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(ROCOR) - The first person to preach the Gospel in Japan was a Spaniard, Francis Xavier, a Catholic monk of the Jesuit order. The first missionary labors of the Catholic monk and his fellow Jesuit strugglers were crowned with success, and many people accepted Christianity, including the Japanese princes Onugo, Arima and Omura (in the year 1582). However, as the Jesuits focused more on the external, ritualistic aspects of the Faith, on violence and threats, and didn’t focus on the spirit of love and humility in their apostolic preaching, they were not able to strengthen the Japanese Christians in the Catholic faith, so that many of them, deep down, remained pagans. Unfortunately, the Jesuit missionary movement was accompanied by politics and intrigue, that is, by a clear and ardent desire to make Japan submit to the Vatican. This caused a negative influence in the hearts of the Japanese, and also led to the harsh persecution of those newly-converted men and women, who had sincerely accepted Catholicism, a fact which is witnessed by a Christian historian in Japan:
“Despite its widespread preaching in the XVI century, Christianity had little to no effect in the national character and ethics system of the Japanese. If in the first centuries of Christianity the persecution was not only unable to destroy it, but strengthened it, this was not the case in Japan. The reason for such a difference lies in the methods of spreading the Christian faith. The brutal force of the Jesuits was not able, of course, to instill in the hearts of the newly-converted the same love and peace that was preached by the closest Disciples of Christ.” (Russkii palomnik [Russian Pilgrim], 1912, page 492).
The Japanese religions of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism, as well as the Jesuits and several other missionary sects, created an indifferent Japanese man, who related with indifference towards religion and the life of the age to come. In his book Things Japanese, Basil Chamberlain, a professor at the Tokyo University, quoted a prominent public figure of that time, a Mr. Fukuzawa:
“For me, there is as much difference between religions, be they Buddhism, Christianity, or any other, as there is between green or black tea. It doesn’t matter if you drink one tea or the other. More importantly, it gives one the opportunity to evaluate those who never drank tea. The same happens in regards to religion. After all, priests are somewhat like tea merchants; however, I don’t think they would have reason to disparage someone else’s product for the sake of greater profits for themselves. All they have to do is to have good quality material and to sell it as cheaply as possible.”
The Shinto religion does not contain a doctrine on eternal life after death, a fact which contributed to the indifference of the Japanese, who expected neither rewards for virtue, nor condemnation for sin.
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