Theological Studies in Japan

In 1997, two French philosophers, Derrida and Marion, debated on negative theology. Marion criticized Derrida for understanding that concept from the perspective of the affirmation/ negation dichotomy. Derrida, however, claimed that this criticism was a result of Marion's misunderstanding. This debate is usually studied to see how correctly Derrida and Marion understand the Christian tradition. However, in my view, this debate reveals the new idea of our everyday language from the perspective the contemporary philosophy of religion. This idea can be extracted from Derrida's phrase "every negative sentence would already be haunted by God". Marion overlooked the connotation of this phrase. The phrase means that our non-theological and non-religious languages have some religious function in so far as we should repeat the negative reference to God in negative theology and even in all everyday negative sentences.

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Spiritual care for dying patients is an integral part of Japanese hospice care, irrespective of faith. However, overcoming feelings of meaninglessness and anxiety about death is impossible unless both patients and their caregivers are able to discern a meaning that transcends everyday life and death. In his faith development theory, James Fowler considers faith as a human universal, and development in faith to be a result of life crises. Faith for him is not just believing in God, but seeing " the ultimate environment, " which provides a comprehensive frame of meaning for our daily lives and relationships with others. We start from Fowler' s idea of " the ultimate environment," and discuss Fowler' s theological foundation based on H. Richard Niebuhr' s " interpersonal faith." We suggest that spirituality can be understood as faith in what transcends life and death. This may help hospice workers to overcome their own feelings of meaninglessness and fear of death.

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The prepositional phrase dia. pi,stewj vIhsou/ Cristou/ in Rom 3:22 modifies dikaiosu,nh de. qeou/（the righteousness of God）. The implied subject of pi,stij is Christ and the genitive noun vIhsou/ Cristou/ is used subjectively. The phrase does not mean “the faith in Jesus Christ” but “the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.” The faithfulness of God (Rom 3:3) consists in the fulfillment of his words of promise. The faithfulness of God was realized by the faithful action of the Son of God, namely, Christ (cf. I Cor 1:18-20). Christian Faith is defined as a belief in the fulfillment of the promise of God through Christ’s faithful act (Rom 3:28; Gal 3:2, 5, 7). It is a response to the faithfulness of God revealed by that of Christ. We can conclude that the thesis of justification by faith (Rom 3:21, 28; Gal 2:16) is not based on anthropology but on Christology.

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This study has been prompted by the recent discovery of the Chourou Kyokai Reihai Kisoku in the library of Tokyo Union Theological Seminary. With this new resource in hand, I intend to uncover how Japanese protestant churches have understood the meaning of worship service. In order to do so, this article introduces briefly the history of the directory for worship which was imported from the U.S. to the Japanese Presbyterian churches in the late 19th century. Then, I will analyze the directories of both countries, comparing their contents, differences, and characteristics. Also, I will examine what Japanese churches have or have not inherited from American churches and observe how such inheritance had been developed in Japan.

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