A Christian in the Land of the Gods

A Christian in the Land of the Gods PDF

Author: Joanna Reed Shelton

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2016-01-05

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1498224911

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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.

In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians

In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians PDF

Author: John Dougill

Publisher: SPCK

Published: 2016-09-15

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0281075530

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In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians is a remarkable story of suppression, secrecy and survival in the face of human cruelty and God’s apparent silence. Part history, part travelogue, it explores and seeks to explain a clash of civilizations—of East and West—that resonates to this day. For seven generations, Japan’s ‘Hidden Christians’ preserved a faith that was forbidden on pain of death. Just as remarkably, descendants of the Hidden Christians continue to practise their beliefs today, refusing to rejoin the Catholic Church. Why? And what is it about Japanese culture that makes it so resistant to Western Christianity?

Understanding Japan Through the Eyes of Christian Faith

Understanding Japan Through the Eyes of Christian Faith PDF

Author: Samuel Lee

Publisher:

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9789077607176

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Understanding Japan through the eyes of Christian Faith is a fascinating book, combining Sociology and Christian world view in a systematic manner and simple language. Samuel Lee, has skillfully examined various facets of the Japanese society and culture looking for answers of why Christianity is not widely accepted and practiced in Japan. After dealing the historical background of Christianity in Japan and describing the socio-cultural condition of the nation, the author comes up with strategies and suggestions of how Christianity should approach Japan and suggests that Christianity should be reintroduced in Japan. Understanding Japan through the eyes of Christian Faith is a sociological and spiritual handbook for missionaries, mission organizations, churches, Christian Universities/Colleges and every Christian who is interested in reaching Japan.

Handbook of Christianity in Japan

Handbook of Christianity in Japan PDF

Author: Mark Mullins

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2018-12-24

Total Pages: 435

ISBN-13: 9047402375

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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.

Christianity Made in Japan

Christianity Made in Japan PDF

Author: Mark R. Mullins

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 1998-10-01

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780824821326

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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.

The Christian Faith in Japan

The Christian Faith in Japan PDF

Author: Herbert Moore

Publisher: Legare Street Press

Published: 2023-07-18

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781020666292

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In this fascinating study, Moore examines the history of Christianity in Japan, from the arrival of Portuguese missionaries in the sixteenth century to the challenges facing the church in the modern era. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including interviews with Japanese Christians, he provides a nuanced and insightful analysis of the complex and evolving relationship between Christianity and Japanese culture. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Japan and Christianity

Japan and Christianity PDF

Author: John Breen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-27

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1349243604

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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.

Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, 1549-1650

Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, 1549-1650 PDF

Author: Haruko Nawata Ward

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 410

ISBN-13: 1351871811

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Meticulously researched and drawing on original source materials written in eight different languages, this study fills a lacuna in the historiography of Christianity in Japan, which up to now has paid little or no attention to the experience of women. Focusing on the century between the introduction of Christianity in Japan by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in 1549 and the Japanese government's commitment to the eradication of Christianity in the mid-seventeenth century, this book outlines how women provided crucial leadership in the spread, nurture, and maintenance of the faith through various apostolic ministries. The author's research on the religious backgrounds of women from different schools of late medieval Japanese Shinto-Buddhism sheds light on individual women's choices to embrace or reject the Reformed Catholicism of the Jesuits, and explores the continuity and discontinuity of their religious expressions. The book is divided into four sections devoted to an in-depth study of different types of apostolates: nuns (women who took up monastic vocations), witches (the women leaders of the Shinto-Buddhist tradition who resisted Jesuit teachings), catechists (women who engaged in ministries of persuasion and conversion), and sisters (women devoted to missions of mercy). Analyzing primary sources including Jesuit histories, letters and reports, especially Luís Fróis' História de Japão, hagiography and family chronicles, each section provides a broad understanding of how these women, in the context of misogynistic society and theology, utilized resources from their traditional religions to new Christian adaptations and specific religio-social issues, creating unique hybrids of Catholicism and Buddhism. The inclusion of Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese texts, many available for the first time in English, and the dramatic conclusion that women were largely responsible for the trajectory of Christianity in early modern Japan, makes this book an essential reading for scholars of women's history, religious history, history of Christianity, and Asian history.

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