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Japanese Spirituality
and the World of Monotheism in auguration lecture at Doshisha University, October 11, 2003. l The Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions (CISMOR) was recently established by the Department of Theology at Doshisha University in Kyoto. CISMOR was able to receive substantial funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan. CISMOR is part of the ministry's effort to bring Japanese scholarship to the forefront of the international research scene - an effort known as "The 21Ist Century COE [Centers of Excellence] Program." The two speakers at the inauguration lecture were Toshitada Doi and Yuzo ITAGAKI. Mr. Doi is an engineer and was been involved in the invention of the CD, the robot dog Aibo, and is also known for his books on personal growth, which he writes using his pen name TENGE Shiro (e.g. Shin biishiki no jidai e- "Towards an Age of Deep Aesthetic Sense"). Mr. Itagaki is professor emeritus from Tokyo University and Japan's leading expert on Islam Doi and Itagaki had interesting points in their own right, but taken together and seen in the context of CISMOR's intended profile, see box on this side, the coherency escaped me .
Toshitada DOI Mr. Doi shared how he had witnessed dissatisfaction among materially successful engineers and businessmen. Fame and fortune did not bring them lasting happiness. He also observed that the spirit of competition, the core value of modernity, causes much distress and dissatisfaction among the participants of modern day society. Doi has concluded that the modern age must come to an end. Doi believes that every human being is religious by nature and that human society will follow a paradigm of individual psychological development. Therefore, he predicts the next stages to be the maturing society, the existential society and the result to be the transcendent society. Thus Doi's lecture was a good example of proselytizing of the so-called new age message, so frequently encountered in new religions in Japan and elsewhere in the world. Doi's points on spirituality were not framed as particularly "Japanese," which was fine in my viewpoint. His paradigm has taken in an amount of Buddhism or Hinduism, but his task was not to discuss those teachings or the challenges they entail for Judaism, Islam or Christianity. Perhaps he sees no need to do so, because they belong to the "past" by his definition. His engineering genius, much stressed in the printed and oral introduction of Mr. Doi, did not shine through in this particular lecture. Given the Interdisciplinary "I" in CISMOR, I had hoped for some connection between advanced technological natural sciences and religions, but was disappointed. So what was the intention of this lecture for CISMOR? The floor was opened for discussion, yet two or three questions could not, of course, bring about any scholarly perspectives either from the standpoint of theology or from that of the science of religions, so I was left wondering why we had this lecture. Yuzo ITAGAKI Professor Itagaki's lecture was more to the point of the theme. Born and raised as a Christian, and having studied modern English as a university student, Itagaki has spent more than fifty years in Islamic and Middle East studies. His lecture was focused on the Japanese view of Islam. He discussed the European and the Japanese kinds of orientalisrn (cf. Edward Said), and compared Europe and Japan' s physical locations on the crossing points between the cultural spheres of Eurasia on one hand and Mediterranean/Africa and Indian Ocean respectively on the other hand. He went on to compare some of the cultural values identified as Japanese and Islamic and argued their compatibility, e.g. the Japanese wa and the Islamic salaam (both means "peace") or the Japanese tennd ("emperor") and shegun (general) and the Islamic khalt;f (caliph) and sultdn (sultan), or again the common Japanese self-understanding of being a-religious (mushukyo) compared with the Islamic idea of conditional atheism (mushinron). Because Itagaki addressed so many relevant points, one would have wished for more time to discuss them. Is it, after all, so easy to jump from wa to salaam? If culture and religion are inseparable when it comes to Islam, as Itagaki implied, then how to accommodate the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize awarded lranian lawyer-activist Shirin Ebadi. Itagaki is no doubt right when he emphasizes Islam's role as protector of some Christian traditions, such as the place said to be where Joseph and Mary hide with infant Jesus in Egypt. It is also important to be reminded by Itagaki that the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein was made possible because the British created a land called lraq in the 1940s and the USA armed that land in its own fight against lran in the 1980s, so why blame Islam? But is that an excuse for us in Japan or elsewhere to ignore the suffering caused in the name of Islam's laws, sharia ? Or is patriarchy any more defensible when institutionalized in the name of Allah, than in the name of God or the Chinese tradition? I do not think Professor Itagaki would say yes to the last two questions, but I wished he could have addressed them in his talk. Questions such as these will undoubtedly be raised and discussed within the framework of CISMOR in the years to come. Hopefully, it will help raise and give nuances to the awareness of Islam in Japan. It may add to the ongoing debates on state, religion, and civil society and the insights could possibly help Christianity's involvement in Japan. In May this year, CISMOR held a seminar that addressed the monotheism of modern USA and its warfare in lraq. Seen together with the lecture on the October I I , I think there are sound reasons for expecting CISMOR to contribute some iniportant Japanese views to the debate with monotheism. I believe the significance of that contribution will be enhanced if one brings in critical discussion at all levels, including public performances such as the lectures reviewed here. For more on CISMOR, see the website Dr.Christian M. Hermansen |