Equipping Church Members for Contextualized Discipleship in Osaka-Central Seventh-day Adventist Church, West Conference, Japan

Problem. The Seventh-day Adventist church in Japan has been on a steady decline in recent decades, at best maintaining the status quo. Although several factors may be responsible for this condition, a major factor for this is the failure of the church and its message in connecting with the Japanese culture and people in a relevant, meaningful way. The church seems not to be listening and observing the trends as she continues to apply evangelistic models designed by and for the Western nations to the Japanese. Consequently, despite the enormous funds and good programs, the church in Japan is not witnessing the expected results. Method. CLAP (Come and See, Learning, Application, Proclamation) model is the contextualized discipleship model adapted for equipping church members of the Osaka-Central Seventh-day Adventist church as a solution to the peculiar situation in Japan. This model consists of five parts: (a) Awareness and orientation seminars for all church members, and the training of the selected 10 church members for a period of one year; (b) Come and see (Invitation and Acceptance stage). At this point, the 10 selected discipled church members will commence reaching out to, associating with, and inviting the Japanese to join the small groups’ fellowship and will last for six months; (c) Learning (Experiencing God through Participation). This part will last for six months with the Japanese participating in the activities of the small groups and thus experiencing the love and fellowship of God’s family; (d) Application (Expanding the Community). This stage will last for one year and focused on expanding the community. The Japanese in the small groups were encouraged to invite their family members and friends; and (e) Proclamation (Witnessing and Reproduction). This phase will last for a period of one year and focused on gradually introducing the Japanese to the Bible, beginning with the concerns of everyday living. Results. The project will be executed as designed. The CLAP model developed for the project will be used for the training of the 10 selected church members who will lead the five small groups. It is anticipated that Osaka-Central Church members will be enthusiastic and supportive of the project from its beginning to completion. This project is also expected to create positive opinion about the Seventh-day Adventist church in the minds of the intended audience (the Japanese) and to inspire regular attendance at church activities, which will eventually lead to full commitment to the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Conclusion. Contextualized discipleship is an effective strategy for equipping church members for Japanese mission. The CLAP model designed for this project is anticipated to achieve the expected result (a contextualized approach for discipling the Japanese that is biblical and sensitive to the local context). This model will erase the fear of the intrusion of a foreign culture in the minds of the Japanese, since it will in many ways be similar to their local views and ways of life of the Japanese

Confucianisms for a Changing World Cultural Order

In a single generation, the rise of Asia has precipitated a dramatic sea change in the world’s economic and political orders. This reconfiguration is taking place amidst a host of deepening global predicaments, including climate change, migration, increasing inequalities of wealth and opportunity, that cannot be resolved by purely technical means or by seeking recourse in a liberalism that has of late proven to be less than effective. The present work critically explores how the pan-Asian phenomenon of Confucianism offers alternative values and depths of ethical commitment that cross national and cultural boundaries to provide a new response to these challenges. When searching for resources to respond to the world’s problems, we tend to look to those that are most familiar: Single actors pursuing their own self-interests in competition or collaboration with other players. As is now widely appreciated, Confucian culture celebrates the relational values of deference and interdependence—that is, relationally constituted persons are understood as embedded in and nurtured by unique, transactional patterns of relations. This is a concept of person that contrasts starkly with the discrete, self-determining individual, an artifact of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western European approaches to modernization that has become closely associated with liberal democracy. Examining the meaning and value of Confucianism in the twenty-first century, the contributors—leading scholars from universities around the world—wrestle with several key questions: What are Confucian values within the context of the disparate cultures of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam? What is their current significance? What are the limits and historical failings of Confucianism and how are these to be critically addressed? How must Confucian culture be reformed if it is to become relevant as an international resource for positive change? Their answers vary, but all agree that only a vital and critical Confucianism will have relevance for an emerging world cultural order. An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched, a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher.Knowledge Unlatche

Confucianisms for a Changing World Cultural Order

The rise of Asia has precipitated a dramatic sea change in the world’s economic and political orders, and deepening global predicaments, including climate change, migration, and increasing inequalities of wealth and opportunity, pose new challenges. This book critically explores how the pan-Asian phenomenon of Confucianism offers alternative values and depths of ethical commitment that cross national and cultural boundaries to provide a new response to these challenges. Examining the meaning and value of Confucianism in the twenty-first century, the contributors—leading scholars from universities around the world—wrestle with several key questions: What are Confucian values within the context of the disparate cultures of China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam? What are the limits and historical failings of Confucianism and how are these to be critically addressed? How must Confucian culture be reformed if it is to become relevant as an international resource for positive change

