Christ for Asia: Yellow Theology for the East
Dickson Kazuo Yagi, Professor of Christian Studies at Seinan
Gakuin University and Head Chaplain of the Seinan Gakuin School System,
Fukuoka, Japan.

Theology is the meeting point of people problems and gospel answers. The gospel of Jesus Christ does not change from culture to culture. But theology does. Theology gives different answers to different cultures not because the gospel is unstable, but because cultures ask different questions or ask the questions in different contexts. Theology for black Americans embraces the common vital core of biblical faith, but differs in emphases from the white theology of Western cultures. It centers on the Exodus freedom from slavery - a burning theme from black social experience. Surely Asian peoples grounded in a world so alien to the whites and blacks of the West require a yellow theology true to biblical faith that offers authentic gospel answers to their distinctive people problems.

This essay is primarily an attempt to outline the dominant issues of a yellow theology. Only incidentally are some suggestions made toward possible solutions. The form will be mainly testimonial - what I have experienced as a third generation Japanese - American convert from a Shingon Buddhist home, trained in theological thought both in Japan and America. I have been lecturing in Christian theology and world religions for 19 years at Seinan Gakuin University in � � T H �Japan as a Southern Baptist missionary.


Prayer and the Contradictions of Culture

"Namu Daishi Henjo Kongo." "Namu Daishi Henjo Kongo." "Namu Daishi Henjo Kongo." An old Japanese with a straight back sits cross-legged on a cushion on the floor, chanting before his Buddha altar. The scent of incense sweetens the air, and the tinkle of prayer bells alerts the sleeping family that the patriarch of the clan is already at intercessory prayers for four generations of Hawaii Yagis and for sibling immigrants as far away as California, Brazil, and Peru. As a lad of 19, he immigrated to Hawaii from the poverty of Okinawa in 1907. He prays for the brothers and sisters he left behind in the home country. He chants the Prayer of Repentance, the Heart Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom, the Mantra of the 13 Bddhas, and the Sutra of the Bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokiteshvara). He follows the prayer book of Japanese Shingon Tantric Buddhists with additions from Seicho-no-Ie, a Japanese syncretistic religion for which he has become a lay preacher. This is my grandfather, Seiryu Yagi.

Grandfather left his home in the sugar plantation camp in the hills of Hawaii Island and came to live with us sometime during my junior high school days. He brought into our living room his Buddha altar, which included a metal incense cup, small prayer bell, and the fierce black Fudou Myo-O. One day Grandfather pleaded for Mom and Dad to take care for the Buddha altar after his death. Dad refused, saying that Mom was a Christian and that he himself would become a Christian some day. Grandfather was upset, but none of his four sons would accept his request. About 20 years later, the problem resurfaced when the doctor announced that grandfather had terminal cancer.

In graduate school at Southern Seminary, I received a letter enclosing a Hawaii Louisville round trip airplane ticket. The letter said that grandfather was dying of cancer and insisted on seeing me. I returned to Hawaii and visited his hospital room. Many of my uncles and aunts had gathered there. Upon seeing me, grandfather sat up in his bed and said, "I have something to say to everybody." They all gathered around his bed, rather startled. Grandfather said to me, "Kazuo will you pray for the family." Being an ordained minister I, of course, said "Yes ." He heaved a sigh of relief and sank back into his bed.

On the drive home my older brother asked, "Do you know what grandfather was asking you?" I said, "No," Grandfather really believed all these years that the Yagi clan has been blessed in health, marriage, and business because of his intercessory prayers before the Buddha altar. He shuddered to think what would happen to the clan without a prayer intercessor. He was in despair until Mom reasoned with him. Mom said it might be possible to pressure one of his sons to care for the Buddha altar. But that would last only one generation. After that could any expect one of his grandchildren of the third generation to continue the Buddha altar prayers - his grandchildren who know little of the Japanese language and nothing of Buddhism?

"Grandfather realized it was hopeless. It was then that he said he must see Kazuo. It was not his fault that the line of intercessors at the Buddha altar would end. It was a problem of cultures. Among his descendants there is one with the spirit of prayer and faith. He must become the new prayer intercessor for the Yagi clan. That is you, Kazuo. Of course, you are not a Buddhist, but a Christian minister. Yet surely the Buddhas would understand the cultural problem and accept your Christian prayers."

So it was that the Patriarch of the Yagi clan in Hawaii died in peace, passing the torch of intercessory prayer to his grandson. Cultures can be both medium and barrier to religion. Grandfather was sure the Buddhas would understand. The shrinking would of multicultural communities pushes Asians to ask: " Will the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus Christ also understand?" Yellow theology must not simply leap from the evangelical perspective to the sociologist's perspective. Yellow theology must respond to this demand for cultural tolerance with both feet planted on the Cross and Resurrection of biblical faith. In any case, it must grant major attention to this collision of the absoluteness of the Christian Cross and the cultural relativity of our multi-religious modern world.

The Buddha and the Christ

Similarities and Differences

Both Jesus and Gautama were poor, wandering, homeless preachers. Both wrote nothing themselves and gave no instructions to their disciples to record their teachings. Both appealed primarily to spiritual experience and reason, not obedience to sacred books and holy tradition. They were readily understood by the uneducated masses. Neither gained authority by institutional office. Dismissing taboo lists, abstract philosophy, and religion. Both demanded decisions that revolutionized lifestyles, not assent to creeds or philosophy. Both Jesus and Gautama walked the middle path between asceticism and hedonism, in contrast to a figure like John the Baptist.

Jesus was a poor carpenter. Gautama was a bored prince, disgusted with the luxury and privileges of the royal court. Gautama left home to withdraw form society. Jesus left home to minister as an ally of the poor, the sick, the women, the foreign Samaritans, and t he despised tax collectors. Gautama guided people inward toward a mystical experience of enlightenment through disciplined self effort. Jesus was propelled by the arrival of the kingdom of God and the overwhelming mercy of God.

The Vedas taught polytheism of Varuna, Indra, Agni, Soma, and Mithra. These gave way later to the Trimurti trinity of Brahman, Vishnu, and Shiva. Deemphasizing personal Gods, the Upanishads brought forth an alternative outlook of karma, reincarnation, non-attachment, yoga, and a non-personal Brahma monism under the formula of Brahman (God)=atman (self). Gautama embraced the Upanishadic paradigm shift. He went one further in rejecting even Brahma under the doctrine of anicca nothing is permanent. While a personal God is central to Jesus, he has no role in Gautama.

Gautama had a conversion experience. His encounter with an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a sage prompted his escape from royal living into six years of spiritual seeking and his enlightenment experience under the bodhi tree. Jesus never had a conversion experience. Rather, Jesus was called out of the anonymity of private living into the spotlight of public preaching. Instead of the inevitability of the laws of karma and rebirth, Jesus preached the forgiveness of sins to all who repent and believe.

