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).
The concept of “faith” can vary widely in Japanese. When written in kanji, Shinkō is a combination of two characters: “shin” and “ko”. “Shin” can mean “new,” but it can also mean “truth” or “without doubt” or “trust”. The word “ko” can mean “respect” but it can also mean “look up”, “esteem”, or even “affection born from admiration of the holy.” So, together these two concepts become informed by each of their parts. Faith can be thought of as “looking up toward truth” or “positively trusting the holy.”
Buddhist thought approaches faith from a very different place than Christian thought. When a Buddhist speaks about faith, they are referring to a religious response toward a religious object. It stresses man’s activity in faith. Literally, they speak of it as “doing faith” or “practicing faith.” Consequently, faith could be perceived to be as simple as observing prescribed Buddhist rituals such as a memorial for the deceased. Maybe you just offer some rice before the family altar each morning. The more you practice these rites, the more you might be called one who practices faith. The Shinto religion is a system based upon gratitude. Using this lens, one could say that the faithful are those who express appreciation toward local shinto deities or deceased ancestors for blessings received in the present.
In both of these cases, the exercise of faith is stressed more than the object of faith.
For New Testament Christians, faith is a very different idea. For us, faith is all about the object! This faith (or faith’s object) is summed up in recognizing Jesus as Lord and accepting the miracle of the Resurrection. Accepting the New Testament faith is accepting the central figure of history which establishes Jesus as Lord, involving a personal relationship with this Lord. It is linked to terms such as repentance, forgiveness, and obedience. Essentially, faith is the act in which man separates himself from the world and turns around completely towards God in response to God’s eschatological deed in Christ. It is active and ongoing. Believers are the “believing ones” who are constantly relating themselves to God’s act of salvation.
When Japanese people say they “have no faith” they merely mean that they aren’t very zealous when it comes to a religious activity. It never really touches on the Christian notion of faith being based on a personal relationship with a deity.
Biblical faith, on the other hand, speaks of a special relationship in which God embraces the whole man or woman. All of the blessings which Christ has gained by virtue of His exaltation become common property with those joined to Him. Even better, all of the rebellion, sin, and unworthiness of the believer become Christ’s possessions as He suffered on the cross.
Japanese faith is a mental activity or religious rite performed by man. Biblical faith is a joining between man and God. It is one more way that the Gospel is very good news for the Japanese, if we take the time to help them understand.
~ Clay
Fowlers in Japan 