Xavier's Legacies: Catholicism in Modern Japanese Culture

by Kevin M. Doak (Editor)

Overview

Japan has had three Catholic prime ministers, and its current empress was raised and educated in the faith. How did a non-Christian nation come to foster more Catholic leaders than the United States, particularly when Protestantism is said to define Christianity in Japan and Catholicism is believed to be but a fleeting element of Japan’s so-called Christian century? This volume reveals that, far from being a relic of the past – something brought to Japan by missionaries and then forgotten – Catholicism offered, and continues to provide, an authentic and alternative way for Japanese believers to maintain “tradition” and negotiate modernity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780774820226
Publisher:	University of British Columbia Press
Publication date:	03/01/2012
Series:	Asian Religions and Society
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kevin M. Doak is the Nippon Foundation Chair in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Georgetown University. He is co-editor of the Journal of Japanese Studies and sits on the executive board of the Society for Japanese Studies.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Catholicism, Modernity, and Japanese Culture / Kevin M. Doak

1 Catholic Women Religious and Catholicism in Japan: 1872-1940 / Ann M. Harrington

2 Toward a History of Christian Scientists in Japan / James R. Bartholomew

3 Tanaka Kotaro and Natural Law / Kevin M. Doak

4 Catholicism and Contemporary Man / Yoshimitsu Yoshihiko (translated and annotated by Kevin M. Doak and Charles C. Campbell)

5 Kanayama Masahide: Catholicism and Mid-Twentieth-Century Japanese Diplomacy / Mariko Ikehara

6 Crossing the Deep River: Endo Shusaku and the Problem of Religious Pluralism / Mark Williams

7 An Essay on Sono Ayako / Toshiko Sunami (translated and annotated by Kevin M. Doak)

8 The Theory and Practice of Inculturation by Father Inoue Yoji: From Panentheism to Namu Abba / Yoshihisa Yamamoto

9 Between Inculturation and Globalization: The Situation of Catholicism in Contemporary Japanese Society / Mark R. Mullins

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

What People are Saying About This

William Farge

I have been looking for a book like this for some time to use in courses on Japanese Christianity. While there are stellar publications on the so-called Christian century in Japan, spanning the late 1500s through early 1600s, there has been nothing on the modern period covering Christian history from such a wide and diverse perspective. Xavier's Legacies is a much-needed book in the fields of Asian and religious studies.

Paul Anderer

Xavier's Legacies, on Catholicism in the context of modern Japanese cultural and intellectual history, is a long-awaited volume. Here we encounter not the lives of saints, but ordinary Japanese who bring their ideas and their faith to bear on the transitions and the tragedies of their time.

From the Publisher

"Xavier's Legacies, on Catholicism in the context of modern Japanese cultural and intellectual history, is a long-awaited volume. Here we encounter not the lives of saints, but ordinary Japanese who bring their ideas and their faith to bear on the transitions and the tragedies of their time."—Paul Anderer, Columbia University

"I have been looking for a book like this for some time to use in courses on Japanese Christianity. While there are stellar publications on the so-called Christian century in Japan, spanning the late 1500s through early 1600s, there has been nothing on the modern period covering Christian history from such a wide and diverse perspective. Xavier's Legacies is a much-needed book in the fields of Asian and religious studies."—William Farge, S.J., author of The Japanese Translations of the Jesuit Mission Press, 1590-1614

"I have been looking for a book like this one for some time to use in courses on Japanese Christianity. While there are stellar publications on the so—called Christian century in Japan, spanning the late 1500s through early 1600s, there has been nothing on the modern period covering Christian history from such a wide and diverse perspective. Xavier’s Legacies is a much—needed book in the fields of Asian and religious studies."—William Farge, S.J., author of The Japanese Translations of the Jesuit Mission Press, 1590—1614

Editorial Reviews

I have been looking for a book like this for some time to use in courses on Japanese Christianity. While there are stellar publications on the so-called Christian century in Japan, spanning the late 1500s through early 1600s, there has been nothing on the modern period covering Christian history from such a wide and diverse perspective. Xavier's Legacies is a much-needed book in the fields of Asian and religious studies.
- William Farge, S.J., author of The Japanese Translations of the Jesuit Mission Press, 1590-1614

Xavier's Legacies, on Catholicism in the context of modern Japanese cultural and intellectual history, is a long-awaited volume. Here we encounter not the lives of saints, but ordinary Japanese who bring their ideas and their faith to bear on the transitions and the tragedies of their time.
- Paul Anderer, Columbia University

From the Publisher