The Smiling Buddha and the Agonizing Jesus

Occupation by foreign armies and political revolution have no part in the Gautama story. Gautama taught gently throughout the land for over forty long years. Jesus, on the other hand, lived in a Roman colony nauseous of foreign rule and ripe for revolution. Jerusalem was the seedbed of political intrigue suppressed by Pharisees and Sadducees who were balanced between Jewish rebellion and Roman revenge. Jesus' career was shaped by his refusal to head a revolution against Rome. He chose rather to reform a misguided Judaism. Confrontation about the Sabbath taboos, about food taboos, about selling animals in the temple, about paying Roman taxes, and about hypocrisy never ended. Some tried to trick him and trap him by dangerous questions. He marched to confrontation and collision in Jerusalem, though warned of certain danger. Judas was successfully bribed. The Sanhedrin met at strange hours in the night for a secret trial. False witnesses were bought. The thorns, the whips, the nails, the spear - the whole story is filled with brutality. Betrayed by Judas and abandoned by the eleven, he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt.27:46; Mark 15:34, Ps.22:1). Sectarian intrigue, military revolt, trickery, jealousy, betrayal, arrest, trial, and execution are the violent themes of the life of Jesus.

The calm Buddha with a hint of a smile is the symbol of absolute peace. Gautama is the picture of fulfillment, dying at the ripe age of 80. Jesus was cut down prematurely after only 3 or 4 years of preaching. Some have said that Japanese are revulsed by the violence, blood, and death portrayed by the Cross. It lacks beauty, harmony, and peace to rest the soul. So each year I suggest to my Japanese students that we should replace the violent Cross by the victorious Resurrection as the central symbol for Christianity. The blazing sun might be the logo for Resurrection. It has beauty. It has the twin themes of light and heat. It is the source of life. It is indestructible. Surely this is a better symbol than the wretched Cross! But my Japanese students every year prefer the Cross.

There is something disturbing about the peaceful smiling Gautama Buddha. Is he touched by our misery, fears, shame, and failures? There is something warm about the agonizing, beat-up Jesus. My students know instinctively before any lectures on atonement that Jesus is suffering their sufferings with them and for them. Japanese suffer more than Americans. Individuals in a group society are programmed to sacrifice themselves for the group at every turn. Furthermore, agony ties the pain of Hiroshima to the pain of the Cross of Christ. Kazoh Kitamori, who has birthed the most indigenous Japanese theology, commissions the Japanese people as the foremost witnesses to the Cross. Those who suffer most know best the pain of God in the Cross of Christ.

There are those who have replaced the defeat, pain, and humiliation of the Cross with the victory of the Resurrection. Victory is more fun than defeat. An ever-winning James Bond has more poise than a dying Jesus on a Cross. But hankering for the glory of victory can trigger an unexamined triumphalism. The victory of the Resurrection is not a victory of victory. It is the victory of defeat. It is the victory of redemptive suffering. Moving from the Cross to the Resurrection does not remove the suffering, agonizing Jesus from view. The Resurrection only spotlights recognition and approval of the Lamb who was slaughtered for us. The theme of simple triumph is heresy. It sides with the conquest mentality of Islam. It brings to mind the Crusades, Christians doing their utmost to kill Muslims for Christ triumphalism requires a battle. Battles mean hate, anger, bitter-ness, a victor and a vanquished. Is this not the very opposite of Jesus Christ who lived for others and died for all?

Yellow theology must be a gospel of the Cross - of Jesus suffering the sufferings of sufferers and dying the death of mortals for them and with them. It must be a gospel of the self-sacrificial ministry and teaching of Jesus. We need more like Mother Theresa of India. Asian people welcome a gospel of the Cross. They welcome a gospel of the Resurrection only if it enhances the gospel of the Cross. They reject a twisting of the Resurrection that would contradict the gospel of redemptive suffering. Japanese housewives in my home Bible class became upset in reading the victory Psalms. To my surprise, they intuitively identified with the enemy whom God would defeat and humiliate. Triumphalism is bad news to Asians. A God coming from the West to conquer can only mean destruction of Asians as Asians - a Christianizing that is Westernizing.


Salvation from Shame

Japanese psychology is anchored on shame. This is not to say that perceptions of sin are absent. Buddhism remedies individual sin, not group shame. Japanese ghost stories spotlight sin.

Japanese vocabulary acknowledges conscience, which points to sin. Though an awareness of sin is undeniable, shame is the tremor that rocks Japanese individuals and groups. Westerners belittle the shame complex. Shame to them is the immature concern of the corporate personality of primitive tribes. We must praise the emergence of the individual as the primary unit for ethical responsibility. Western stereotypes, however, should not be absolutized. The extreme individualism of aggressive Americans at times grates on the Japanese. The guilt centered West has expressed the gospel as salvation from sin. So the medicine springing forth from the individualism of Western faith does not satisfactorily mend the pain of the group centered East. This contradiction of East West socio-psychology commissions another task for yellow theologians. The East demands the translation of Biblical faith as salvation from shame.

The theme of shame has not caught the eye of Western theology. Shame, however, has significant place in the Oriental context of the Bible. Notice the Crucifixion narrative. The ordeal for Jesus was shame - whipping before the crowds, stripping him, clothing him with the Imperial purple, putting a reed in his hand for a scepter, the crown of thorns, the spitting, and the jeering challenge to come down from the cross. The physical suffering and death was severe. But the ordeal would be hollow without the jeering, laughing crowd. Humiliation hits the nerve of the Passion story, a theme repeated by the writer of Hebrews (12:2). If shame is the

predominant theme of the Calvary story, why is it shut out so completely from the atonement theories of the West?

An excellent treatment of shame and atonement is found in Jesus Christ, Our Lord (1987) authored by C. Norman Kraus after his teaching assignment in Japan. He notices five features of recent psychological studies of shame. First, shame is not merely exposure to others but also exposure to oneself. Second, shame is the result of failing both individual and group ideals. Third, shame, if unresolved, becomes a potentially more serious disruptive force in personal relations than guilt. Fourth, in no way can shame be expiated through substitutionary penalty. Fifth, shame is banished when open communication is reestablished through loving identification with the offender and by mutual affirmation.

Kraus describes well the Japanese style of dealing with shame:

In cultures like Japan, which have sometimes been described as "shame cultures," public exposure and exclusion are still important sanctions for regulating social behavior. In such cultural settings the voluntary exposure and admission of a fault (confession) and forgiveness of that fault become highly complicated. Confession becomes a form of self-shaming and quickly turns into groveling. Forgiveness becomes problematic because to say "I forgive" implies that I affirm the other person's badness, and thus forgiveness reaffirms his or her shame. Thus it is far easier to overlook, excuse, or forget than to confess and forgive. Indeed, yurusu, the Japanese word translated "Forgiveness," means to excuse, indulge, or permit.


