Abstract
In this paper, I analyzed a theological polemic between Toraji Tsukamoto, one of the leaders of Mukyokaishugi (non-church movement in Japan), and Soichi Iwashita, a famous Catholic priest and thinker in Japan. The polemic is called “Iwashita-Tsukamoto controversy” and seen as the first ecclesiological controversy in Japan today. I have attempted to explain some crucial points in the controversy and show what was behind ecclesiology through a survey of their ideas.
As a result, I found out that a crucial difference between Tsukamoto and Iwashita resulted from different solutions of a problem: how Christians cultivate faith in their religious and spiritual lives. For Tsukamoto, to upbuild faith required a lot of practice in knowing God, especially Christ, but it was the price of individual freedom, which was given by God through faith and Holy Spirit. On the contrary, Iwashita thought that his idea was ridiculous because knowledge of God was given by Catholic church and people can lead religious lives at peace under its authority. I concluded that this difference in upbuilding faith led to the polemic.
