By HIDEO OSHITA, Pastor, Japanese Church, Honolulu, Hawaii
M. Conclusion and Challenge to Christianity
In summing up Shintoism I can do nothing better than to quote from authoritative Dr. I. Nitobe. He says:
"Philosophically and scientifically, historically and ethically, Shinto will not be able to stand comparison with any imported faith—Buddhism or Christianity. Its strength and its very life are due to its ethnic, strictly national and nationalistic, character. In one form or another it will survive intellectual revolutions of the nation to which it is native, because it is not supported by intellect, but by emotion, as is best evidenced by the patriotism and loyalty which it has inculcated above all other virtues. Shinto may be summed up as the ensemble of the emotional element of the Japanese race. . . . Shinto is an embodiment of their jejune aspirations. . . . The essence of Shinto cannot be condensed into just so many articles of faith. It is not a dogma. . . .
"It is the ensemble of all the emotional experiences of the Yantato race, a human document of a long-lived nation. To study it scientifically is to bring into consciousness feelings long buried in the obscure regions of the subconscious, and to give expression to those inarticulate sentiments that have for generations been accumulating in the heart of the race." "
Another writer expresses Shinto this way :
"It is the faith of these people's birthright, not of their adoption. . . . Buddhist they are by virtue of belief; Shinto by virtue of being."'
ELEMENTS OF WEAKNESS IN SHINTO
1. "Its heterogenous polytheism, no cosmic unity."
2. "Its fantastic scriptural myths about deity."
3. "Not one deity worthy of veneration as a moral ideal."
4. -"No high moral code for human beings."
5. "No intrinsic value in a human individual."
6. "No historic founder to standardize and inspire."
7. "No outstanding, historic noble human example."
8. "No magnificent goal for human society."
9. "No glorious hope of a future life." to. "No inner religious life; chiefly ceremonialism."
10. "Not much help available from deity."
11. "No historic service actually rendered to outsiders."
12. "No place for non-Japanese, except recently."
ELEMENTS OF STRENGTH IN SHINTO
1. "Reverence for the supernatural present in nature."
2. "No general idolatry, despite round-mirror svmbol of sun-goddess."
3. "Self-sacrificing reverence for government as a divine institution."
4. "An enthusiastic, unifying patriotism."
5. "An affinity between man and the divine."
6. "Religious value in cleanliness and purity."
7. "Reverence for the beautiful as integral to religion."
8. "Loyalty to the superior, almost the soul of religion."
What of the future of Christianity facing Shintoism in Japan?
"So far as Shinto is a religion, Christianity meets it not as destroyer but fulfiller, for it too believes that cleanliness is not only next to godliness but a part of it. Jesus as perfect man and patriot, Captain of our salvation and Prince of peace, would not destroy the Yamato darnashii—the spirit of unconquerable Japan —but rather enlarge, broaden, and deepen it, making it love for all humanity. Reverence for ancestral virtue and example, so far from being weakened, is strengthened, and as for devotion to king and ruler, law and society, Christianity lends nobler motives and grander sanctions, while showing clearly, not indeed the way of the eight million or more gods, but the way to God—the one living, only and true, even through Him who said 'I am the way.' ""
Yes, the gospel of Jesus Christ amply meets the religion of the "way of the gods," as it does all other non-Christian religions of the world, It will transform all who meet the conditions of acceptance. This power will continue until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Note:
1 S. H. Kellogg, A Handbook of Comparative Religion (Westminster Press, 1899), pp. 167-169.
2 William Smith,. A Dictionary of the Bible (Teacher's ed.), App., Tables IV and V, pp. 778, 779.
3 "David Murray, Japan (Putnam's, 1906), App., p. 491.
4 Edward Davison Soper, The Religions of Mankind (Cokesbury Press, 1921), p. 236 W. E. Griffis, The Religions of Japan (Scribner's, 1895), p. 38.
5 Soper, op. cit., Q. 236.
6 James Hastings (ed.), Encyclopaedia of' Religion and Ethics, VOL II, p. 463, art. "Shinto."
7 Otis Cary, A History of Christianity in Japan, Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Missions (Revell, 1909), p. 31.
8 Robert E. Speer, The Light of the World (The Central Committee on the United Study of Missions, 1911), p. 105.
9 Ibid., p. 250.
10 "Inazo Nitobe, Japan (Scribner's, 1931), p. 312. 11/bid., pp. 319, 320.
11 Robert Ernest Hume, The World's Living Religions (Scribner's, 1833), pp. 165-168
12 Basil H. Chamberlain, Things Japanese (3d ed., rev.) (Murray, 1898), pp. 358, 361.
13 Quoted by Speer, op. cit., p. 262.
14 Hastings, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 464, art. "Shinto." '
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
17 Speer, op. cit., p. Io5.
18 Hastings, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 464, art.
19 "Shinto." Speer, op. cit., p. 250.
20 Ibid, p. 260.
21 W. G. Aston, Shinto the Way of the Gods (Constable, 1910), pp. 368, 369.
22 Ibid., p. 372.
23 Ibid., p. 223.
24 B. H. Chamberlain and W. A. Mason, Murray's Hand-Book for Japan (4th ed., rev. ; Scribner's, 1896), p. 33.
25 Hume, op. cit., pp. 167, 157.
26 Hastings, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 463, art. "Shinto."
27 Aston, OP. Cit., p. 222.
28 Chamberlain and Mason, op. cit., p. 34.
29 Hastings, op. cit., vol. II, p. 468, art. "Shinto."
30 Chamberlain and Mason, op. cit., p. 33. For the pictures showing the types of dress, see Murray, op. cit., p. ix.
31 Hastings, op. cit., vol. 11, p. 469, art. "Shinto" ;
32 Religions Ancient and Modern (Constable, 1910), p. 72, art.
33"Shinto, the Ancient Religion of Japan."
34 Chamberlain, op. cit. p. 146.
35 Aston, Shinto the Way of the Gods, pp. 212, 213. "Aston, op. cit., p. 209; Tasuku Harada, The Faith of Japan (Macmillan, 1926), p. 4,
36 Speer, op. cit., p. 248.
37 Aston, OP, Cit., pp. 368, 369.
38 Harada, op. cit., pp. 46, 47.
39 Griffis, op. cit., pp. 84, 85.
40 Hastings, op. cit., vol. it, p. 469, art. "Shinto."
41 Aston, op. cit., pp. 249, 251, 252.
42 "Percival Lowell, Occult Japan (Houghton, Mifflin, 1894), p. 24.
43 Griffis, op. cit., p. 85.
44 Nitobe, op. cit., pp. 321, 32/, 326. (Italics mine.)
45 Lowell, op. cit., pp. 19, 20. (Italics mine.)
46 Hume, op. cit., pp. /68, 169.
45 Griffis, op. cit., p. 97.