Kraus also explains the Japanese solution to problems of shame:

The example of intimate associates tolerating and making excuses even for serious misdeeds of a comrade in order to protect him or her is well known. In this way the web of inner group relationship is maintained by indulging the indiscretion. Where it becomes impossible to gloss over or hide such misdeeds the only recourse is exclusion, and in these cases there is virtually no possibility for reconciliation. And where the offender owns responsibility and excludes himself or herself in an act of atonement, there may be a certain moral resolution, but it is precisely the self-exclusion that justifies such a resolution. Therefore it cannot lead to reaffirmation of the former relationship. Indeed suicide, which is the ultimate act of self-exclusion, epitomizes the dilemma.

Kraus finds the solution to our shame through the life and death of Jesus Christ. In his life, Jesus associated with the poor, lived among the lower classes, and chose fishermen, tax collectors, and artisans for his disciples. He sided with the outcasts and the despised. Christ removes our shame by identifying with the stigma of our inferiority in poverty, job, race, weakness, and failure. Kraus pictures the Cross as the most shameful method of execution possible.

Crucifixion was the most shameful execution imaginable. The victim died naked, in bloody sweat, helpless to control body excretions or to brush away the swarming flies. Thus exposed to the jeering crowd, the criminal died a spectacle of disgrace. By Roman law no citizen could be so dishonorably executed. The cross was reserved for foreigners and slaves.

In his death, Christ heals our alienation by sharing our shame through his shame.


Misunderstandings of Idolatry

The Biblical Crisis

The biblical religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all share an abhorrence of idols. Hebrew tribes invading Palestine were nomads with a desert God, Yahweh. Winning possession of the land by sword and shield, they settled down and switched to agricultural living. The switch in economy produced a major crisis in religion. There was doubt that the desert God knew how to grow beans and carrots. Many Jewish regimes abandoned Yahweh for the experienced agricultural gods of their neighbors. The most dramatic collision of Yahweh and the Baals came about with Elijah as catalyst (1 Kings 18:17-40).

Through this confrontation, biblical religion inherited an exclusive intolerance that saw other religions as dangerous temptation to apostasy. Images of the agricultural gods were held up for ridicule. A man carves a piece of wood and beats a chunk of rock into images. He then says, "You are my god." How foolish are people who worship images! To this day, Jews, Christians, and Muslims are filled with disgust at the sight of images. They can hardly suppress their contempt for the stupidity of religions that use images. This disgust, contempt, and abhorrence of images is triggered by the taboo word, idolatry.

Cultural Familiarity

In the East this contempt and horror is tempered by the familiarity of images. Japanese culture is saturated with the peculiar kindness and compassion of each of the many Buddhas and Bodhisativas. The all-embracing maternal love of Kannon (Kuan Yin in China) and the gentle kindness of Jizo who leads dying children to heaven, gokuraku, are irresistibly caught by all children listening to public television or reading classical children's stories. It would be very difficult to get native Japanese Christians to speak unkindly of Buddha and Bodhisativa images. The extreme reaction of Western Christians must arise both from the ancient Old Testament crisis and the cultural shock of unfamiliar images.

I realized the injustice of this caricature of religious images through a Buddhist radio broadcast in Hawaii in my high school days. The speaker said that Buddhists were not so foolish as to worship sticks and stones. They were simply using visible representations of invisible realities. The speaker argued, "Why do Americans honor the American flag?" Are Americans so foolish as to honor a piece of colored cloth?" The American flag, of course, is simply a visible representation of an invisible reality the American spirit and nation. Christian baptism and the Lord's Supper are also visible representations of invisible spiritual realities.

Idolatry is a false issue. If idolatry were the real problem against other religions, there should be acceptance of religions without images and rejection of religions with images. Buddhism, a religion that abounds with images, should be rejected. Shinto, on the other hand should be accepted as a religion without images. Roman Catholicism should be rejected for its many images of Mary and the saints. Moreover, Buddhism for the first 500 years did not allow images of any sort. The presence of Gautama was symbolized in proxy by the enlightenment " tree or by his footprint. This early imageless Buddhism should also be accepted. In fact, however, no difference is made between early Buddhism, later Buddhism, or Shinto. Christianity rejects all other religions equally, whether they have images or not. Although much emotion is stirred up by the charge of idolatry, it is the ancient challenge of the Baals that has riveted a beam of intolerance into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Great Commission in itself does not promote ridicule, disgust, and condemnation of other religions. Idolatry is a false stereotype for the evaluation of other religions.

Ingratitude

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." This is how grandfather ended his daily Shingon Buddhist and Seicho-no-le prayers. It is quite a shock to have Paul accuse grandfather of ingratitude. "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him" (Rom. 1:21). This accusation has no relation to how grandfather felt in his heart. His heart overflowed with height of ingratitude to give thanks to the wrong God. This accusation of ingratitude, then, is not true in the ordinary understanding of the word as indicating psychological states of emotion. We should recognize the highly specialized sense of Paul's charge. Westerners should not conclude from Paul that people of other religions are actually ungrateful in their feelings. A sympathetic understanding of religious motivation in other religions should help yellow theology in its witness by word and by kindness to the dominant Buddhist and animistic religions of Asia.

A Gospel with Two Centers

A gospel with one center is simple. Those who believe are saved and others are lost. A gospel with two centers, however, is more complicated. Popular Reformation theology has latched on to Paul with faith in Christ as their model. The slogan is faith against works. Paul is the Apostle of Faith. The New Testament, however, offers also the model of love from John. The slogan is the unity of love for God and love for man. How can the love of God dwell in someone who closes his heart against his brother in need (1 John 3:17)? He who loves is born of God, for God is love (1 John 4:7). John is the Apostle of Love.

If there are two centers to the gospel, there are two questions that cannot be answered. The first is what can we say about those who believe in Jesus Christ but do not love? The second is what can we say about those who do not believe in Jesus Christ and yet love their neighbor? Because there are two centers to the gospel, not one, these two questions are unanswerable. Just as Christians who do not love are solidly rejected by one center, non-Christians who do love are affirmed by the other center.

Faith in Jesus Christ can be called the narrow gate, shutting out all non-Christian peoples. Love can be called the wide gate, embracing many non-Christian peoples. On the other hand, love may be a narrower gate than the narrow gate in its rejection of some baptized Christians (Matt.25:31-44). Yellow theology rejects the truncated preaching sometimes heard from missionary pulpits with only one center in Paul. It burdens Asian who follows Christ as a genuine Asian. Yellow theology insists on a double centered gospel which invites our people to repentance while approving their hearts when they love.

Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother

The Buddhist Background

By far the most serious socio-religious problem faced by Christianity in China, Korea, and Japan is ancestor worship. The Buddhism that entered China was antagonistic to ancestor worship. The Buddhist doctrine of anatta, no-soul, contradicts worship of souls. Furthermore, why show preference only toward parents in this life when in truth all living beings have been your parents sometime within the millions of lifetimes in the cycles of rebirth. This grated against the Chinese, whose first ethic of filial piety centered on the worship of ancestors. Monastic life was the core of the problem. Monks abandoned their parents to enter the monasteries. Celibacy meant cessation of the line of descendents who secure the welfare of the dead through worship. Moreover, the monks burned large tufts of incense on their shaven heads to demonstrate renunciation of the body. The result was nine huge scars visible to all. This offended the Chinese who held that this body received from ancestors was sacred and must be returned to the grave unmutilated. After centuries of resentment and several persecutions, Buddhism gave in to ancestor worship.

Buddhism was introduced to Japan in 538(552?). Shinto, the native religion, did little to honor the dead. Death and all matters pertaining to funerals were considered to be contamination in the clean-unclean taboo syndrome. Buddhism, then, found a doorway into Japanese society by becoming the religion of ancestor worship, which is clearly Shinto in content. It is ironic that Buddhism, which rejected ancestor worship in China for centuries, should now become the tool for the condemnation of Christianity's resistance to the same ancestor worship.

Deficiency in Protestant Theology

The abuse of indulgences in Germany during the Reformation incensed Luther and the Reformers to cut all ties with the dead. After committing our dead into the hands of God, we neither pray for them nor anticipate their intercession for us. This may have been a needed reaction to the abuse. But the reaction has for out-lived the abuse. To this day protestant theology has a vacuum in relations between the living and the dead. Churches have compensated by practices such as flowers on memorial day, graveyards on church grounds, and burial within the shadow of the church building in Germany. This theological vacuum, however, is intolerable to Asians tied so closely to their dead. Many Japanese feel a stunning blow in concerting to Christianity by the realization that they have cut themselves off completely from the spiritual heritage of their ancestral line - a feeling of utter estrangement. Missionaries condemn Buddhist practices that care for the dead, but offer nothing to replace them.

Ancestor Respect?

Worship in the Western context brings images of a weak man standing before an omnipotent God. In ancestor worship in Japan, however, the opposite is true. Although the dead can haunt and harm the living, it is the dead who are so utterly dependent on the living for rituals that guarantee their well being. The word worship, then, is inappropriate. Respect would be more accurate to describe what actually takes place in 20th century Japan. Japanese speak to the dead in the funeral service, at the home Buddha altar, and at the grave. They report family events. They talk as if the person were still alive. This is not prayers of adoration or prayers of supplication. Most Japanese do not care whether the dead brother or mother actually listens. They just say it feels good to get their feelings out. They are horrified at my suggestion that the dead might talk back to them. In ancient Japan the living no doubt worshiped the dead. But the idea of worshiping a dead sister or uncle is foreign  to most Japanese today. At this point religious and historical studies are irrelevant. The psychological state of modern Japanese is the only thing that counts. From this perspective a strong case should be made for a change in vocabulary from ancestor worship to ancestor respect. Ancestor worship is taboo in Scripture; ancestor respect is commanded in the Decalogue: "Honor your father and your mother" (Exod. 0:12).

The Roman Catholic Posture

The Roman Catholic Church in Japan has eight more points of contact than Protestants in relating to ancestors. (1) The Roman Catholic Church uses incense in worship. The odor of incense at the Buddhist funeral, then, does not alienate the Catholic as it does the Protestant. (2) The household altar for Mary resembles the Buddha altar. Mementos of the dead - memorial sticks (ihai) and photos - can be placed near the Mary altar for symbolic portrayal of protection and blessing. Protestants have no household altar. (3) Upon death the immediate destiny for most Roman Catholics is the same as that for their non-Christian ancestors - purgatory. A temporary place for purification (purging), purgatory offers live hope for all who enter. Without purgatory, however, Protestants with only a heaven and a hell are permanently separated from their ancestral family line immediately upon death. (4) The Roman Catholics can conceptualize the effectiveness of their prayers for the dead in purgatory through the traditional idea of merits. Protestants have rejected the entire system of merits through the Reformation slogan of sola fidei, by faith alone. (5) The Roman Catholic calendar celebrates All Saints' Day on November 1st and All Soul's Day services. Protestants have no All Soul's Day. (6) The refusal of some Protestants to offer incense for the dead at a Buddhist funeral has been misunderstood at times to be callous insult of the dead. Roman Catholics abstaining from incense have less trouble. Making the sign of the Cross on their breast and forehead shows clearly to all their highest respect for the dead - Christian style. (7) Roman Catholics worship God alone, but venerate Mary and the Saints. Protestants worship God and have no concept of venerating human beings. So Catholics can venerate their ancestors. Protestants cannot. (8) The Roman Catholics have the historical perspective of their "rites controversy" in China in which Rome in 1704 sided with the Dominicans against the Jesuits in forbidding adoption of native practices, including ancestor veneration. In 1938 Rome reversed itself and now allows adapting the practice.

Bold Innovations

Creative innovations have already been established to enculture the gospel in Japan. At the end of a Japanese Buddhist funeral each mourner walks to the front and offers a pinch of powdered incense as a farewell gesture. This need to give something to the dead as a farewell gesture has been fulfilled by the Japanese Christian innovation of kenka, the offering of a chrysanthemum by each mourner. Japanese Protestant churches have ash cabinets for the cremated dead built into the church building, often in a wall close to the pulpit area. Cremation, a Buddhist innovation, is now prescribed by law for hygienic reasons. Ashes of the families of church members may be kept here until a final burial plot is purchased.

Most of the larger churches also own a mausoleum in a public cemetery where ashes of the church dead may be deposited. At memorial day each year, a special service, eiminsha kinen reihai, honors the memory of all the church dead. A list of their names is printed in the worship program, and their photo portraits are often displayed. Rather than simply disposing of the ihai, ancestral memorial sticks, an Okinawa pastor advises church members to transfer the names onto the genealogical page between the Old and New Testaments. Non-Christians who would be outraged at the dumping of the ihai in the trash can, are pleased when they see the names of the family dead cherished in a place of honor in the middle of the Bible. Some Christians refuse to offer incense at a Buddhist funeral. The immediate family offers incense one person at a time at the start of the service with all eyes following their every movement. If the Christian refuses incense at that time great confusion arises at this insult of the dead. Heated family fights ensue. Everything would be solved if the Christian made the sign of the Cross on his breast and forehead, showing respect Christian style. This is the only universally recognized Christian gesture in Japan. At Buddhist funerals should Protestants adopt this practice just to avoid unnecessary pandemonium?

