Note: As I continue to learn the Japanese language and culture, these Spotlight posts seek to highlight things I find curious, interesting, and meaningful. The relationship between language and culture runs deep. In fact, there are many points where it gets hard to tell one from the other. “Language is not merely an indifferent mechanism for cataloguing men’s experience but the language itself affects the cataloguing process…. The language system of each culture is a fluid factor in culture; it varies with each generation and serves as clue to its thinking as well as actually coloring and molding this thinking.” In other words, if I am going to learn how to reach Japanese people, I need to understand how Japanese people think. The process of how they think is intimately intwined with the language they use. Unfortunately for us, it goes far beyond simply using “Google Translate” to come up with the right vocabulary. Language embeds the foundational concepts of culture into everyday interaction. So, deeper we go into this wonderful world of language exploration! Much of this information comes from Charles Corwin’s Biblical Encounter with Japanese Culture (Tokyo, 1967).
Truth is a vitally important concept in Biblical thought, so it would stand to reason that Shinjitsu is a Japanese word that I need to become familiar with. Japanese concepts of truth stemming from earliest meanings of “straight” and “full” to the present usage as “genuine” and “inner part” lays stress upon the dualistic contrast with that which is false, crooked, exterior. The word finds its standard in man; he is either “true” or “false.” Man has inherently within him the capacity for truth; he can be “shinjitsu” if he speaks sincerely and in accordance with the facts as he knows them. Buddhist philosophical notions concerning different grades of truth underpin this term, yet very few Japanese have this concept when using the word. Originally it did have a point of reference, the way of Buddha, but now it does not. Hence there are ambiguous notions about absolute standards or tests for truth. Pressed farther “shinjitsu” means to the average man, “What I think and feel is right.” Truth then is not sifted through the Western screen of (a) logical consistency, and (b) fitting with facts, but is sifted through Japanese sentiment and notions built in through tradition and custom. The test for truth, for the Japanese, lies within the emotional framework of the reader.
Biblical truth finds its locus in the character of God. God’s nature is all comprehensive of fact and goodness, and so is, all in all, the source, support, and objective of all concrete being. The will of God thus reveals, persuades to, and achieves the ideals and ends of complete existence. The term truth, therefore, is sometimes nearly equivalent to the revealed will of God. Hence truth, as expressive of His will, qualifies His relations and activities. It is the guarantee of His constancy, the ground for confidence in His promises. Men thus find the source and test for truth in God and His revelation, whether it be the inscripturated or the incarnate Word. Man himself has a proclivity to falsehood, hypocrisy, lying, and vanity. The Bible constantly warns men against men and suggests setting up criteria for truth, e.g., by their actions, by the actual fulfillment of their words, or by orthodox confession of Christ. Men can only become “of the truth” by the supernatural work of the Spirit of Truth.
Japanese “truth” finds its nexus in man; Biblical truth finds its nexus in the character of God. A very important distinction!
~ Clay
Fowlers in Japan 