Salvation without Religious Faith?

Absolute Mediation of Salvation in Tanabe Hajime's Philosophy of Religion

Abstract

Tanabe Hajime (1885-1962) began developing his philosophy of religion from the autumn of 1944. He discussed his personal experience of salvation (attained in the summer of 1944), while confessing that he himself held no religious faith. This paper focuses on his apparently contradictory idea of “salvation without religious faith,” especially on why such salvation is, in fact, attainable. This kind of salvation, according to Tanabe, is not attained through a particular God or the Buddha but through the “absolute nothingness qua love,” which is his original take on the idea of the Absolute. Salvation is attained when individuals face the antinomies of reason, become aware of their powerlessness, and the nature of their knowledge and conduct are transformed. Such salvation can occur without believing in any particular deity. According to Tanabe, salvation is enabled by “absolute mediation,” i.e. the interpersonal transmission of “absolute nothingness qua love.” This paper points to problems inherent in Tanabe's view of “absolute mediation” and makes the case that the fundamental moment of “the salvation without religious faith” consists in the contradiction of obligations to one's community.