As latecomers to Japan's religious scene, both Catholic and Protestant churches have experienced considerable diffficulty in shedding their reputation as "foreign religions." While at times the "Westernness" of Christianity has contributed to its appeal among Japanese, for the most part it has been viewed as a problem. Many early Japanese converts to Christianity felt that Christianity was unnecessarily bound to Western organizational forms, denominational politics, and missionary control. Although the statistics indicate that most Japanese have rejected the evangelistic appeals and demands of Western missionaries, the development of independent Christian movements suggests an alternative to transplanted Christianity. The first Japanese independent 'church' movement began in 1901, when Uchimura Kanzo formed the Mukyokai, of which his main message was the need for complete and ultimate independence from all human forces and entire reliance on God. Nevertheless, religion without "human wrappings," of course is not really an option. The choice is between imported or indigenous forms. The attempts to establish a Japanese type of Christianity independent of its western origins runs through much of Japanese Christianity.
Government-directed independence within mission churches
United Church of Christ in Japan
As the outbreak of the Pacific War was imminent, the Japanese wartime regime planned to sever the Japanese church from its Western connections. The United Church of Christ in Japan is a collection of diverse Protestant religious bodies forcibly united by the Japanese wartime government in 1941. In accordance with the 1939 Religious Organizations Law, christian churches were required to comply with conditions set by the Ministry of Education in order to receive official recognition or legal status. Indicating that it would only recognize one Protestant denomination, the Ministry directed the various churches to form one organization.
In 1941, as a government-directed union of thirty four denominations, the UCCJ absorbed all transplanted Protestant mission church (with the exception of a section of the Anglican Church, the Seventh-day Adventists, and few small evangelical churches who refused to cooperate) [1] Needless to say, for many of the participating churches this was a less than happy union that resembled a forced or arranged marriage. From the beginning, as David Reid points out, the "UCCJ rested on an uneasy combination of 'sacred' and 'secular' motivation [2]." At least for its first four years of existence, the 'secular' demands of the state proved to be the most dominating influence.
Until the end of the war, the UCCJ was largely guided and controlled by numerous government demands.
The extra-mission indigenous sector
Nonchurch movement (無教会)
The Nonchurch movement is the most widely known and respected expression of independent Japanese Christianity. this is due largely to the fact that Uchimura Kanzo was a profilic writer respected by many individuals both within and outside Christian circles. The complete works of Uchimura consists of some fifty volumes. The Nonchurch movement was a lay reform movement and described by writers as an indigenous form of Japanese Christianity totally independent of Western influence [3]. For all his stress on "independence" and the need for a Japanese Christianity, Uchimura's version of the faith is clearly indebted to various Western traditions. His first serious encounter with Christianity occurred as a young man at Sapporo Agricultural College.
As a continuation of the Protestant movement, Uchimura stressed the "preisthood of all believers" and rejected an ordained clergy or priesthood that stood as an intermediary between the individual and God
Living Christ One Ear of Wheat Church (活けるキリスト一麦教会)
Christian Canaan Church (基督カーナン教団)
Japan Eccelsia of Christ (日本キリスト召団)
Holy Ecclesia of Jesus (聖イエス会)
Sanctifying Christ Church (聖成基督教団)
Okinawa Christian Gospel (沖縄キリスト教福音)
Quasi-christian sector
As noted earlier, japan is known as a fertile ground for new forms of religion. The Christian tradition is no exception, and there exist in fact many indipendent groups that claim a Christian label [4]. It is, however, somewhat surprising that these groups, even when their numerical growth or some other factor gains public attention, are seldom viewed by mainline Christian bodies in terms of orthodoxy versus heterodoxy. It is as though the new groups hardly merit any notice. One reason for this curious situation might be that the new indigenous Christian groups, in self understanding, propagation methods, and general perception, are often readily grouped among Japan "new religions" and thus are not so easily confused with established Christianity. After all, most japanese think of Christianity as a "Western" religion, and the new Christian groups by the very fact of their Japanese origin do not fit this description.
The church movements covered below have interactions with the "spirit world". This worldview consists of a belief in the reality and interdependence of "this world" and another "spirit world" (ie. the world of the ancestors).
Transplanted missionary Christianity, for the most part, advocated a complete severing of relations with the spirit world. Protestant missionary theology and practice have tended to emphasize a total discontinuity between the Christian faith and Japanese traditional beliefs and practices related to the dead. The gospel preached by most missionaries included the teaching that there is no hope for theose who die without faith in Christ.
However, the following movements below claim that it is "Christian" to show respect and care for the dead and these indigenous movements have moved far beyond the mere memorialism of the dead.
The Way (道会)
Christ Heart Church (基督心宗教団)
Glorious Gospel Christian Church (栄光の福音キリスト教会)
Spirit of Jesus Church (イエス之御霊教会)
Original Gospel Tabernacle (原始福音, 幕屋)
Life-Giving Christ (活かすキリスト)
References
- ^ Not all Christian groups gave in to the demands of the state. For a more detailed treatmento fhtis period and an analysis of the Christian churches and sects that resisted these nationalistic pressures, see the "Ideology and Utopianism in Wartime Japan: An essay on the Subversiveness of Christian Eschatology," Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 21/2-3, 1994.
- ^ New wine, 80
- ^ Caldarola, Christianity: The Japanese Way
- ^ Cf. Richard Fox young, "The 'Christ' of the Japanese New Religions,'" The Japan Christian Quarterly 57/1, Winter 1991