As the concern about environmental problems grows, animistic "phenomena" has recently attracted attention. This article aims to review previous "ways" of talking about animistic phenomena. Animism theory has been taken as the theory of fundamental religion since Tylor, but some scholars are reevaluating the concept as a theory of methods for perceiving the environment. In other words, these scholars construe animism as a perceptual strategy for "likening" natural objects to spiritual beings, thus "anthropomorphizing" them. However, this stance premises itself on the modern humanistic view which centralizes the rational and active subject who always one-sidedly perceives objects, and thereby easily overlooks the passive sensibility of perceptions in which the subject shares spiritual nature with natural objects and the self is made alive by spiritual power. I argue that we should reassess the importance of our passivity if we wish to criticize the modern attitude of human beings who have tried to arbitrarily manipulate nature.

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Love is considered to be the basis of all virtues and the central principle of Christian ethics. In the Gospels Jesus expresses the ethics of love in the form of the twofold command to love God and one's neighbor. These two forms of love constitute the Christian life-task. From a Christian perspective love is the most authentic obligation; all other moral obligations derive their absolute character from the command to love. The Christian command to love gives rise to several questions. If love is the deepest need of the human person, why does it need to be commanded? Is it possible to love everybody equally as a neighbor, as the command requires, without showing preference for the loved one? Can social expression be given to Christian love? In addressing these questions Kierkegaard depicts more powerfully than any modern Christian thinker the rigorousness and the ethical implications of the divine love command. He makes a radical distinction between Christian love and natural love. Natural love rests on exclusive preference. Christian love, on the contrary, is a duty, involves self-denial, and is all-inclusive. Only if love is a duty, Kierkegaard thinks, can it be rendered invulnerable to the changes that characterize natural love. The ultimate goal of Christian love for the neighbor is helping the neighbor to love God. Although Kierkegaard maintains that God is the foundation and ultimate object of love, this does not entail a spiritualized love of neighbor nor a lack of social concern, as some critics suggest. Christian love can never be abstract, but necessarily moves to the concrete human person. While he insists on the duty to love and necessity of striving, as a corrective to the idea of cheap grace appropriated without cost prevalent in the Lutheranism of his day, he maintains a steadfast commitment to the Lutheran denial of merit and to the priority of grace.

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It is well known that Nishida Kitaro's Zen no kenkyu (Study on the Good) was written under the strong influence of William James. Researchers have paid attention so far to the concept "pure experience" and made clear how Nishida's use of the term differs from James's in spite of the fact that Nishida borrowed the word from James. However, under the assumption that such attention to the term "pure experience" has until now failed to appreciate the real relationship between the philosophy of Nishida and James, this article takes notice of the following two points: First, both placed at the center of their individual views of religion a state of "religious experience" whereby man feels a sense of unity between man and god. But Nishida would argue his unique philosophy of religion, while James's approach to it was from the standpoint of psychology of religion as empirical science. Second, both show sympathy with Fechner, who thinks that the real world as we see it is essential, not the abstract world constructed by science. However, Nishida tends to monism, while James to pluralism.

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Proposition Number 7 in Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Tractatus) is as follows: "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence." This propositional sentence is, however, very difficult to understand exactly. This article traces back to the very early handwritten version of Tractatus and interprets the meaning which it came to have in Wittgenstein's life after the publication of Tractatus. The propositional sentence seems to have been originally written in connection with "Value," not with "Logic." We may observe it in Proto-Prototractatus (not in Prototractatus). Furthermore, it seems that Wittgenstein wrote the sentence first as a matter of self-discipline, namely he prohibited himself to speak about the unspeakable/the unsayable (God, ethics, and so forth). Wittgenstein had, however, a strong "desire" throughout his life to speak about the unspeakable and he overcame his self-discipline at the end of "A Lecture on Ethics." After that he distinguished between philosophical matters and religious ones in writing. In other words, Wittgenstein fell into a dilemma: on one hand, he who was conscious of the propositional sentence which was publicly accepted could not write on the unspeakable in philosophical writings, but on the other hand, he could not repress his strong "desire" to write on and talk about the unspeakable. Therefore, he privately put it into practice. His Diary (Denkbewegungen: Tagebucher 1930-1932, 1936-1937) found in 1993 reflects this dilemma or drama. This Diary is the most important material for examining Wittgenstein as "homo religiosus."

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This paper begins its work as an attempt to apply Arabic literature for finding new ways in Zoroastrian studies. After a brief survey of former studies on the personality of Zarathustra, it will be pointed that the Isma'ili Persian school's newly published Arabic literature's encompassing corpus still does not attain completion in the field of Zoroastrian studies. As a tentative conclusion, this paper insists that Pahlavi literature does represent an Arian Priest of Zarathustra up to the ninth century, but after that, there might be other types of the personality of Zarathustra which are represented in the Syriac and Arabic MSS of that time. The Isma'ili Persian school's Arabic literature may be the most significant material to study those transformations of personality of Zarathustra between the 10th and 13th centuries.

