fujimura
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300255934
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Get Book

Book Description
From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity’s quintessential—and often overlooked—role in the spiritual life “Makoto Fujimura’s art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art and faith and their reconciliation with a quiet and moving eloquence.”—Martin Scorsese “[An] elegant treatise . . . Fujimura’s sensitive, evocative theology will appeal to believers interested in the role religion can play in the creation of art.”—Publishers Weekly Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura’s broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman’s words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art.

Christianity, Empire and the Spirit

Christianity, Empire and the Spirit PDF Author: Néstor Medina
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004363092
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book

Book Description
In Christianity, Empire and The Spirit, Néstor Medina uncovers the interwoven cultural processes that influence how people understand reality, express faith, and think about God. Countering Eurocentric theological articulations, he proposes that the Spirit is at work in the cultural.

Religion, Culture, and the Public Sphere in China and Japan

Religion, Culture, and the Public Sphere in China and Japan PDF Author: Albert Welter
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9811024375
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Get Book

Book Description
This collection examines the impact of East Asian religion and culture on the public sphere, defined as an idealized discursive arena that mediates the official and private spheres. Contending that the actors and agents on the fringes of society were instrumental in shaping the public sphere in traditional and modern East Asia, it considers how these outliers contribute to religious, intellectual, and cultural dialog in the public sphere. Jürgen Habermas conceptualized the public sphere as the discursive arena which grew within Western European bourgeoisie society, arguably overlooking topics such as gender, minorities, and non-European civilizations, as well as the extent to which agency in the public sphere is effective in non-Western societies and how practitioners on the outskirts of mainstream society can participate. This volume responds to and builds upon this dialogue by addressing how religious, intellectual, and cultural agency in the public sphere shapes East Asian cultures, particularly the activities of those found on the peripheries of historic and modern societies.

The Category of ‘Religion’ in Contemporary Japan

The Category of ‘Religion’ in Contemporary Japan PDF Author: Mitsutoshi Horii
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319735705
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Get Book

Book Description
This book critically examines the term ‘religion’ (shūkyō) as a social category within the sociological context of contemporary Japan. Whereas the nineteenth-century construction of shūkyō has been critically studied by many, the same critical approach has not been extended to the contemporary context of the Japanese-language discourse on shūkyō and Temple Buddhism. This work aims to unveil the norms and imperatives which govern the utilization of the term shūkyō in the specific context of modern day Japan, with a particular focus upon Temple Buddhism. The author draws on a number of popular publications in Japanese, many of which have been written by Buddhist priests. In addition, the book offers rich interview material from conversations with Buddhist priests. Readers will gain insights into the critical deconstruction, the historicization, and the study of social classification system of ‘religion’, in terms of its cross-cultural application to the contemporary Japanese context. The book will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including Japanese Studies, Buddhology, Religious Studies, Social Anthropology, and Sociology.