The Buddha altar is the recognized focus for ancestor respect. Should a Christian tolerate a Buddha altar in the household to cherish the memory of loved ones? If the pastor said, "No," there would be friction in the church. If the pastor said, "Yes," there would be friction in the church. There is peace in most Baptist churches because the pastors keep their mouths shut. One pastor wisely advises Christians to win over all family members to Christ before trying to remove the Buddha altar.

Should a Christian at a Buddhist funeral respect custom in giving the eulogy in the form of an address to the dead? Should a Christian offer incense to the dead at the funeral? Some ultra conservative missionaries forbid Christians from even attending a Buddhist funeral. At least 95 percent of all funerals in Japan are Buddhist. 

There is little discussion, little consensus, and no official guidebook for Protestants of the major denominations. Instead of wasting energy by prohibiting Buddhist practices, yellow theology should be bold to fashion a Christian brand of theology, services, and practices for the dead in harmony with biblical faith. Infinite Evangelistic Passion

Perhaps the apex of evangelistic zeal is reached in Islam and Christianity. The Great Commission of the Risen Christ commands us to convert the whole world to Jesus Christ. Professional missionaries and lay Christians of every trade carry out this command of Christ every day at home and abroad. Urgency is born from the deadline of death. Panic strikes the heart at the thought of anyone dying without Christ.

Buddhism is much more relaxed about evangelism. Unlike Hinduism and Japanese Shinto, Buddhism is a salvation religion. But death is no deadline. There is only semi urgency to attain Buddhahood in this lifetime. Buddhahood is attainable only by human beings. A person becomes a human being only once in a thousand rebirths. So Theravada Buddhism advises us to become celibate monks seeking the bliss of the never returner. Women who persevere will be reborn as men, who can then become monks. The call of men to become monks is passionate and sincere, but not quite as urgent as the one-lifetime religions of Islam and Christianity.

Mahayana Buddhism has the additional faith that all living beings are embedded with the Buddha nature. The Buddha nature is a seed that will inevitably cause each living being to blossom into his original self as a Buddha. If he is liar, a cheat, and a murderer in this life, all is not lost. He may wander in the muck of selfish greedy misery for a thousand lifetimes. His Buddha nature, however, is guaranteed to blossom one day in some lifetime. He is destined to become a Buddha. Most Mahayana schools looking over the course of multiple rebirths are universalists.

Urgent pleadings in desperation and tears are a characteristic of Christian evangelism. There is a limit, however, to evangelistic passion. Death is the end of Protestant evangelistic action and concern. Time for conversion and faith is past. Having no purgatory, Protestants see each soul at death as destined for heaven or hell. All threats, preaching, pleading, and tears are now too late. At his own death the evangelist takes leave of all those who did not respond to his pleadings. He bids farewell to those headed for hell. He moves toward heaven's bliss, absolving himself of responsibility for their damnation.

Yellow theology cannot forget the unlimited evangelistic passion of Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisativas. These are saints of the highest stature who reject their earned right to enter Nrvana. They return to earth, instead, to save all living begins through self-sacrificial deeds of infinite mercy. They refuse to enter Nirvana until they can bring all beings with them. They will not abandon any being to the misery of a samsara.

The possibility of hope for loved ones who die without Christ is not a part of white and black theology. A graduate seminary student noticed my preoccupation with this theme in my student days. He said, "Yagi, that is all pure speculation." What he meant was that it was not a legitimate theme of theology because it was not a major theme of the Bible. Theology, however, deals with gospel answers to people problems. Theology speaks to whatever are the central
concerns in specific cultures. The fate of infants who die before baptism is not a major theme of the Bible. As a major concern of grieving Western parents, however, this theme has earned a legitimate place in white theology.

The Japanese Christian cannot blind himself to the fate of the 99.2 percent of his people who die without Christ. Can the good fortune of the Christian 0.8 percent of the population occupy 100 percent of the concerns of yellow theology? The weight of numbers forces yellow theology to give considerable attention to this theme. The Western church is familiar with the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:17; Matt. 18:10-14). The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep safely in the fold to go out and search for the one that has strayed. The parable is reversed for Asia. In Japan only one sheep is in the fold. It is the ninety-nine that are straying. How to deal with the final separation of the handful of Christians from the multitudes of their non-Christian loved ones must be a major theme in any Asian theology.

A Japanese Christian was questioned once about his hope of seeing his Buddhist grandfather after death. All Christians go to heaven. All Buddhists go to hell. Was he not a heretic in voicing his hope of seeing his grandfather once again? The American Christian accused him of trying to sneak his Buddhist grandfather into the Christian heaven. He did not insist that his grandfather gain entrance to heaven. "If I got to heaven, though, and could not find him, I would immediately go to be with him wherever he was - be it hell or purgatory. Why should I go to heaven to be with white folks while my people are burning in hell?" he exclaimed! The American was startled. "Christians can't go to hell," he protested. "Christians don't normally go to hell," the Japanese Christian answered. "But if I made a special request in heaven's headquarters, who's to say that the God of suffering love won't give me special permission to be with my grandfather in hell?" Can any Asian Christian be preoccupied with the joys of heaven while the multitudes of his people are excluded in misery somewhere else?

This group cohesion is not simply the influence of the Bodhisattva model of an alien religion. The solidarity of nation and clan of Asian peoples calls forth wider categories of community than the individualism of American Protestants. Getting Buddhists into the Christian heaven might be a stupendous theological problem. Asian Christians choosing to suffer with their people in hell, however, is a stupendous psychological problem. Heresy lurks like a roaring lion.
Whatever solutions yellow theology offers on this theme, whites and blacks of the West must recognize and sympathize with the tremendous gravitational pull of Asian Christians to draw their people into heaven or to join them in hell. How to deal with this dynamic within the domain of authentic biblical faith will be the creative task of yellow theology.

High Pressure Evangelism in Low Pressure Societies

Instant Evangelism is planting seeds of the gospel (Matt. 13:24-39). On the one hand, the Holy Spirit opens the eyes and heart of the lost. On the other hand, the seeker repents, confesses, and is converted. This formula is true for all peoples in all cultures. The exact method and style of planting and nurturing the seed, however, differs from culture to culture. Americans excel in high pressure personal evangelism. They may enter private homes using religious opinion polls as an excuse to witness. They may target people in buses and trains or people at work and at school. they explain a simplified three point logic of the penal substitution theory of atonement, answer questions, argue down any challenges, and press for a decision - all in thirty minutes. Thousands of Westerners have made lifetime decisions and have genuinely been redeemed by Christ and planted in a local church in this way.