Expressing the kami (deities): A study of Washinomiya Saibara Kagura

This dissertation explores WASHINOMIYA SAIBARA KAGURA as a communication site where religious beliefs, values, and ways of life are interwoven with human expression. The kagura is one of the oldest forms of Shinto folk performing arts. Performed as part of local religious festivals at Washinomiya Shrine, the kagura evokes its powerful symbols to effectuate shamanic and magical efficacy, as well as to provide entertainment to both human and divine audiences. The existing studies tend to describe the kagura as "a text in motion" and to explain it as a functional and purposive behavior, but without exploring the very act of "expressing the kami (deities)." The present dissertation, therefore, relies on fieldwork centered on WASHINOMIYA SAIBARA KAGURA in order to challenge the currently rationalized understandings of a symbol-filled religious expression and to explicate the very act of expressing the kami. More specifically, I take the following two approaches: (1) a phenomenological approach that enables us to disclose what kinds of and levels of experience are required to express the kami, and (2) a Gebserian approach that allows us to reveal how multidimensional modes of awareness co-constitute the act of expressing the kami. The task is threefold: (a) to offer a detailed description of WASHINOMIYA SAIBARA KAGURA, (b) to elucidate how the kami and their corresponding expressions are shared and transmitted among the kagura performers, and (c) to unfold the kagura (expressing the kami) in various modes of awareness, freeing it from the single, unidimensional explanations offered to date

PROCEEDING ASIA PACIFIC SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (APSA) CONFERENCE TRANSFORMING SOCIETIES: CONTESTATIONS AND CONVERGENCES IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC, VOLUME 2

Proceeding of ASIA PACIFIC SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION (APSA) CONFERENCE TRANSFORMING SOCIETIES: CONTESTATIONS AND CONVERGENCES IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC, VOLUME

Semiotics of Allegory: Queerness in Contemporary Taiwan and Hong Kong Novel and Cinema

This project offers the framework of “semiotics of allegory” as an alternative to Fredric Jameson’s national allegory for studying non-Western cultural products by emphasising their plural meanings of signs and the importance of situating their reading in production discourse. Against Confucianism and Buddhism, a study of the semiotics of allegory focuses on the relationship between queer representations and the space, the image, the music, and the myth in four cultural texts. They are Pai Hsien-yung’s 白先勇 novel Niezi (孽子, Crystal Boys, 1983), Chu T’ien-wen’s 朱天文 novel Huangren shouji (荒人手記, Notes of a Desolate Man, 1994), Tsai Ming-liang’s 蔡明亮 film Heliu (河流 The River, 1997), and Wong Kar-wai’s 王家衛 film Ceon gwong zaa sit (春光乍洩 Happy Together, 1997). This project adopts Shih Shu-mei’s framework of Sinophone studies, Chen Kuan-hsing’s inter- Asian studies in Asia as Method, and the theories of Judith Butler, Roland Barthes, and Rebecca Braun. Judith Butler’s notions of queer performativity in Bodies That Matter (1993) and alternative kinship in Antigone’s Claim (2000) and “Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual?” (2002) are relevant to studying the gays’ and queers’ agency and family relationships. Roland Barthes’ view on the process of writing, reading, and meaning-making as non-binary acts of creativity in Writing Degree Zero (1953), The Neutral (2002), and Empire of Signs (1970) are useful for the re-interpretation of these Sinophone allegories. Also, his thoughts about the excess of meaning in “The Third Meaning” (1970), his five-code module about the structuring or structuration of writerly text in S/Z (1970), his idea of punctum that emphasises affects (emotions) in Camera Lucida (1980), and his neologism of ideology-as-mask in language as “myth” in Mythologies (1957) will also be deployed. Lastly, bringing back the author to life from the Barthesian notion of “Death of the Author” by borrowing the world authorship researcher Rebecca Braun’s Bourdieusian idea of emphasising the “collaboration” and “interaction” between author and other players in the cultural production field, this study calls for the interpretations of non-Western cultures to go beyond literalism, geopolitics, and nationalism

