Creatively Circling the Sacred and the Secular

L. to r. Andrew James Brown, Caterina Berbenni-Rehm and Satinder Gill

At the recent AI & Society International Conference in Cambridge in October 2024, I was invited to take part in a dialogue with Caterina Berbenni-Rehm on the ways we conduct ourselves in life in connection with the “Res publica”, i.e. the things we all share, and what are sometimes referred to as being society’s “public good/s.” Caterina brought to the conversation some of the important insights of her brother Father Gianfranco Berbenni a Franciscan Capucin monk (1950-2024) [see n. 1 below], and I was there to bring some of the insights of the 20th-century Japanese Unitarian, advocate of free/liberative-religion (自由宗教 jiyū shūkyō), educator and interfaith pioneer, Imaoka Shin’ichirō [今岡信一良] (1881-1988) [see n. 2 below]. Since this was a genuine dialogue, I was not absolutely sure what I was going to say about Imaoka-sensei’s thinking on this subject until I had first heard Caterina’s presentation about her brother’s thinking. The particular passage of Padre Gianfranco’s which powerfully struck me, and led to my own contribution, was his recognition that

“…the person is at the centre of the political and social order because he or she is an end and not a means. The person is a social being by nature, not by choice or by virtue of a pure contractual convention. To realise himself as a person, he/she needs the interweaving of relationships that he/she establishes with other persons. He thus finds himself at the centre of a network formed by concentric circles: the family, the environment in which he lives and works, the neighbourhood community, the nation and finally humanity. The person draws from each of these circles the necessary elements for his or her own growth and at the same time contribute to their refinement.”

Hearing these words, I then chose to talk about Imaoka-sensei’s creation of a secular pilgrimage designed to manifest, in tangible, practical ways, something very similar to Padre Gianfranco’s “network of concentric circles” in order to help his “pilgrim” students become responsible and engaged citizens, filled with a deep understanding of, passion for and commitment to, the public good. In 1925, Imaoka-sensei was appointed principal of Tokyo’s Seisoku Academy where he quickly began to develop what later became a form of “integrated education” (綜合教育 sōgō kyōiku). One fruit of this hope was the 1934 project which aimed to foster, not only an individual’s creativity and curiosity, but also a sense of civic duty towards the Res publica. To do this effectively, Imaoka-sensei realised that education needed to be extended beyond the classroom, and he realized that Greater Tokyo could be experienced as being itself a living, educational space. However, his vision went beyond simply providing students with the kind of school trips which could all too easily become occasions for mere sightseeing. He achieved his aim by taking as his model the old Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage around thirty-three Buddhist temples in the Kansai region of Japan. He therefore developed a secular — but still “sacred” — educational pilgrimage in which his students were to visit thirty-three sites across the city over the course of one year. Students first learnt about the history and significance of each site in advance, following which they were then expected to visit each site in the company of a small group of classmates. As with a traditional Japanese religious pilgrimage, they would not only carry with them stamp books to record their visits, but also meet and talk with, as well as seek signatures from, people connected to each site. These sites not only included traditional religious ones, such as Buddhist temples, Shinto/Imperial shrines, but also locations connected to Japan’s broader historical, cultural, and civic life such as the Prefectural City Hall, the Bank of Japan, the Stock Exchange, the Diet Building, the Prime Minister’s Residence, government offices, foreign embassies, factories, shops, markets, newspapers, hospitals, the Zoo, the Botanic Garden, museums, the crematorium, the Sewage Treatment Plant, the port and the International Airport. Although each individual site clearly offered its own unique set of lessons, when brought together, Imaoka-sensei hoped his students would realise that these places, and the people who worked in them, were all interconnected, part of a broader, integrated whole. Furthermore, by drawing on the traditional Kannon pilgrimage focusing on the Bodhisattva of Compassion, he hoped his students would infer that all those working in these sites were themselves Bodhisattvas of Compassion, all contributing to the Res publica. It now seems clear to me that the aims of Imaoka-sensei’s project in 1930s Tokyo overlaps in many important ways with those of Padre Gianfranco’s; this is especially apparent in their shared recognition that in order for an individual to become most fully themselves they must first come to know and experience “…the interweaving of relationships that he/she establishes with other persons.”

This interweaving of relationships with others has never been more important than it is today, especially as we seek ways to encourage more and more people better to care for the most important Res publica of all, the Planet Earth, our common home and common good. 

End Notes

n. 1 Father Gianfranco Berbenni studied History of the Church/es (Magna cum Laude) at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana in Rome and Psychology of communication (Laude) at the Università Pontificia Salesiana, Turin, Italy. His additional expertise spanned from Mathematics, Chemistry, Geopolitical Analysis, Nanotechnology, Methodologies for Multicultural Psychology, Cognitive Science, Science of Communication, Ethics, Music. He elaborated global strategies focused on the methods of application of advanced technologies and their consequences in remote regions and the minor civilizations. From 1975 onwards, he became involved in the scientific studies of the Holy Shroud of Turin in the Centro Romano di Sindonologia working with internationally renowned NASA scientists. Thanks to the long years’ experience with new technologies used to study such famous historical piece, he was involved in some important research projects, among which ITER-Isotopic Technologies Applied on the Analysis of Ancient Roman Mortars, one of the 20 success stories of the European Commission DG Research, finished in 2005 with excellent scientific results of high importance for various applications on the territories. Studying the Tabula Peutingeriana (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Peutingeriana) he reiterated the importance of the availability to the public of all the knowledge concerning our cultural heritage, which is embodied in non-tangible issues (cultural landscape, languages, ethnics, traditions, philosophy, religions, inter- and cross-cultural issues), as well as tangible artefacts (archaeological sites, monuments, paintings, sculptures, etc), as an essential element in the quality of human life. He was the founder of the MultiUniversus® Foundation (https://multiuniversus.org/).

n.2 Imaoka Shin’ichirō (1881-1988) was a pioneering Japanese religious leader and educator, deeply involved in the development of a creative, inquiring, free and liberative religion/spirituality (jiyū shūkyō 自由宗教), and the promotion of interfaith dialogue, especially through his involvement with the International Association for Free Religion (IARF). Born into a Shin Buddhist farming family, he first became a Congregationalist Christian pastor, but he eventually left traditional Christianity to embrace a broader, more inclusive spiritual path. Influenced by Quaker mysticism, liberal Buddhism, liberal Shintoism, Seiza meditation (Quiet Sitting), John Haynes Holmes’ Community Church movement and the philosophy of Henri Bergson, he played a key role in the Japanese Unitarian Mission and the Japanese Free Religious movement and the promotion of the idea that there is no fundamental distinction between the sacred and the secular, and that all human activities — politics, economy, education, art, labour and even domestic affairs — can also be expressions of free religion. As principal of Seisoku High School in Tokyo between 1925 and 1960, he promoted academic excellence and progressive values, receiving multiple honours for his educational work. Throughout his life he tirelessly promoted the idea that learning is a lifelong journey — one that transcends formal education and embraces the continuous pursuit of understanding across religious traditions, cultures, and philosophies.