When Christianity Became a Shūshi 宗旨: Cultural Encounters and Comparisons between Europe and Japan and the Origins of a Global History of Religion

Cultural encounters, entanglements, and comparisons were the driving force behind the formation of a global history of religion. Such encounters require the formation of comparative concepts; for Europeans, the most important of these was ‘religion’ . With European expansion, and especially its fora...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kleine, Christoph (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2024
In: Interdisciplinary journal for religion and transformation in contemporary society
Year: 2024, Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 31-55
Further subjects:B Christian Mission
B Translation
B comparative concepts
B Japan
B cultural encounter
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Summary:Cultural encounters, entanglements, and comparisons were the driving force behind the formation of a global history of religion. Such encounters require the formation of comparative concepts; for Europeans, the most important of these was ‘religion’ . With European expansion, and especially its forays into Asia starting in the late fifteenth century, ‘religion’ gradually became a general term to describe a distinct subset of human culture, with encounters between European missionaries and the Japanese people playing a decisive role in this regard. Arguably, the ultimately failed attempts of the Christian mission led to the emergence of analogous comparative concepts on the Japanese side, too. As a side effect, the encounter with Christianity brought about an individualisation and confessionalisation of Buddhism. From here, it was only a small step to the ‘religionisation’ of Buddhism in the nineteenth century – and, thus, to its integration into a global religious system.
ISSN:2364-2807
Contains:Enthalten in: Interdisciplinary journal for religion and transformation in contemporary society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.30965/23642807-bja10084