Gradual Evangelism

Asian people, however, react badly to instant evangelism. For the Japanese, some of the reasons are: (1) being group oriented, they absorb new relations and new decisions more naturally as part of a group; (2) being more intuition oriented, they are more concerned whether the evangelist is loving and trustworthy than whether his logic is impeccable; (3) unfamiliar with the biblical view of God, man, and nature, they need more time; and (4) requiring a wider area of privacy in conversation, it is almost taboo for them to discuss anything more personal than the weather with strangers.

Asians in general operate in groups. Rather than one to one argument evangelism, Japanese would rather visit the university chapel or a church to worship as part of a group. They feel at ease at evangelistic preaching in evening revival services. Hundreds make decisions at mass evangelism rallies. As they approach a decision, they may join a seeker's class led by the pastor. They feel out the response of their families to their deepening interest in Christianity. After four or six months they check out how it feels to be part of a Christian body at worship, fellowship, and service. If the vibrations of their inner psyche harmonize with the vibrations of the church community, they may be baptized. Yellow theology demands more of evangelism than the dissemination of information - a three point logic about penal substitution. Japanese look long into the eyes of the missionary or pastor to see whether there is genuine concern for their welfare or whether they are just scalps in some evangelism strategy. Their antennas search the air to examine the integrity of the church fellowship and to probe for power struggles in the WMU. A Christian with a fast mind and a fast mouth can convert an American in a 30 minute debate over atonement logic. But it takes the love of Jesus and much kneeling in prayer to convert a feeling, probing, absorbing Japanese over months or years of seeking.

Irreligious

From many angles the Japanese could be accused of being irreligious. It is well known that Japan has only a few Christians. It is not well known, however, that there are also few genuine Buddhists or Shintoists. On the one hand, the total membership of Buddhists and Shintoists is greater than the total population. This curious fact is the result of many belonging to both religions at the same time. On the other hand, most claim to be Buddhists only because their family has a tie with a temple for funeral times. Their ignorance of minimal Buddhist doctrine and lack of commitment to any faith is appalling. Their claim of being Shinto may be related to participation in some yearly Shinto festival. My annual religious survey of university student reveals 85 percent as having no personal faith. Japanese are like the Greeks of Acts 17:16�32 who loved to argue about many things. Their response to Paul's preaching was not repentance and conversion, but to set the time for another debate. Quick to study, quick to argue, but slow to believe! Are not Japanese the most irreligious of Asian people?

In some sense the opposite is also true - Japanese society is more religious. A woman is not conscious of rejecting a man before he p roposes marriage. In this way, Japanese generally feel kindly and confirming of all religions. This is pre-proposal openness. A woman cannot feel so casual, however, toward a man whose proposal she has rejected. This is post-proposal America, where the call to confession, repentance, and discipleship has divided the land into believers and non-believers. There is an innocent, natural Japanese religiosity in which people of no specific religious commitment can speak of praying for one another. In this sense the society at large is one blob of pre-proposal spirituality, more religious than general American society.

Only 0.8 Percent?

A monthly Buddhist-Christian dialogue group was chaired once by a Buddhist priest-scholar of the Jodo, Pure land, sect. He was the head priest of his temple and also a professor at a university. Oddly enough, however, his academic concentration and expertise was on Soren Kierkegaard! He had taken the trouble to learn Danish just to digest Kierkegaard. He made a skillful presentation of the life and thought of Kierkegaard. Then he testified to the change in his life by the message of Kierkegaard. At discussion time, I was dumbfounded when all fifteen of the scholars there - Catholic, Protestant, Zen, and Pure Land - related how the radical faith in the message of Kierkegaard changed their lives in the bleak years of post-war poverty, depression, and misery. Kierkegaard, rejected by the Danish church institution, is a Protestant model for authentic faith. The practical effect of the gospel in changing lives far surpasses the baptism statistics.

If we limited the Christian count to the baptismal pool and the church rolls, they show only 0.8 percent. In contrast to the few who bravely entered the baptismal pool, thousands upon thousands of Japanese youth graduate from Christian schools every year. At these schools they have been required to study the Bible, to examine the life and teachings of Jesus, and to consider the cross and Resurrection. They have experienced several years of Christian hymns, Christian prayers, and Christian preaching. Many of these, though not yet disciples, have had their thinking and feeling changed by Jesus. These friends of Jesus can be found at all levels of Japanese society.

Hope Beyond Hope

In Hawaii on furlough I joined an inter religious study group that visited temples and churches of various religions monthly. This time the host temple was the Japanese Kotohira Jinja Shinto Shrine in Honolulu. By chance all Christian pastors were absent. One glance showed only Japanese faces with the exception of three whites. Ironically, the three Caucasian men were all Buddhists. Immediately the language shifted from English to Japanese. Then started a flow of Buddhist and Shinto complaints against the Christian arrogance t hey had suffered so long in silence. One Buddhist priest exclaimed in anguish, "Why do the Christians always tell us that Buddhists are all going to hell! We don't tell them they're going to hell!" The evangelistic fervor of Christians inside the church does appear to be arrogance in the eyes of other religions.

If only baptized Christians are going to heaven, then 99.2 percent of the Japanese are going to hell. What is Good News in the West turns out to be Bad News for Asians. It is the task of yellow theology to squeeze the Scriptures and see if any kind of minimum survival hope will ooze out to soothe the agony of Asian Christians. Evangelism should be the preoccupation of the Christian toward the living. Is there any hint of hope, however, at the funeral of the non-Christian multitudes to keep the Good News from going totally bad? Let us consider the three traditional ways of increasing the Asian population of heaven.

Baptism of Desire (Roman Catholic)

Christians must believe that some non-Christians will make it to heaven or end up with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel going to hell. Old Testament heroes are saved because they would have believed in C hrist if they knew him. By the same argument, those in non-Christian cultures would believe in Christ if they knew him. The Catholic church considers all non-Christian peoples already baptized under this logic, except for those individuals who deliberately reject Jesus.

Cosmic Christ (John 1:9)

According to John 1:9, Christ is the true light that enlightens every man. The historical Jesus, however, enlightens only Christians. The argument is that the work of Christ before his historical birth was to enlighten all men through reason and conscience. So those who do not know the historical Jesus can still be saved by trusting in reason and conscience. Trusting in reason and conscience is really trusting in the pre-incarnate Christ.

Conversion after Death (1 Peter 3:19; 4:6)

There is an ancient tradition in the church called the "harrowing of hell," which is reflected in the Apostle's Creed in the phrase "descended into hell". Christ descended into hades and preached the Good News to the prisoners in order that they may live. The argument is that those who die without Christ have a real chance to believe after death when they see God as he really is - without hangups of cultural differences, hypocritical Christians, and theological problems.

