Self and Other in the Theology of Robert Barclay - eTheses Repository
etheses.bham.ac.uk/1584/1/Nakano11PhD.pdf
by Y Nakano - 2011 - Cited by 1 - Related articles
52 Inazo Nitobe was a central figure in Japanese Quakerism. He is still ... and supernatural world (Rufus M. Jones, The Later Periods of Quakerism, vol. 1.the western spirit ofChristianity would make a contribution to the modernisation of the country after the Meiji Restoration (1868), (and would contribute to the establishment of a new liberal democratic and pacifist regime after the SecondWorldWar).50 This caused a serious issue how Japanese Christians should think of the traditional religious contexts, such as Shinto, Buddhism and Confucianism,51 but particularly it was claimed by its new adherents that Quakerism was the most appropriate and most easy-accessible western religion for the Japanese people. Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933)52
says that ‘they [Christian sermons and books] were not at all convincing
to me. Only in Quakerism could I reconcile Christianity and with Oriental thought.53’Thus, Quaker faith has been optimistically accepted as a universal method of self-cultivation which would nurture a consequential development of the entire society and the world.54 As a result of the syncretism with the traditional religions (which stress the awakening of real self or moral development), 55 Japanese Quakerism has further enhanced its own liberal modernist
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50 Dohi, A History of Protestant Christianity, pp. 43-47, 55-57 and 449-450, p. 417 and 434. See also Drummond, AHistory ofChristianity in Japan, p. 186, pp. 273-274.
51 Confucianism had been the main ethical base of the ex-ruling class, namely the samurai class, who constituted the larger part of Japanese Christians after the Meiji Restoration. For some Christians, such as Joseph Hardy Neesima (1843-90), a founder of the Doshisha schools, Confucianism was detestable in its tyrannical nature, whilst for many other Christians the dedication to Jesus Christ was understood in terms ofthe samurai loyalty to the lord (Drummond, AHistory ofChristianity in Japan, p. 178).
52 InazoNitobewas a central figure in JapaneseQuakerism. He is still symbolic within themovement in Japan. He was an agriculturist, educator, and also worked as the under-secretary-general of the Leagues ofNations from the years of1920 to 1926, so that he would be a bridge between Japan and the western countries. See the article of‘Nitobe Inazo’inGen Itasaka, ed. KodanshaEncyclopedia ofJapan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983).
53 InazoNitobe,‘AJapaneseViewofQuakerism,’inNitobe Inazo Zenshu (TheWorks ofInazoNitobe), 15 vol. (Tokyo: Kyobunkan, 1970), p. 335.
This paper was an English lecture presented at the University ofGeneva in
1926.
54 ‘the Confucian idea of benevolence –dare I also add the Buddhist idea of pity? –will expand into the Christian conception of love. Men have become more than subjects, having grown to the estate ofcitizen; nay, they aremore than citizens–beingman.’(InazoNitobe, Bushido, The Soul ofJapan: An Exposition ofJapanese Thought, 10th revised and enlarged ed. (NewYork: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1905), p. 186).
55 Nitobe found the similarity between Christianity and oriental thoughts in terms of cosmic consciousness, namely the same idea found in early Liberal Quakerism: ‘Eastern philosophy loves to contemplate on the identity of individual life with the life of the Whole. ...this cosmic consciousness is the experience of many minds among all the races of the world. It is an experience whereby man is convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that he is a Spirit and that his Spirit is in close communion with the Spirit of the Universe.’(Nitobe, ‘A Japanese View ofQuakerism,’pp. 337-338). He continues that ‘The central doctrine ofQuakerism is the belief in thisCosmic sensewhich they call the Inner Light’(Nitobe,‘AJapaneseViewofQuakerism,’p. 340).
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