In this article I intend to reconstruct the historical contents of the hospital "Basileias" made by Basil the Great in 372 through the texts of Basil's works, Gregory of Nazianz's homily on Basil and the Church Histories of Rufinus, Theodoret, and Sozomen. Basil built the hospital in the place given by the emperor Valens near Caesarea in order to take care of the poor, especially the leprous people whom he had cared for previously in his ascetic life. Here I review especially the observations of Timothy S. Miller (The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire) and A. T. Crislip (From Monastery to Hospital). To Miller I say there is no direct witnesses that Aetios built the hospital, so Basil did not build the hospital because of the Arian conflict. To Crislip, there are also similarities between Basileias and Eustatius's hospital. Crislip makes the mistake of treating the concept of doctors and nurses in a too-modern view. In this hospital Basil has served the poor, especially the leprous people. For him the leprous people are Christ who is incarnated as a human being, and through the incarnation their humanity (that was usually neglected by society because of their illness) becomes real for the people. As a human being, he loves the leprous people as the same human being. This is the meaning of philanthropy. The incarnation and philanthropy are two pivots of Basil's thought on care for the poor.

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This paper aims to clarify the messianism of Nahmanides through analyzing his three works concerning the Barcelona Disputation in 1263. After discussing the issue of Jewish messiah with Dominican friars in the disputation, Nahmanides wrote The Disputation, Explanation on the Book of Isaiah (Chap. 52 and 53), and The Book of Redemption. These works concerned not only the issue-the correct interpretations of rabbinic materials on the messiah which were actually treated in the disputation-but also the basis that is a traditional controversy found in the tractate Sanhedrin of Babylonian Talmud. Therefore, I focus on his perception of this talmudic discourse. Nahmanides described different images of Jewish messiah and connected each of them to criticism against Christianity, the problem of the suffering of the righteous, and the mystical meaning of the biblical text. He tried to receive both sides of conflicting opinions in the Talmud, and moreover mentioned to another messianic view hidden under the talmudic discourse. For Nahmanides, the traditional Jewish messianism which contains various aspects was an object to study as a whole rather than to commit to one of them exclusively, and it reflects his way of perceiving sacred writings: On the one hand he made an effort to explain prophecies about the redemption in the Bible which seem to be different, and on the other hand he justified his critical standpoint against the Talmud by insisting that he stands nearer to the time of the final redemption than the Talmudic sages.

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Nishida Kitaro's philosophy is closely tied to matters of "religion." One of the essential elements in his understanding of "religion" is the problem of sin. From an early period in his career he was interested in this problem, referring to the teaching of original sin in Christianity as well as in the works of Shinran, the founder of the Shin school of Pure Land Buddhism. Nishida's thought on sin was neither on the problem of a specific sect nor on a moral problem but on a fundamental and ontological problem concerning the self living in this world. In this paper I will discuss Nishida's philosophical understanding of sin with regards to his sympathy toward Kierkegaard's view, and in relation to the conception of self and that of religion, which are based on his ontology named "the logic of locus." The ontological structure of self is expressed as the paradoxical identity between necessity and freedom. Nishida's concept of sin is the disharmony of this paradoxical self-identity; the important elements are objective self-consciousness and will. Nishida discussed the authentic self as an antonym of sin. The authentic self is the unification between necessity and freedom. Nishida's concept of sin and that of religion, therefore, are closely related.

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Iida Toshihira (1820-1886), a scholar of National Learning (kokugaku), occupied a central position in the Office of Ceremonies (Shikiburyd) of the early Meiji government. This office institutionalized rituals and ceremonies important for State Shinto. This article analyzes Iida's political thought on National Learning and National Polity (kokutai). As a skillful scholar of classical canons, Iida insisted that the government should propagate the divinity of the Japanese Emperor as a descendant of heavenly deities, the majesty of the National Polity, and of the Imperial Japanese Way (kadd). Unlike his rival Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843), Iida denied the importance of teaching about the afterlife for national indoctrination. Some scholars argue that State Shinto is a "civil religion." "Civil religion," according to Rousseau, emphasizes the life to come. However, Iida's doctrine on State Shinto lacks this emphasis and is closer to Rousseau's religion nationale.

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A considerable numbers of studies have been made on believers of Japanese new religions. What seems to be missing, however, is an understanding of how the mechanisms of each group help lay believers to keep their faith. The purpose of this paper is to consider the mechanisms which legitimate the plausibility of doctrine and practice of a Japanese new religion. Furthermore, subjective speculation of believers and the orientation on it by the church are considered. Byakko-shinkokai is chosen for these purposes. Saionji Masami, who is the successor of the founder, has added new topics on doctrine and practice. Some believers, who are very active members, show bewilderment at this renewal. Three topics are mentioned based on fieldwork on the gatherings of lay believers and a ceremony at headquarters: (1) Declarations of Saionji pronounced at ceremonies at the headquarters, and narratives of believers in the gatherings, reinforce the reality of religious ideas and practices added by Saionji. (2) A remainder of bewilderment activates the speculations and dialogues among believers. (3) On the other hand, some practices called in operate as the mechanism which mobilizes believers to the varieties of activities. It requires us to regard the faith of each believer as, at least partially, the expression of the mechanism.

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