Each of these three views provides the hope necessary for the Asian Christians at funeral time. The theories are too attractive, however, and too clearly verbalized. Once released in the funeral counseling session, they confuse the invitation call at worship, and slow down the march of candidates to the Foreign Mission Board. What we sneak in the back door destroys the treasure at the front door. A more recommendable solution is that of Paul.

The public preaching gospel for Paul can be found in Romans 1-5. But Paul in chapters 9-11 is in agony because by the content of his preaching his own race has not been saved. He has great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart (9:2). He would choose to be accursed and cut off from Christ if that would save the Jewish people (9:3). He repeats his prayer and heart's desire that his people may be saved (10:1).He preaches to Gentiles in order to make the Jews jealous and perhaps save some (11:14). The unbelief of the Jews is only temporary until the full quota of Gentiles believe (11:25). Then Paul says, "And so all Israel will be saved" (11:26).

There are several factors to notice in Paul's dilemma. (1) Paul's disciplined preaching of t he necessity of faith in Jesus Christ has disqualified the bulk of his race from salvation. (2) Paul's conclusion that "all Israel will be saved" is not a certain conviction but a necessary hope. If he knew this would happen, he would not be agonizing in 9:2 or almost bargaining in 9:3. (3) Paul's hope surfaces here as he despairs over the fate of the Jewish people. Nowhere, however, does he verbalizes a clear theory of when, how, and why they will be saved; that is, Paul's hope is unexpressed and undefined.

Paul is very much aware that the gospel in human language brings God down to our level so we can understand. God in himself, however, is a hundred times more wonderful than what we feeble humans can understand. There is nothing inferior or inadequate about the gospel message. The Christian gospel is revelation. It is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16). The biblical message of seeing God in the face of Jesus Christ presents God in the truest and most attractive form possible for humans. Even so, however, there is an inevitable gap between what human beings can understand and the way God is and acts in heaven. While Paul wields human logic in the service of the gospel, he warns, "I speak in a human way" (3:5). He repeats this qualification, "I am speaking in human terms"(6:19).

Paul's hope does not seem to be limited to Jews in the future who will believe in Jesus. It is for all Israel (11:26). Is not Paul's hope that all Jews past, present, and future will be saved? This hope, however, is not included in his public preaching for several reasons. this hope springing up from the inadequacy of human language is by its very nature inexpressible. Moreover, to express it in some clear theory betrays the demand for faith, repentance, and conversion now. It frustrates the marshalling of church vision and energy for evangelism. This infinite hope ministers to Paul's agony without sabotaging his public preaching as long as it remains unexpressed.

Japanese evangelists find themselves in the same fix as Paul. They agonize that their own people are excluded by the demand  for faith in Jesus. Should yellow theology find comfort in the Baptism of Desire, the Cosmic Christ, and Preaching Beyond Death theories? Would we be on firmer ground in adopting the hope of Paul? This hope, however, remains inexpressible in disciplined thinking and preaching, limiting the wooing of God to the confines of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It protects a message that produces faith, repentance, and conversion. An absolute message produces wholehearted worship for wholehearted discipleship and urgent evangelism. A relative message with alternative routes to God produces halfhearted worship for watered down discipleship and token evangelism. Yellow theology must seek to find solid ground faithful to the core of biblical faith in providing that hint of hope for the survival of the agonizing Asian church.

Conclusion

It is nearly four hundred fifty years since the planting of the seeds of the gospel by Francis Xavier and one hundred forty years since the coming of the first Protestant missionaries to Japan. The seed has taken root. A stem and some branches have sprouted. Is it not time for the flowering of a yellow theology, product of the gospel seeds in Asian soil?

Early Christianity met the challenges of circumcision, meat offered to idols, Jewish food taboos, reinstatement of apostates, and the use of images. Latin American theology must deal with poverty and political revolution. African theology must handle spiritism, tribalism, and polygamy. Asian theology is commissioned to find biblical paths through ancestor respect, salvation from shame, and hope for the dead. Early Christianity slid toward stillbirth without an iconoclastic visionary to brew the new wine of the gospel to burst the bonds of Judaism's old wineskins. None could be found inside the church. So the Holy Spirit went outside the church to recruit Paul, a single-minded persecutor of Christians. Now is the time for Asian theology to find its indigenous shape beyond Western stereotypes. Are there enough innovative visionaries for this task? The Holy Spirit has already reaped a harvest of Japanese Pauls in the personages of Kanzo Uchimura, Toyohiko Kagawa, Kazoh Kitamori, Katsumi Takizawa, Seiichi Yagi, and scores of others in their line.

Europe is in the times of Jesus with antiestablishment protests against an aging religious institution tottering under the weight of its wealth, property, and privileges. Asia is in the times of Paul, planting a convert church in virgin soil. The ground for the Japanese harvest of souls has been prepared by rich fertilizer - the blood of thousands upon thousands of Christian martyrs. The harvest will come, not tomorrow perhaps, but it will come.



NOTES

1.  This writer was baptized at Kinoole Baptist Church in Hilo, Hawaii, by Southern Baptist missionary, Dr. Tucker Calloway. He earned a Th.M. degree at Tokyo Union Theological seminary in 1965; Ph.D. degree at Southern Seminary in 1972. He is Professor of Christian Studies at Seinan Gakuin University and also Head Chaplain of the Seinan Gakuin School System, Fukuoka, Japan.

2.  Namu=I take refuge. Daishi=in the Great Teacher. Henjo Kongo = Universally Radiating Diamond, the name received by Kukai, the founder of Japanese Shingon Buddhism from his teacher in China.

3.  divinity of Hindu origins adopted in the East as protector of the Buddhas and exorcist of human passions. He is totally black and shows fangs. He glares down with a threatening stare, holding upright a long sword to cut human passions in his right hand and a rope to bind human greeds, fears, and lusts in his left hand.

4.  See Hans Kung's masterful treatment of Gautama and Jesus in Christianity and �the World Religions (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, 1986), pp. 321-326.

5.  This alternative viewpoint of a non-personal theism is assumed by most scholars to represent a resurgence of the outlook of the pre-Aryan (pre-Vedic) culture. See David Kalupahana, Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis (Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press, 1976), p.6; Ninian Smart, The Religious Experience of Mankind (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1984), pp.88,105.

6.  Kung, Christianity and the World Religions, p.323.

7. Gautama in the Four Noble Truths taught renunciation of desires as the solution to suffering. He is not the embodiment of infinite compassion represented by such Mahayana saviors as Kannon, Amida, and Jizo.

8.  Kitamori's classic work was written during the war and published in 1946. The quotation here is from a later English translation. "Because the gospel of the pain of God is eternal truth, man should be able to grasp it in any age. It is difficult, however, for us feeble men to understand this truth in the age of God in an age of pain." The pain of God can be discerned most vividly by the Japanese mind. However, it is not the truth for only one nation called Japan. It is a truth acceptable all over the world. But this universal truth would not have been discerned without Japan as its medium." Those who see the heart of God most deeply see the reality of the human condition most deeply," Kazoh Kitamori, Theology of the Pain of God (Richmond:John Knox Press, 1965), pp.136-137.


