Abstract
Uchimura Kanzō (1861–1930) was a representative Christian leader and thinker in the Meiji and Taishō periods of Japan. He is well known as a prolific biblical commentator, a pacifist Christian thinker, and an advocate of a nonchurch (mukyōkai) type of Christianity (vii).
According to the editors, the purpose of this anthology is to make Uchimura’s Christian thought better known to the world at large (vii). The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with Uchimura’s social thought: his ideas on Japan for the world, his youthful encounter with the United States, his pacifism, and his nationalism and the legacies of his patriotism. The second part refers to his biblical studies and theological thought, his biblical research method, his nonchurchism (mukyōkai-shugi), his views on atonement and justification by faith, and his atonement eschatology.
Uchimura is worthy of continued study and remains inspiring and refreshing not merely as a Christian thinker but also as a social thinker (vii). Specifically, Uchimura tries to link Japanese cultural traits with an influential universal religion, namely, Christianity. This is represented in his famous essay “Two J’s” (1926), where he writes, “I love two J’s and no third; one is Jesus, and the other is Japan. . . . Jesus and Japan; my faith is not a circle with one center; it is an ellipse with two centers.” On the reverse side of the cover of his cherished Bible he wrote, “To Be Inscribed upon my Tomb. / I for Japan; Japan for the World; the World for Christ; / and All for God.”
Uchimura’s influence extended to US President John F. Kennedy, who read Uchimura’s well-known Representative Men of Japan (1894) and remarked that Uchimura was the Japanese politician he most respected.