“One in many: Sounding of the heart”: The meaning of divine revelation in the kakure kirishitan land

Abstract

The question to be explored is that of how far a Christian identity can be stretched and yet still remain “Christian” and who determines the limits and for what reasons. This question is explored in light of the kakure kirishitan (hidden Christians) studies in Japan. More precisely, the question is that of how the historically singular epistemology embodied in the “one-God” understandings of Christianity has played out in multiple readings of reality, a “many gods” epistemology, in Japan. This is an exploration of the “meaning of divine revelation of Christ” set within the context of ecclesia semper reformanda. I would claim that the “character of love” as defined by Ernst Troeltsch’s notion of the revelation of Christ (“In our earthly experiences the Divine Life is not One, but Many. But to apprehend the One in the Many constitutes the special character of love”), which is a distinct Christian faith paradigm, contrary to the popular paradigm in the academic and civic discourse of “one in many,” takes on the character of “the sounding of the heart.” Even when the historical identity of Christ is extensively eroded, the “sounding” speaks to people beyond the difference of the worlds with a language that is so intimate that it profoundly grasps the heart.