9.Where Christianity sees sin theologically, Buddhism, especially in its early non-theistic Theravada from, sees sin psychologically. The traditional area for monks battling lust has been the graveyard ordeals. They spend hours sitting with half rotten corpses. The stench and ugliness fill their five senses with revulsion. They meditate on the final truth that human beings are only a mass of pus, blood, mucus, and meat packaged by skin. If the graveyard meditation is successful, the sight of luscious maidens stimulate no lust -only revulsion! Theravada Buddhism is not concerned with theory and theology only with what works in the actual battlefield for purity of the mind.

10.  All this is lost on most Japanese, however, who are only nominally Buddhist. On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that an extreme awareness of sin pervades the largest traditional Japanese Buddhist Church, Jodo Shinshu (True Pure Land). The absolutizing of salvation by grace is grounded in the vicarious sufferings of Amida Buddha. Paul was stricken by the depth of his sinfulness in this one lifetime. Shinran wrote of "the karmic evil binding you to eight billion kalpas of birth and death, "Shinran, Tannisho: Primer, trans. Dennis Hirota ( Kyoto, Japan: Ryukoku University, 1982),p.35. operating under the theme of "beauty and the beast." Japanese ghosts are ethical. They mainly haunt villains who committed heinous crimes but escape punishment. In the absence of the Christian God, the traditional function of Japanese ghosts upholds ethics and the worth of individuals. Since punishment is individual, the concept is sin, not shame.

11. Norman Kraus, Jesus Christ, Our Lord: Christology from a Disciple's Perspective (Scottdale, Pennsylvania: Herald Press, 1987), pp.208-211.

12.  Ibid., p.212.

13.  Ibid., pp. 212-213.

14.  Ibid., p.216.

15.  Psalm 115:4-8; Psalm 135:15-17; Isaiah 40:19,20.

16.  Smart, Religious Experience, p.118.

17.  In a surprising switch of thought channels, Paul preaches the theology of John in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians.

18.  Julian Pas, "Shan-tao's Commentary on the Amitayur-Buddhanusmrti-Sutra" (Ph.D. Dissertation, McMaster University, 1973), pp.567ff.

19.Robert J.Smith, Ancestor Worship in contemporary Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974).

20.Clark B. Offner, Veteran Japan missionary, has written four articles on this theme: "A Cloud of Witnesses: Reflections Stimulated by Jan-Martin Berentsen's paper," Japanese Religions, 13,1(Dec 1983), 28-34; "Continuing Concern for the Departed," Japanese Religions, 11,1(Dec.1979), 1-6; "Nani ga dakyo ka?" (Is the Church Compromising'), Deai, 3,3 (Jan.1986), 52-53; "Reflections Related to the Study of Japanese 'Ancestor Worship,'" The Japan Missionary Bulletin (1984), 687-692. See also two articles by Jan Swyoendouw, "Japan's Roman Catholic Church and Ancestor Veneration," Japanese Religions, 13,2(July 1984), 11-18; "In Search of a Church with a Japanese Face (5) - The Problem of Ancestor Veneration," Japan Missionary Bulletin (1984), 361-366.

21.In 1985 the Roman Catholic Church in Japan issued a pamphlet of extremely liberal practical guidelines concerning participation in various aspects of Buddhist funerals and the care of the Buddha altar. See Sosen to Shisha ni tsuite no Katorikku Shinja no Tebiki  [Guidelines for Roman Catholics about Ancestors and the Dead] (Tokyo: Katorikku Chuo Kyogikai, 1985).

22.  See Conrad Shirokauer, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilization (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978), pp.318-319. The 1704 ruling against ancestor veneration brought an end to the initial successes of Roman Catholic evangelism in China. Many Catholic missionaries say the 1938 reversal was three hundred years too late. A counter argument is the astounding success of Presbyterians in South Korea, where over 30 percent of the population have been converted in spite of their stand against ancestor veneration.

23.  Being "born again," a phrase much treasured by Christians is exactly what Buddhism is trying to avoid at all cost.

24.  There are 993,283 Christians (Protestants, Catholic, Orthodox, minus Unification Church and Mormons) out of a population of 122.5 million = 0.8108 percent, Japan Christian Yearbook (Tokyo: Kirisutokyo Shimbunsha, 1988), pp. 468-482.

25.  This doctrine, however, is reserved by the Catholics only for non-Christian nations. If applied at home to the American or European scene, the urgency of Evangelism would evaporate.

26.  See Roger Omanson, "Suffering for Righteousness' Sake," Review and Expositor, 79,3(1982), 441-444; 447448; Bo Reicke, the Epistles of James, Peter and Jude (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1964), pp. 109-120; Bo Reicke, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism: A Study of 1 Peter 3:19 and Its Context (Kobenhavn: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1946).

27.  The entire faculty of Andover Theological Seminary many years ago signed a statement of belief in this ancient faith. The Congregational churches of that time were not ready for such views and refused to send their students to Andover. Their Foreign Mission Board would not accept Andover collapsed. Andover Theological Seminary was later revived by merger with Newton Seminary to form the present Andover-Newton Seminary. See John Wright Buckham, "Egbert C. Smyth and the Andover Theology," Progressive Religious Thought in America (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1919), pp. 187-214; Ernest Gordon, "The Looting of Andover," The Leaven of the Sadducees (Chicago: The Bible Institute Colportage Ass'n.,1926), pp.138-158; Evertett C. Herrick, Turns Again Home: Andover Newton Theological School and Reminiscences from an Unkept ) Journal (Boston: The pilgrim Press, 1949).

28.  "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts," Isaiah 55:9 (RSV). Using human language for a God who is beyond humanness pinpoints the symbolic function of religious language.  Christian may hear this first in a seminary lecture on religious language or on the school of negative theology. The Buddhist learns this as the first step in Buddhist doctrine as "educative means" ( upaya=Sanskrit or Hoben=Japanese).

29.  See Otis Cary, A History of Christianity in Japan (Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1976), pp. 98-135 for Hideyoshi's edicts against Christianity in 1583-1598, pp. 135-190 for increased persecution under leyasu in 1598-1616, pp. 190-242 for the apparent extirpation of Christianity in 1616-1715, and pp.294-336 for the persecution of 1867-1873. See also Masaharu Anesaki, History of Japanese Religion (Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1963), p.251. For persecution of the Japan Holiness Church in World War II see Yutaka Yoneda and Takayama Keiki, Showa no Shukyo Dan'atsu (Tokyo: Word of Life Press, 1964).