Japanese understanding of salvation : soteriology in the context of Japanese animism

Text in GermanCosmology and sociology show that animism is the predominant worldview of Japan. Concepts of God, the issue of controlling mana-power, implications of the Japanese soul-concept, the orientation of the conscience and ancestor veneration are critically discussed with Christian beliefs. When compared to the Biblical peace-concept the Japanese peace-concept shows an aesthetic bias that has to be overcome by adding the concept of justice. Japanese soteriology has no reference to God the Creator, whose proclamation is the basis of understanding man's misfortune as rebellion against God and his salvation as reconciliation with Him. Cosmologically speaking, man experiences his misfortune as fear of super-human powers. Salvation is sought through defensive magic and fortunetelling. Christianity acknowledges security as a basic human need but seeks protection and guidance from God. The main focus of Japanese soteriology is in the field of sociology, which in Japan also includes the relationship with the living dead. Misfortune is mainly experienced as shame and ostracism, salvation as rehabilitation. Defilement of naturally good humans is a central theme in Japan's understanding of man's misfortune. The Christian concept of sin, on the contrary, has a theological and an ontological dimension as well. In Japan salvation is understood solely as this-worldly benefits such as health, happiness, prosperity, fertility, and longevity. But in Christianity suffering is a central theme. An overly strong orientation on "this world" can lead to ethical shallowness, overemphasizing the "coming world" to a dangerous ethical relativism. Christian soteriology must keep the tension between these two extremes. The hope of the coming world must neither be robbed of its historical truth by its transformation into a principle, nor must it be historically ineffective.As for his relationship with God, man is solely the object of God's salvation. But as for Christian acts, man is called to act "in the Lord".Ausführungen zur Kosmologie und Soziologie zeigen, daß das vorherrschende Weltbild Japans das des Animismus ist. In kritischer Auseinandersetzung mit dem Christentum werden der Gottesbegriff, der Gebrauch der Mana-Kraft, Implikationen des Seelenbegriffs, die Gewissensorientierung und die Ahnenverehrung diskutiert. Die Gegenüberstellung mit dem biblischen Friedensbegriff zeigt, daß der japanische Friedensbegriff seine ästhetische Einseitigkeit durch die Erweiterung um den Aspekt der Gerechtigkeit überwinden muß. In Japan hat die Soteriologie keinen Bezug zu Gott, dem Schöpfer, dessen Verkündigung die Grundlage für das Verständnis des Unheils als Rebellion gegen ihn, des Heils als Versöhnung mit ihm ist. Kosmologisch wird das Unheil in Japan als Angst vor übermenschlichen Mächten erfahren, das Heil durch Schutzzauber und Wahrsagerei gesucht. Das Christentum erkennt das Grundbedürfnis der Sicherheit an, sucht Schutz und Führung aber bei Gott. Das Schwergewicht japanischer Soteriologie liegt im Bereich der Soziologie, zu der in Japan auch die Beziehung zu den living dead gehört. Unheil wird vor allem als Beschämung und Ächtung, Heil als Rehabilitation erfahren. Im japanischen Unheilsverständnis nimmt Verunreinigung des an sich guten Menschen einen hohen Stellenwert ein. Das christliche Sündenverständnis hat dagegen auch eine theologische und ontologische Dimension. Heil wird in Japan rein diesseitig als Gesundheit, Glück, Reichtum, Fruchtbarkeit und langes Leben verstanden. Dagegen spielt in der christlichen Heilslehre das Leiden eine zentrale Rolle. Eine zu starke Orientierung auf "diese Welt" kann zu ethischer Seichte, eine zu starke Orientierung auf die "kommende Welt" zu einer gefährlichen ethischen Relativierung führen. Die christliche Soteriologie muß die Spannung zwischen beiden Polen aufrechterhalten. Die Hoffnung auf die kommende Welt darf weder durch ihre Erhebung zum Prinzip ihrer geschichtlichen Wahrheit beraubt werden, noch darf sie selbst geschichtlicher Wirklichkeit entbehren. Was die Beziehung des Menschen zu Gott angeht, ist der Mensch ganz und gar Objekt des göttlichen Heilshandelns. Was aber das christliche Handeln angeht, ist der Mensch zum Handeln "im Herrn" berufen.Christian Spirituality, Church History and MissiologyD.Th. (Missiology