Protestantism's Perduring Preoccupation with Western Theological Texts

Abstract

“Mainline” Japanese Protestantism is a young, minority faith whose future seems as uncertain as the future of the Jesus movement must have seemed in second century Rome. In contrast to the dominant family- and community-based Shinto-Buddhist religious synthesis, Japanese Protestantism is an individualistic, middle-class, urban phenomenon. The early samurai leaders of this movement, heirs of a Confucian tradition that stressed the careful study of texts, broke with the missionaries over modernist developments in theology and science. Their descendents have continued to focus on translated western theological texts to the neglect of local missional issues or engagement in ecumenical dialogue.