アジサイの色

咲き始めはほとんど色を見せないでいたアジサイが、いつのまにか瞳にあふれる色をにじませている。
青い花が集まって咲く様子から「アジサイ（集真藍）」と名付けられたこの花の「花ことば」が、「移り気」や「変化」といわれるのは、こんなふうにふと気づかされる花の色の移り変わりの故だ。

この春に父が突然召された。もう、遠く暮らしていた父なのだから、亡くなったという現実は自分の日々の生活にはほとんど何の変化ももたらさないといってもいい。実際は、遺された母のこともあって往き来も多くなったし、いろいろな忙しい日々なのだけれども、やはりすでに「父」がこの地上には存在しないという実感を持つのは書棚の本を手にとる一瞬だったり、バラの赤い色に目をとめた時であったり。

6月11日にＦＥＢＣで放送になった「老いと死を生きる」という番組の録音は、父が亡くなる十日ほど前のことだった。「生きている」父や母のすがたを思いつつ語ったものだ。その父は今はすでに神の御許・天にある。いつの間に・・そうだったのか。Motoo's Blog: 「老いと死を生きる」

この青は何の色？　しかし、天の青さ・・・・

本当のアジサイの花ことばは「辛抱強い愛」だという。
様々な変化の中にあって、波の中にもまれつつも、神様のその愛にこそ生かされていくものでありたい。

The perspective of Asia 5

4. Theology in Japan

Now how can we be Lutheran, though we are in 21st century in Asia, far from 16th century Germany? Certainly, it is not only holding on to the old confessional writings. Rather the problem is how we confess our faith in Christ which was also confessed by 16th century Lutherans in the 21st century in an Asian context. Luther’s spirit of confession in the reformation context of the 16th century was to fight against a situation that hid Christ’s Gospel. Following God’s Word, Luther knew the situation in which God’s love revealed in the cross was darkened and then called the church to reform the situation. It was not just his inner reformation of faith, but also the expression of that faith in the reformation of the church, and therefore reformation of the world.
That is to say, “confessional” means to be responsible for the situation in which the theological subject is actually engaged. That is, Lutheran theology takes both the church and the world as the object of its theology. In this sense, theology in Japan has to cope with Japan as the object of theology, critically. And also theology must send messages to Japan in order to share the Gospel, to establish the order of God’s creation, and to accomplish the kingdom of God.
The message of Lutheran Church, therefore, must be the word of God; Law and Gospel. The word of God critically reveals how we are, what Japan is before God, on the one hand, and points out God’s gracious work in the world for sharing the gospel with people. After we changed the name of the department from theology to Christian Studies, we realized that Lutheran theology has such a task to the world, and that this task is carried out through Law and Gospel.
According to this perspective, our department of Christian Studies of Japan Lutheran College decided to focus on the problem of life and death in our actual context from this year. We just started a new curriculum consisting in 15 courses. We call this new curriculum “Life Studies (inochi-gaku 命学)”. Today, problems concerning life and death are so serious in Japan as well as all around the world. It seems very important to learn and to show the Christian understanding of human beings, and life and death, to the world. From all theological perspectives: biblical theology, historical theology, Christian ethics, pastoral theology, and apologetics, the issue of life and death is now examined and learned. In addition, we also learn what kind of thinking and religious understanding and wants are really in Japan both traditionally and in modernized society. In such a project, as Lutherans, we want to be responsible and to give contributions to our churches and even to the non-Christian world
Now, I want to list what we need to be aware of, concerning doing theology in Japan.

(1) In order to do theology in Japan, we must learn the traditional western theology, especially from the theological history, first. It is because there are many fruits and treasures that come from struggles already done between the Word of God and the world in the theological history in the west. Moreover, it should be believed that the living God has led Christian history though human beings who always opposed the will of God.

(2) It might be important not to use the baptized and non-baptized distinction here and now but to see the salvation work of God on the cross for all sinners, including the baptized and non-baptized. Of course, the baptism is the sacrament of God’s promise of salvation and the eschatological event of death and resurrection for the Christian. Luther sees the sacrament as the beginning of the God-justifying work for sinner throughout life until death and resurrection. If so, in the non-Christian context of Japan, it is important to see Christ as the core of God salvation work more than to make clear the border of the sphere of salvation.

