Sekino, Yuji. Translated by Gary Fujino. "Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism: The Problem of American Christian Fundamentalism for Japanese Evangelicalism" (原理主義と福音主義 -- 米国キリスト教原理主義に見る日本の福音派の問題). Japan Evangelical Association Theological Commission Pamphlet 6 (May 2006): 17-48.
Yuji Sekino is the President of Covenant Seminary in Meguro-Ku, Tokyo, and is the pastor of the Tsurumi Covenant Church in Yokohama-Shi (Japan Covenant (Christ) Church).
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FUNDAMENTALISM AND EVANGELICALISM: THE PROBLEM OF AMERICAN CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM FOR JAPANESE EVANGELICALISM
SUMMARY
For we Japanese evangelicals who (wish) to preserve the certainty of the gospel, an essential topic is the surmounting of remarkably fundamentalist trends in contemporary American Christianity that incline toward a mistaken form of scriptural reliability. In order to deal with this, we must understand the history of American Christianity, and not swallow wholesale the direct U.S. imports of creation science or American eschatological understandings; we must avoid a simplistic and dualistic worldview of good versus evil, or of an extremely literal hermeneutic as well as the use of literalism for (interpreting) biblical prophecies. We must establish a correct hermeneutical methodology at the church level, and promote dialogue and interchange with the sciences.
INTRODUCTION
Christian fundamentalism was the undercurrent for the self-righteous, bellicose posture that became remarkably apparent in the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, (hereafter, “9/11”). We, in the Japanese evangelical church, feel bewilderment and doubt regarding the political support base that the American evangelical church has become (for such posturing). In view of the present state of affairs in the United States, with the provisions of faith and theology that we Japanese evangelicals maintain, the breadth of our hermeneutic, our societal stance, etc., we need to order our commonalities and points of differences and consider what sorts of issues are being thrown our way.
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