海老名弾正の思想と朝鮮伝道論
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概要
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The objective of this essay is to clarify the basic thought of Danjo EBINA, one of the pioneer leaders of the Japanese Kumiai (Congregational) Church on Korean evangelism which started immediately after the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. Why was he so enthusiastic about this mission project of the Kumiai Church in Korea under Japanese colonial domination? Is it because he was so willing to cooperate with the Japanese rulers in Korea? Did he have Christian ideas about this mission which should be distinguished from the ideas of the rulers? What kind of theory of mission did he have? If he had one, it must be interpreted in the framework of his thoughts or his understanding of Christianity. When he began to serve Kumamoto Kumiai Church, he concentrated on the study of Shintoism. The result was that religiosity of Shintoism had a tendency to lead to Christianity, just as the idea of logos led to Christianity. His thought was modernistic and liberal, holding that Jesus shared in the logos much more perfectly than we do and almost excluding orthodox doctrines such as original sin, redemption of sola fide and transcendental eschatology. He maintained optimistic doctrine of progressive history through human efforts and considered colonial wars and conquest as the means to make into one family the world of powers, a concept seen as almost synonymous with the Kingdom of God. In that sense he believed the world would be civilized and modernized as it was, at the same time, Christianized. Therefore, he thought that Japan would be Christianized by being civilized and that Asia had to be Japanized to be civilized since he thought Japan was the only civilized country in the Far East. As he looked at the new world order established by imperialistic powers with optimistic eyes, so he looked at the Japanease invasions of the Asian continent, starting with Korea, with the same attitude. It can be said that the message he had for Korean evangelism by the Kumiai Church was based on optimistic concepts of bourgeois or imperialistic society, on humanity and history and imperialistic expansionism. EBINA did not realize how tragic these ideas were because he had a rosy picture of the future of the imperialistic age, dreaming that Japan and Korea would be joined prosperously under a new civilization which would bring the Christianization of the two countries. This illusion was revealed as unrealistic especially when the March First Independent Movement broke out throughout Korea in 1919. It was led by Christians and believers of Chondogyo, a native religion. In 1921 the Japanese Kumiai Church withdrew their team of Korean Evangelism. It was a failure because Koreans could not accept that a history of being dominated by imperialistic powers was leading to the Kingdom of God. Rather they thought that it was doomed to bring despair and death to them and they longed for the day of God, the day of liberation. Their Christian faith was brought forth in that context and could be interpreted as messianic one. It can be said that EBINA's liberalism had been frustrated in Korea before it had the same experience in Japan in the age of Japanese ultranationalism in the 1930's. It is not clear how much EBINA realized that he was betrayed by illusions about humanity and history and his own country, not understanding problems in human depth. He only seemed to evade and escape these questions in his later life in the same way as many other Japanese Christians.
- 東京女子大学の論文