(3) When we think of Japan, it is necessary to see Japanese culture in layers. Japanese people have the traditional thoughts and religions on the one hand, and the modernized, rational way of thinking on the other hand. Japan has developed and urbanized on the one hand and still values nature, rural community, and culture on the other. In Japan there are wealthy and poor also. Japanese is of course Asian, but is also westernized so much. Japanese people seems be homogenous but there are minorities like Ainu, Okinawans, etc.. In order to grasp Japan, we need to have compound eyes to see this complex world.

(4) There are people and lives who are weakened, discriminated against, and made poor in Japan today. Theology in Japan must deal with this problem seriously. Luther eliminates the distinction between priests and lay people by the priesthood of all believers. The principle means that there is no distinction between holy and secular, between clean and non-clean, between noble and humble, and between high and low, before God. This principle must criticize a social situation that makes such distinction.

(5) In this sense, the Tenno (Japanese Emperor) system must be closely examined from the Christian view. The system has distinguished between noble and humble among all nations and functioned as a quasi-religion. In addition, the Tenno system invaded Asian countries and tried to exert Japanese supremacy over them during World War II. If theology in Japan wants to be also theology in Asia, it is necessary to answer the problem of this Tenno system.

(6) Having a close relation with Japanese things and favoring them brings the danger of syncretism and nationalism. In order to share the Gospel of Christ with Japanese people it is important and necessary to take Japanese culture and values seriously in the context in which they actually live. At the same time, we should know that we could be at a risk of losing something important for Christianity.

(7) At the same time, we should know the possibility of theology in Japan or other non-western context could challenge the theology in the western culture. The challenge could deepen the understanding of the Gospel from a different perspective from that of the west.

These seven points are just a kind of memo for further study. These particular viewpoints come from the theology in Japan, but could contribute to theology in Asia, and also in the different context from the west. At least, I hope this presentation will be useful for dialogue in this conference.

The perspective of Asia 4

3．Theology and Christian Studies

The theological department of Japan Lutheran College changed its name to the Department of Christian Studies for practical reasons. “Theology” is jargon for ordinary people in the non-Christian world so the name of department couldn’t draw sufficient attention. Conversely, the name of Christian studies is understandable for those who are interested in Christianity and the Christian culture, including literature, music, the arts, etc.. Because of this, “Christian Studies,” as you know, is a popular name of studies about Christianity in the non-Christian world.
Needless to say, theology is, in general, the study of self-reflection on Christian faith. In order to serve for Church and mission work and also to train pastors, it has four main disciplines: biblical theology, systematic theology, historical theology, and practical theology. These have been systematized and established as academic studies over a long period of time. The theological department, of course, had all these disciplines. For it was originally founded in conjunction with Japan Lutheran Theological Seminary for the training of pastors. A four-year college program and a two-years seminary curriculum together make up a six-year program to train ministers. So the department had been geared for Christians, especially Lutherans, who wanted to be pastors of the Lutheran church.
In reality, an average of only two or three students graduate and become pastors every year for a total of approximately 160 congregations of the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Japan Lutheran Church. So it is financially impossible to maintain both the college and seminary if these schools were open to only Lutherans. As far as the theological department is concerned, more than 20 years ago the college program began to welcome non-Lutherans and even non-Christians who really wanted to study theology, while the seminary was restricted to Lutherans only. Also, the theological department started to provide many courses for those who would like to study Christian culture in general, like Christian literature, Christian arts, etc..
For this reason, it was quite natural to change the name of the department from theology to “Christian Studies.” Faculty members of the theological department, however, thought that it was not acceptable to erase “theology” from the name of the department. It was because we were teaching theology as Lutheran pastors. So we struggled and finally decided to choose real achievement rather than empty reputation.
The name was eventually changed in 2005 as mentioned above. After that, we are now realizing that the change is not just nominal, but qualitative. This means that theology is facing a new task to rethink theological work in relation to the context where theologians serve God and church as theologians. Christian Studies takes Christianity itself as the object of study and sees Christian faith as historical phenomena in relation with culture, thought, and concrete political and economical situations in which people lived by faith in Christ. As a result, we become aware of our own cultural context in which we are Christian. That is, we are forced to take “Japan,” a non-Christian context, as an object of theology.
Of course, we already knew that theology has been always done in the actual context in which it was engaged throughout about two thousand years of Christian history. Nonetheless, as far as the theological program which the seminary provides is concerned, there is no formal structure arising from the context we are actually engaged in. Each discipline has its own order and sequence for study. But such an organized theological system was made in the western world. Within such a system, it was hard to rethink the system itself in which a theologian stood. Moreover there was no room to think about Japanese things in the established theological disciplines. Now by welcoming those who are not Christian into the theological circle as students of Christian Studies, we need to consider the peripheral things of Christianity and its context for the Christian faith.
It is not just matters of practical theology, though surely practical theology is a kind of front in which theological thinking is realized. In a practical sense, the problem has been how the Christian message communicates with Japanese people whose mind set is completely different from the western one. In order to accommodate the Gospel to the Japanese mind set, various means have been used: Japanese styles of music, metaphors, old stories, arts, rituals, architecture, and etc.. These are matters related to “translation.” Needless to say, these efforts are useful in order to bring Christianity closer to Japanese people. The question here we are facing is, however, beyond it.
The best way to carry out theology is being relativized. God does not change, but the way that we try to understand God must change over time and across cultures. Theology is being done by human beings who are always limited by time and space. When theology took place in the Hellenistic world, theologians used Greek language and thinking to express their faith. Surely in the Latin world, the Latin culture gave influence to Christian thinking. After the enlightenment and the age of reason, historical thinking has continuously relativized theological expressions. We all know these historical realities. Now the problem is how much we can adopt an Asian way of thinking in order to understand Christ’s salvation. Conversely, the problem could be how we can distinguish the core of the Gospel and the cultural expression of it.
The change of name of the “Department of Theology” to “Christian Studies” challenges us to do theological work in our present context.

