Some thoughts on “Christian Mysticism” by Imaoka Shin’ichirō (1881-1988)

I remained convinced that the Japanese Yuniterian (sic) and advocate of free-religion, Imaoka Shin’ichirō (1881-1988) is key, not only to the survival, but also to any possible future flourishing of some form of modern Unitarian/related expression of free-religion (jiyū shūkyō). Imaoka-sensei is the only modern Unitarian (or Unitarian adjacent) figure who offers this venerable, liberal religious tradition an integral spirituality that successfully brings together the liberal Christian, mystical elements of historic Unitarian thinking (primarily in sixteenth-century Poland and early twentieth-century Czechoslovakia), Emersonian free-religion and transcendentalism, and the insights of liberal Buddhism, Shintō and Confucianism that have increasingly come to intrigue and inspire European and North American liberal religionists.

As I was reflecting again on this feeling this morning, I went back to have another look at an early essay by Imaoka-sensei entitled “Christian Mysticism” (published October 1908 in “Pioneers” [開拓者]). He wrote this whilst he was the pastor at the Hyogo Kumi-ai (Congregational Church), and in it, he defined mysticism as follows:

The content of mysticism [神秘主義の内容] is nothing but the consciousness that the self [我] and the absolute [絶対] are one [一なり]. To elaborate, mysticism [神秘主義] is the matter of discovering the indwelling of the living God [活ける神の内在] in one’s own deep heart [我が衷心] and in the natural world [自然界], and uniting with it [之に合一する事]. 

After then going on to survey the history of mysticism from its Greek beginnings, into the European medieval period, thence to the mysticism of the Cambridge Platonists in the seventeenth-century and on to the contemporary Japanese Christian mystic, Tsunashima Ryōsen (1873-1907) (who had a profound influence on Imaoka-sensei’s own religious outlook), he concludes his essay with the following words. When we read his later free-religious essays (which you can do HERE) in the light of his definition of Christian mysticism and this conclusion, we can, I think, easily see how Christian mysticism comes to play a central role in the development of the kind of free-religion he, and I, are trying to encourage . . .

To conclude [my essay on Mysticism], I should like to say something regarding the relation between mysticism [神秘主義] and the Christian churches of present-day Japan [現代日本の基督教会]. It is now forty years [四十年] since Christianity [基督新教] [first] came to [modern] Japan, and in that time many believers have appeared. Recently, all over the country, there are many spiritual seekers [求道者]. [The churches] have even received an Imperial grant [下賜金] from the Ministry of the Imperial Household [宮内省], and an international congress [万国大会] has been held. Yet has it truly penetrated to the very stronghold [本塁を衝いて居る] of the Japanese people [日本民族]? Has Christianity [基督教] really become the very life [生命] of the Japanese people? Is such a phenomenon as this recent upsurge of seekers [求道者の輩出] the fruit of Christian evangelism [基督教伝道の結果], or is it rather a conscious inner demand [自覚的要求] from within the Japanese people themselves? It seems very much to be the latter.   

As proof of this, even when seekers [求道者] arise, they immediately turn their steps away from [足を遠ざけて仕舞ふ] the churches. In fact, both wider society and the seekers [求道者] themselves are further ahead than the church. On this point, we must strongly urge the contemporary Christian churches [基督教会] to engage in profound self-examination [猛省]. The Christian church [基督教会] must greatly cultivate and discipline itself [修養せねばならぬ]. When it comes to rescuing those influential elements [有力なる分子] within the Japanese people that have been formed and nurtured by profound Buddhism [深遠なる仏教], is not the Christian church [基督教会] of today far too shallow and childish [浅薄幼稚]? On this point, we cannot help but urge an awakening [覚醒] among our many missionary friends [宣教師諸君] as well. Faced with the form of Christianity [基督教] preached by most missionaries today, we cannot help feeling a profound dissatisfaction [甚しくあき足らぬ感]. We must recognise that there is a Christianity outside and beyond the Christianity of the missionaries [宣教師の基督教以外及び以上の基督教]. And moreover, since Christianity [基督教] itself is essentially life [生命], it is something that ought to grow and develop, and is by no means something that should be bound by old-fashioned theological doctrines [古風な神学説] and the like.   

If that is so, what are we to do? My aim in introducing and advocating mystical Christianity [神秘的基督教] has been to offer material for reference [参考に供せんが為め] towards answering that question. From now on, in the Japan of the future, I earnestly wish to champion [鼓吹し度い] Christian mysticism [基督教神秘主義]. Japan, in fact, already possesses by nature a considerable grounding [素養] in mysticism [神秘主義]. Buddhism [仏教]—above all the Zen schools [禅宗]—has much in common with mysticism [神秘主義]. Some people object that mysticism [神秘主義] is unacceptable because it is pantheistic [汎神的]; yet that, in truth, is precisely its strength [長所]. To save the Japanese people, who have been cultivated by the pantheistic spiritual practices [汎神的修養] of Buddhism [仏教], we must by all means make that very thing called pantheism [汎神論] thoroughly our own [自家薬籠中の者]. In other words, we must bring to light the pantheistic aspect [汎神的方面] of Christianity [基督教].   

People who find pantheism [汎神論] frightening [恐ろしい] are like those who asked Christ [基督] when the Kingdom of Heaven [天国] would appear—individuals utterly devoid of discernment [没分暁漢], unaware that Christ, the King of Heaven [天国の王者基督], stands right before their eyes [自己の前に在す], and unaware, too, that the Kingdom of Heaven exists within their own innermost hearts [衷心]. Moreover, as I have already remarked, when we recall that the mysticism [神秘主義] that flourished in the regions of Alexandria and Syria around the third and fourth centuries bore the influence of Eastern thought [東洋思想の影響], mysticism [神秘主義] is by no means a stranger [他人] to the Japanese people; it is an old and intimate friend [知己] from thousands of years ago. I am personally convinced [私かに…信ずる] that only if Japanese Christianity [日本基督教] develops in such a direction in the future will it truly be able to save the Japanese people.