Buddhist<\/a> inheritances. They had come to believe that back of the power and prosperity of the western nations there must be some special inspiration or driving force and felt that that impulse must be somehow derived from the Christian religion. On the other hand, the irrational assertions and the supernatural claims of orthodox Christianity left them cold. The leader of this group of intellectual and spiritual adventurers was Yukichi Fukuzawa, one of the most influential and public\u2013spirited citizens of Japan and the founder of the Keio University. Around him gathered a considerable number of scholars and progressive publicists, and in 1886 there joined them a diplomat just returned from England, Mr. Yano Fumio. In a series of articles in a leading Japanese journal, the Hochi Shembun, he declared that he had found in England a practical and spiritual interpretation of Christianity free of superstition and unreasonable dogmas and well adapted to the needs of the Japanese people. It was called Unitarianism. Whereupon the group, to which had been added a recent graduate of Harvard, the Baron Kaneko, addressed a communication to the American Unitarian Association suggesting that the Association send to Japan a representative who would be commissioned to explain and elucidate the Unitarian habit of mind and principles of conduct.<\/p>\nThis invitation was cordially received by the Directors of the Association, and in 1888 Mr. Knapp was commissioned to go to Japan \u201cto meet with, to encourage, and to cooperate with any individuals or groups of persons in Japan who might wish to know the more advanced thought of Christendom about the spiritual problems and interests of man.\u201d In fulfilling this commission Mr. Knapp enjoyed a year full of exhilarating experiences, and he brought back such glowing reports that the Directors of the Association acted promptly and vigorously. A band of six preachers and teachers was recruited and in 1889 Mr. Knapp returned to Tokyo accompanied by the Rev. Clay MacCauley as his colleague, by Mr. Saichiro Kanda, who had been studying at the Meadville Theological School and who was to serve as secretary of the mission, and by three young professors who were to divide their time between the mission and teaching in the Keio University. The mission was further reinforced by the Rev. H. W. Hawkes, who represented the British Unitarians. \u201cReceive us,\u201d wrote Mr. Knapp to his Japanese friends, \u201cnot as theological propagandists, but as messengers of the gospel of human brotherhood in the religious life of mankind.\u201d The mission was established, so runs the record, \u201cto express the sympathy of the Unitarians of America for progressive religious movements in Japan,\u201d and Mr. Knapp and his companions were commissioned \u201cnot to convert, but to confer.\u201d They said to their Japanese hosts, \u201cHere is what we have discovered about the mysteries of life and death. Now tell us what you have discovered from your different point of view and out of your study and experience.\u201d They sought to work not so much for their Japanese associates as with them in the discernment of truth and the promotion of brotherhood and good will.<\/p>\n
The mission was received with great cordiality. Large audiences listened to lectures and sermons in the chief cities. A magazine, Rikugo Zasshi (Cosmos), was started and soon acclaimed as the best religious paper in Japan. A noteworthy series of tracts was published and a school for the training of leaders was opened with seven teachers and a diligent band of pupils. Close relations were established with the faculties and students of the Doshisha, Waseda, Keio, and Imperial Universities. Finally, a Japanese Unitarian Association was organized and in 1894 Unity Hall in the Mita District of Tokyo was built to house all its activities.<\/p>\n
After getting things well started Mr. Knapp handed over the direction of the mission to his colleague, Dr. MacCauley, and to a new associate, Rev. William I. Lawrence, and returned to the United States. For seven years he was the minister of the Unitarian Church in Fall River, Massachusetts, but he kept in correspondence with triends in Japan and in 1900 went back to Tokyo not to resume charge of the mission but to be the proprietor and editor of a newspaper of growing influence, the Japan Advertiser. He also wrote a book, Feudal and Modern Japan, an authoritative account of the social and political development of the Empire.<\/p>\n
In 1910 Mr. Knapp finally returned to America and made his home at West Newton, Massachusetts, amid the scenes and people familiar in his youth. But his closing years were sad. Both his wife and his son, their only child, died, and he was himself afflicted with crippling disease. His release from prolonged illness came on January 29, 1921.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
The Unitarian mission in Japan was unique in more than one respect. It was exceptional in its origin because it was undertaken at the invitation and upon the initiative of Japanese citizens. It was unique in its design which was not to put over a foreign form of faith but to meet Japanese scholars and religious leaders on common grounds. It had a profound influence not only on the religious life of Japan but also in modifying the methods and animating the spirit of the older Christian missions. Finally, it was unique in its fulfillments. The administrators of the Japanese Unitarian Association rapidly proved themselves to be competent and faithful, and in 1900 the direction of the mission, the care of the property, and the advancement of the cause was entrusted entirely to them. Dr. MacCauley, to be sure, kept in touch by occasional visits, and in 1909 he again took up residence at Unity Hall and for eleven years lived there, in no sense as director but as \u201cguide, philosopher, and friend.\u201d No other mission, though much longer established, had found it possible to relinquish foreign control. After only twelve years the Japanese Unitarians proved themselves qualified to carry on the enterprise with efficiency and largely, though not wholly, on their own resources.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have the privilege of serving, depending upon who is counting, as the sixteenth senior minister or maybe the seventeenth, of the First Unitarian Church of Providence. It was a delight to have it pointed out that one of my predecessors, the seventh, or, by some reckoning, the eighth minister of our congregation, the Reverend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>