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The issue of the relationship between religion and politics is an extremely important one both for the state of Israel and for its Jewish people. In recent years, Jewish political philosophers have garnered considerable academic interest in Japan. However, academic study of Jewish political theory within its particular religious context has not yet blossomed as a serious research topic here in Japan. This paper considers the different understandings of "Jewish Theocracy" as put forth by Jewish polemicists Gershon Weiler and Aviezer Ravitzky, and thereby attempts to establish a paradigmatic axis in the interrelationship of religion and politics in modern Jewish thought. While Gershon Weiler categorically rejects the notion of any form of Jewish participation in politics, Aviezer Ravitzky concedes a passive role for Jewish people in the political process, but merely as an interim measure until the fervently awaited direct rule of God is manifest in "Israel." The natural tension between modern Israel's political and religious systems furnishes a fitting forum for careful examination of the ideological dispute of these two thinkers.

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By focusing attention on the Western discourses about Sufism (Islamic mysticism) of recent years, this paper aims to reveal a form of Sufism's assertion of its current raison d'etre, by examining the expectations toward Sufism and the responses to it. Recent research on Sufism presented in Europe tend to expect it to be an important key to establish partnerships between Islam and modern secularized Christian societies, and also have hopes that it will prove to be a moderating force to "fundamentalism." Some Sufis such as Khaled Bentounes and Ahmad Kuftaru try to establish the cooperative relationship with Western society by a willingness to compromise through dialogues as they respond to these expectations. There is not always much development of intellectual argument unique to Sufism in this process, but we can decidedly see there the attempt to seek a modern Sufi way of being.

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Matsu-e was the most important festival in Mt. Hiko and it's related mountains in Buzen, being composed of the ritual elements of Hashiramatsu, Ondasai, Shinko, and Furyu. These various elements are sure to have had a genealogy before the Matsu-e, and they were not combined suddenly but gradually constructed. Then, it is effective to consider the developments before the formation of Matsu-e, and to trace the genealogy of the individual components. The Matsu-e includes three central genealogical ritual groups. First is the Hoekei-gireigun (ritual group of Buddhist services) that derives from the genealogy of Buddhist services such as Shari-e from the beginning of the thirteenth century. Second, the Geinosha-shudan-kei-gireigun (ritual group of entertainer groups) that derives from the genealogy of practices by entertainer group who played at the festival. Last, the Hashiramatsu-Mineiri-kei-gireigun (ritual group of Hashiramatsu and Mountain-Entry practices) that derives from the genealogy of Shugendo ritual that unfolded originally at Mt. Hiko. The first and the second are common to other general festivals of the middle Ages, but the third closely links maintenance of the Mineiri (Mountain-Entry practices) at Mt. Hiko. As for the idea that Matsu-e was constructed mainly on a Hashiramatsu ritual, the formation shows that it is related to the establishment of Shugendo in the middle Ages at Mt. Hiko.

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Jikigyo Miroku (1671-1733) is an ascetic associated with the religious tradition of faith in Mt. Fuji. He is worshipped as a founder by Fujiko, a group of Mt. Fuji faithful organized after Jikigyo's death. In a contemporary study of Mt. Fuji faith, Jikigyo is presented as an ascetic of Miroku Messianism. "Miroku Messianism," put forward by the folklorist Miyata Noboru, is a theory which finds Messianism in Japanese folklore. Certainly Jikigyo discussed the "Miroku-Era" in which the gods who created the world return to rule it again from 1688 A.D. However, the Miroku-Era is inconsistent with Miroku Messianism's view of a future utopia. And in a manuscript discovered recently, It is said that Getsugyo Soju, the master of Jikigyo, discussed the "Miroku-Era" earlier than Jikigyo. This manuscript asserts that Getsugyo received the revelation from the gods concerning the "Miroku Era."

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Many Japanese religious groups have undertaken overseas missions in the modern age. For those involved in these missions, it was important to know not only how they should put down roots in the host societies but also how they should locate themselves in the relation to their homeland, Japan. In this paper, I will clarify the historical transformation process of the various discourses on Japan as a nation, the Japanese race, Japanese culture, and so on, among the principal Japanese Buddhist groups in Hawai'i from the late nineteenth century to the 1950s. The Japanese Buddhist groups began their mission in Hawai'i in the late nineteenth century in order to resist the influence of Christianity. During the interwar period in Hawai'i, they endeavored to adapt to two nations-the United States and Japan. After World War II, the Japanese Buddhist groups have continued to exist as ethnic churches connected to the ethnicity of Japanese-Americans. Although this process is similar to that of many churches founded by immigrants in the United States, the uniqueness of the Japanese Buddhist groups, which is defined by their efforts to maintain their relationship to Japan, is also important.

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