Great article, I'll have to check out Hiroko's book. I'd argue against Burge and say that a history of any religion will be a history of picking and choosing. Christianity, for instance, has spent the last two millenia picking and choosing, initially selecting what they wanted to keep from the Jewish tradition and then choosing between predestination or free will or this sacrament over that one, or choosing which image of Christ suits them best (usually the blond smiley version). The danger is in not realising that you're always choosing.
Stellar headline amigo - halfway through if Hiroko’s book - impossible not to enjoy the ride as she dips in and out her own experiences to better explain the many paradox of this the most paradoxical (and loving of the paradox) lands in one of its most paradoxical spheres (all matters of spirit). Thanks for popping this conversation up to the surface, now back to the buffet becuase I like to say little prayers to mt Fuji when I’m on my surfboard. This post makes me think I might just get a St. Christopher necklace to surf with like my dad wore.
Indeed, many of us Californians have a bit of a higher paradox spirituality tolerance than the rest of the US. 🏄♂️
I do think there's a key difference in so much as that in Japan the choices are entwined with Japanese culture and history in ways that none of the choices are in the US. Shiintoism is embedded in the landscape and the folklore, while Zen practices have become incorporated into lots of things that people think of as Japanese (aesthetics, minimalism, tea ceremonies, etc). What you tend to see in the US is a form of consumerism, where typically the choices have little affect on day to day life. And what Xtian revivals you see are from megachurches that are basically giant marketing operations that take their cues from Business school, rather than Bible school.
You can see it to with the US relationship to Christianity. You can be an American and ignore Christianity, as it's influence on US history and culture is suprisingly marginal outside the black community. Most Americans, even much to my surprise when I moved here church attending Christians, lack much familiarity with the bible. In contrast the UK, a country where the number of practicing Christians is now around 6% (with a large chunk of that number being recentish immigrants from Africa, Ireland and Poland), Christianity pervades its history, landscape and culture. And people have the same kind of relationship with the bible (half remembered - but they know the hits) that Japanese people seem to have with their folklore. Britain is culturally a Christian country, whereas I really don't think the US is.
I had meant to pick up your wife's book, so thanks for the reminder.
Burge emphasizes consumerism over enlightenment, too, when he says Christianity "gives you the opportunity to move up in life by building a network of people who run businesses, who are managers, who can get your foot in the door at a new company." Putting aside the fact this only works if a church welcomes you ethnically, socially, and culturally, it amounts to prosperity gospel: worship as investment. I suspect this mindset is precisely why the Japanese felt the need to coin the word "shukyo" in the first place, and why it differs so much from what they consider spirituality.
Great article, I'll have to check out Hiroko's book. I'd argue against Burge and say that a history of any religion will be a history of picking and choosing. Christianity, for instance, has spent the last two millenia picking and choosing, initially selecting what they wanted to keep from the Jewish tradition and then choosing between predestination or free will or this sacrament over that one, or choosing which image of Christ suits them best (usually the blond smiley version). The danger is in not realising that you're always choosing.
Stellar headline amigo - halfway through if Hiroko’s book - impossible not to enjoy the ride as she dips in and out her own experiences to better explain the many paradox of this the most paradoxical (and loving of the paradox) lands in one of its most paradoxical spheres (all matters of spirit). Thanks for popping this conversation up to the surface, now back to the buffet becuase I like to say little prayers to mt Fuji when I’m on my surfboard. This post makes me think I might just get a St. Christopher necklace to surf with like my dad wore.
Indeed, many of us Californians have a bit of a higher paradox spirituality tolerance than the rest of the US. 🏄♂️
I do think there's a key difference in so much as that in Japan the choices are entwined with Japanese culture and history in ways that none of the choices are in the US. Shiintoism is embedded in the landscape and the folklore, while Zen practices have become incorporated into lots of things that people think of as Japanese (aesthetics, minimalism, tea ceremonies, etc). What you tend to see in the US is a form of consumerism, where typically the choices have little affect on day to day life. And what Xtian revivals you see are from megachurches that are basically giant marketing operations that take their cues from Business school, rather than Bible school.
You can see it to with the US relationship to Christianity. You can be an American and ignore Christianity, as it's influence on US history and culture is suprisingly marginal outside the black community. Most Americans, even much to my surprise when I moved here church attending Christians, lack much familiarity with the bible. In contrast the UK, a country where the number of practicing Christians is now around 6% (with a large chunk of that number being recentish immigrants from Africa, Ireland and Poland), Christianity pervades its history, landscape and culture. And people have the same kind of relationship with the bible (half remembered - but they know the hits) that Japanese people seem to have with their folklore. Britain is culturally a Christian country, whereas I really don't think the US is.
I had meant to pick up your wife's book, so thanks for the reminder.
Burge emphasizes consumerism over enlightenment, too, when he says Christianity "gives you the opportunity to move up in life by building a network of people who run businesses, who are managers, who can get your foot in the door at a new company." Putting aside the fact this only works if a church welcomes you ethnically, socially, and culturally, it amounts to prosperity gospel: worship as investment. I suspect this mindset is precisely why the Japanese felt the need to coin the word "shukyo" in the first place, and why it differs so much from what they consider spirituality.