The perspective of Asia 3

2. Development of the Mission of the Lutheran Church
From the beginning, the Lutheran church had special concerns about social problems in Japan, especially in the fields of education and social work. In Saga, the first Lutheran kindergarten was built, and in Kumamoto a Lutheran school called “Kyushu Gakuin” was established for youth, in addition to the theological education that was already provided. Also, the Lutheran church established the social welfare institution “Ji-Ai En” for the aged, handicapped, and orphaned in Kumamoto.
Originally Lutheran women’s groups in America prayed for and gave support for the establishment of kindergartens and other educational and social welfare institutions. Lutherans in Japan have devoted themselves to work in the fields of education and social welfare, as well as evangelism, by receiving generous donations of Lutheran churches and women’s missionary organizations in the US.
The Missouri Synod has been deeply interested in the education field and has maintained two independent school bodies in Saitama near Tokyo: Seibou Lutheran School and Urawa Lutheran School. Now both churches, the JELC and the NRK together have a total of about 50 kindergartens, 30 nurseries for infants, 5 school bodies and 50 institutions for the aged and the handicapped around Japan. Through such concrete work of education and social work, the Lutheran church in Japan shares the grace of God in the daily lives of people. Churches, schools and institutions for social work are put into different legal categories under Japanese law, but Lutherans have always understood them to work cooperatively and have drawn on the contributions that each can make in developing a holistic plan for mission work.
This means that education and social work have been a part of the church’s mission in Japan, along with evangelism. Since the Reformation Era, Lutherans have been deeply engaged in social issues. Christians, living by the word of God, are encouraged to love their neighbors. According to the principle of Law and Gospel, Lutherans living according to the Gospel positively work to maintain the order of God’s creation. Working in different fields does not mean becoming disengaged from evangelism. Rather, it is a way to show how Christian faith works in the world.
On the basis of this approach to a holistic mission of the church, Japan Lutheran College has developed its curriculum for producing graduates who will work in the world as well as in church. The college established a new course for Christian Social Work in the theological department in 1976 and developed it into an independent department in 1987. Then the graduate program for social work was provided in 2002. In 1982, the college founded the Personal Growth and Counseling Institute for answering the psychological needs both in the church and in the world. Then the theological department also began a new course for those interested in Christian counseling, in 1992. From this new course curriculum was developed which would form the basis of the Department of Clinical Psychology and the faculty of the Clinical Psychological Graduate Program, in 2005. Lutheran churches in Japan and Japan Lutheran College have decided to engage deeply in social problems through measures such as these.
Lutheran identity must be confessional. Being confessional means having an actual commitment to the lives of people from the standpoint of Christian faith. The holistic mission of the Lutheran church in Japan is a means of actualizing God’s grace in the world. The Word of God must be proclaimed and realized through human words and actions both on Sunday and throughout the week. This holistic mission also has contributed to Japanese society and has been evaluated well by people. It is also really important for the mission context in the non-Christian world. Without obtaining the trust of people, there is no success for evangelization in Japan. In such relationships, Lutheran identity has been formed.

