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Despite famously small numbers, Christians have had a distinctive
presence in modern Japan, particularly for their witness on behalf
of democracy and religious freedom. A translation of Ken'i to
Fukuju: Kindai Nihon ni okeru Roma-sho Jusan-sho (2003), Authority
and Obedience is "a personal pre-history" of the postwar generation
of Japanese Christian intellectuals deeply committed to democracy.
Using Japanese Christians' commentary on Paul's injunction in
Romans 13: 1-7, the counsel to "let every person be subject to the
governing authorities; for there is no authority except from
God...", Miyata offers an intellectual history of how Japanese
Christians understood the emperor-focused modern state from the
time of the first Protestant missionaries in the mid-nineteenth
century through the climax and demise of fascism during the Pacific
War. Stressing verse 5's admonition to "conscience" as the reason
for obedience, Miyata provides a clear and political perspective
grounded in his lifelong engagement with German political thought
and theology, particularly that of Karl Barth and Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, as he calls for a conscientious citizenry in his modern
society. Showing both Christians' complicity with the state and the
empire - including the formation of a unified church, the Nihon
Kirisuto Kyodan - and their attitude toward Christians in Asia, and
the complexity of the critical voices of Christians like Uchimura
Kanzo, Kashiwagi Gien, Nanbara Shigeru, and many others less well
known - Miyata's work aims not at exposing cultural particularity
but at showing how the modern Japanese Christian experience can
give meaning to a theology and a political theory of how to live
within the "freedom of religious belief".
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