Ishihara, Kiyoshi. Translated by Gilbert Zinke. "Bible Interpretations that Bring Forth Extremist Fundamentalism" (過激な原理主義を生み出す聖書の解釈). Japan Evangelical Association Theological Commission Pamphlet 6 (May 2006): 5-15.
Kiyoshi Ishihara is the President of Tokyo Biblical Seminary in Higashimurayam-shi, Tokyo, and is the pastor of Kodaira Christ Church (Japan Holiness Church).
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BIBLE INTERPRETATIONS THAT BRING FORTH EXTREMIST FUNDAMENTALISM
SUMMARY
The present day problem posed by American Fundamentalism could be considered to result from a hermeneutic that superimposes the Exodus of ethnic Israel and American nation-building on each other. That is to say, Israel's election and mission are taken to be America's election and mission, and are seen as leading the national polity toward “wars of aggression” that could be called a modern version of “the Zealots” who were linked to the Old Testament in unbroken succession. This fundamentalism-based tendency in national polity is at odds with the missional principle of “the Kingdom of God” to which the Lord Jesus points us.
INTRODUCTION
Christian Fundamentalism was born, in late-19th century to early-20th century America, out of a sense of crisis over the distortion of Christian faith by modernistic streams of thought such as liberal theology, Biblical criticism and the theory of evolution, and was aiming to counter these by defending orthodox, conservative Christian positions. However, those contents and positions have metamorphosed along with the progress of history and now show a great diversity of movements.
As is generally known, fundamentalism is a religious movement born of a desire to return to a religious point of origin. It follows that this fundamentalistic movement could possibly arise in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and several other religions. As a rule, it is said that monotheism tends to produce this fundamentalism. And in this post-modern day, there is a movement that levels harsh criticism at Christian Fundamentalism, saying that only polytheism will bring peace to the world. However, in that there is a danger of confusing original Christian Fundamentalism with the fundamentalism that is viewed as problematic today. It follows that there is a need to distinguish between them. Thus, within this short essay, the one that is problematic today, and is generally called “Christian Fundamentalism,” I am calling “extremist fundamentalism” to distinguish it from original Fundamentalism.
The line of argument I henceforth take up makes clear that behind the several problems caused by the extremist fundamentalism in America at issue today are ethnocentric and slanted hermeneutics surrounding the interpretation of the Bible. I want to consider this problem especially from perspectives about God's “election” and “the mission of the ethnic group.”
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