The perspective of Aisa 2

1. Theological Education and Luther Studies for the Lutheran Church in
Japan

Dr. J. A. B. Scherer and Dr. R. B. Peery, the first missionaries sent by the United Synod of the South held the first Lutheran worship service in Japan on Easter, April 2, 1893 in Saga prefecture, which is located on the island of Kyusyu. In the first several years they were assisted by Japanese evangelists who had been educated in other denominational backgrounds. Ten years later, a training program of pastors began in Saga. In 1909, Rev. A.J. Stirewalt started the first full program of theological education for training Japanese pastors in Kumamoto, called Japan Lutheran Seminary. The desire of missionaries and Japanese congregations was to have Japanese pastors in order to proclaim the gospel to Japanese people. Just as Luther made a German translation of the Bible for German people, it is quite reasonable to train Japanese to become church leaders for the church’s mission and evangelization efforts.
Forming Japanese pastors was one of the most important tasks in the Lutheran church. The Gospel must be proclaimed in the mother language, through the Holy Spirit. That means the Gospel should take root in the soil of the distinct religious culture of Japan. For that purpose, Japanese pastors must be trained with the right understand of the Gospel, according to the Lutheran tradition.
Luther studies also started at this seminary and produced Japanese Luther scholars. Shigehiko Sato (1887-1935), who studied Luther under Karl Holl, focused on Luther’s religion of conscience. Kazo Kitamori (1916-1998), who is well-known because of his theology of the pain of God, used the Japanese cultural tradition in order to grasp the core of the Gospel. Yoshikazu Tokuzen (b. 1932) who was the first head of the Luther Studies Institute, founded in 1985, has led Luther studies in Japan and introduced Luther’s theology to lay people in the Lutheran church by writing many books, including his translation of Luther’s works. He is a leader in the area of ecumenical dialogue in Japan.
A Characteristic of theological education and Luther studies in Japan is its practical application as well as its academic concern. Of course, there have been many scholars of Luther studies outside of the seminary and even outside of the Lutheran church, but Luther studies based on the church’s mission of proclamation have been done at the seminary and have led Luther studies in Japan.
Regarding practical concerns, two things should be pointed out. First, theology and Luther’s studies in Japan have been done from a Japanese perspective of mission. Sato chose the concept of “conscience” in order to describe a characteristic of Luther’s theology. It is not his original view, but is taken from Holl’s Luther studies. However, the concept of “conscience” must be appropriate for proclamation of the Gospel in Japanese culture, in which most people are highly educated in regards to moral issues. Kitamori developed his understanding of the Gospel under the idea of the “pain of God”. The “pain of God” means that God loves the object of his wrath by giving his only son to death on the cross for salvation. He used an analogy of the pain of God based on human pain taken from Japanese concept of “tsurasa.”
Second, Lutheran theology in Japan has served the ecumenical movement in Japan. Tokuzen and other scholars of the Luther Studies Institute have led ecumenical dialogue in Japan, including both Lutheran-Roman Catholic and Anglican-Lutheran relations. Ecumenism is really important, especially in a non-Christian context like Japan. For the Christian Church can hardly share the gospel of the one God and Lord if the Church of Christ itself is divided into factions that fight one other. It has been an extremely important, yet difficult question since the Meiji era when Christian mission work was officially allowed in Japan. So ecumenism is not driven merely by theological discussion for the purpose of agreement on doctrinal issues, but it is also a matter of agreement and cooperation among denominations for mission work in Japan and the witness of the united body of Christ to a divided world.

The perspective of Asia 1

―Confessional Lutheran Identity in Light of Changing Christian Demographics—The Perspective of Asia

