Theological Studies in Japan
Online ISSN : 2185-6044
Print ISSN : 0285-4848
ISSN-L : 0285-4848
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Displaying 1-18 of 18 articles from this issue
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  • Struggles of a Leader of Japanese Baptists during the 15-Year War
    Koji Yamanaka
    Article type: Article
    2023 Volume 62 Pages 27-55
    Published: September 25, 2023
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Yugoro Chiba was a leader of Japanese Baptists during the 15-Year War, which spanned struggles with China in the early 1930s through WWII. He was also a theologian and educationist. He was the first student sent abroad by Japanese Baptists to the US, and he deeply internalized essential Baptist principles, such as congregationalism, church individualism, and separation of church and state. But these ideas were not compatible with the religion-control policy enforced by the Japanese government during the war. Chiba had to take different approaches in expressing his viewpoints depending on his various positions and responsibilities. He chose to take moderate decisions and actions for the survival of the denomination as a chairperson. Meanwhile, he expressed his viewpoint opposing the major trends in society as an individual Bible scholar, even though he came under particular scrutiny by the authorities. This study explores the pains and struggles of Yugoro Chiba during the war to consider the actions we should take when our religious principles come into conflict with social trends.
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  • Examining Its Theological Possibilities
    Susumu Muramatsu
    Article type: Article
    2023 Volume 62 Pages 56-81
    Published: September 25, 2023
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    “Japanese Christianity” developed in Japan during the Asia-Pacific War period has been viewed negatively as an attempt to pander to the wartime regime and to oppose Western Christianity. However, theologians who led the Christian world at the time and were active even after the war were actively involved in the development of “Japanese Christianity.” As other theologians of the same era participated proactively, we can assume that interest in this project was alive. Some theologians may have advocated “Japanese Christianity” as a way of cooperating with the wartime system. Even so, the thought and e ort poured into this project makes its discourses not completely barren, but worthy of exploration. This paper thus analyzes the discourses of Hidenobu KUWADA, Kazo KITAMORI, Tetsutaro ARIGA, and Katsumi MATSUMURA, the representative theologians who advocated “Japanese Christianity” and critically examines their possibilities.
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  • How Christians Should Cultivate Faith in Their Religious and Spiritual Lives
    Kazutaka Watanabe
    Article type: Article
    2023 Volume 62 Pages 82-111
    Published: September 25, 2023
    Released on J-STAGE: January 25, 2025
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    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.
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