Dr. Motoo ISHII

Introduction

The chapel of Japan Lutheran College, where we have worship service at noon every day, has a one-meter high and a two-meter long window, just to the left of the altar, showing a small garden. The building is designed in modern fashion and made of concrete, not bamboo nor wood. The small garden is also not a typical Japanese one, but it lends a sort of Japanese flavor, probably because it reminds us Japanese of a tea-ceremony house which uses such miniature gardens to give us a feeling of the seasons. In our chapel, the green color of the garden, which indicates God’s creation, is always in front of us, as we worship God our Lord. Christianity in Asia must see God and His work in our own context in which we are living.
What is “confessional Lutheran identity” in an Asian context? The theme given for this　conference might be something we are not conscious of in our daily Christian lives, even in theological work in Asia, because it is more important to be Christian than to be Lutheran in the non-Christian context. At least, Lutheran identity is not formed by struggles and disputes with Roman Catholic or other denominations. The time has come for dialogue, not discord. So it is quite natural to form our identity as Lutherans by what we are doing as Christians in and through the Lutheran church in Japan.
In regard to the Lutheran church in Japan, it should be mentioned that there are four Lutheran church bodies; the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church (JELC, related with ELCA) which started its mission in Japan in 1893, the Japan Lutheran Church (Nihon Ruteru Kyodan, [NRK], Missouri Synod related) which originated under the first LCMS missionary in 1948, the Kinki Evangelical Lutheran Church, and the West Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church (these two churches have a Norwegian background). The first two churches have good relation with each other concerning theological education and maintain the Japan Lutheran College and the Japan Lutheran Theological Seminary together, while the last two churches work together in the west part of Japan and have a seminary in Kobe. Each of these four churches has its own independent church organization and heritage inherited from its mother church and missionary society, which sent missionaries to Japan and supported these young churches. They are different from one other but need to cooperate in concrete ways in order to evangelize in Japan. For example, these four churches have cooperated in broadcasting the Lutheran Hour radio program, which the Missouri Synod has supported, published a Lutheran hymnal and order of worship, and provided joint education programs for clergy and lay people, etc. Such needs in the mission context have been met with concrete cooperation and have forged a new Lutheran identity in Japan. It is an ongoing process.
I would first like to describe what the Japanese church and its program of theological education have done so far, and then to comment at length on what it means to “do theology” in Japan. In this way, I will try to find an answer to the question, “What is our confessional Lutheran identity in Japan?”

International Lutheran Council 4th World Seminary Conference

I am attending this conference, now. The theme of ths conference is "Confessional Lutheran Identity in Light of Changing Christian Demographics".

国際ルター派協議会の世界神学校会議が、フォートウェインのコンコーディア・セオロジカル・セミナリーにて6月3日―6日の日程で開催された。「キリスト教人口の世界地図の変化の中における、告白的ルター派のアイデンティティーについて」というテーマ。この協議会は、米国ルーテル教会ミズーリ・シノッドに関係する世界の諸教会の協議会。今回は、神学校の会議ということで、世界では珍しいことだが、ミズーリ系（LCMS）の日本ルーテル教団と米国福音ルーテル系（ELCA）の日本福音ルーテル教会の合同神学校という位置づけになる日本ルーテル神学校から、ブランキー氏、江本氏、石居の3人が参加した。世界23カ国から65人の神学校代表者、神学者が集まった会議だった。4日にブランキ氏が『ヨハネ福音書における「いのち」について』の発表。5日に石居が「アジアの視点から」で、テーマについての発題を行った。
　初めに、フィリップ・ジェンキンス氏（聖公会）の主題講演が行われた。今日のキリスト教人口の統計的な後付けを紹介しながら、キリスト教はもはや西欧の宗教とは言えず、むしろアフリカ・アジア・ラテンアメリカなど第三世界と呼ばれてきた国々にその主流が移っていることを説いた。グローバル・サウスとも呼ばれる今日の状況は、世界にキリスト者人口の半数をはるかに超える信仰者たちがアフリカやアジアなどのもっともキリスト教から遠いと考えられてきた「非キリスト教的世界・文化」のなかに存在するという新しい時代なのである。これは、人数的にそうだという数の問題だけではなく、その活動においてもアクティブに活躍し始めている様子が紹介された。しかも、そればかりか、欧米社会の教会そのものが変化していて、実際そうしたアフリカやアジア、ラテンアメリカの国々からの移民たちが欧米における教会の多くの割合を占めているのである。つまり、今や世界のキリスト教の地図は西欧中心ということではなくなっているのである。
　そうしたなかで、キリスト教そのものに変化が起きている。たとえば、ペンテコステ派が異文化の中にある宗教的なものと結びつきながら、大きな勢力となって欧米の教会の中にもその影響をもたらしていることなども現実である。キリスト教はかつてのキリスト教の姿とは確実に変わってきている。そこに見られるのは、保守的、あるいは原理主義的な傾向でもある。また、これまで異教的と言われてきた社会・文化に広がるキリスト教の中にはひそやかにその土着の宗教との習合が見られる場合もある。
　このような世界のキリスト教の現状の中で、ルーテル教会はそのアデンティティーをどのように堅持し、どのような役割を担うべきなのか。それがこの会議での主要なテーマであった。