J-CATS Japanese Contextual and Theological Studies

Want a college level Japanese church history lesson? Kai adjuncts at various universities and seminaries in Japan, and has taught Japanese Church history at Sophia University. Today, Kai talks about the early Japanese protestant 'bands' of Christians popping up in various places, and focuses on the 'Yokohama band' and the first protestant church in Japan.

Kohei Koyama, a Japanese missionary with a unique blend of experiences from Japan and abroad, shares compelling insights into the challenges of Christianity in Japan. He reflects on his faith journey influenced by Japanese culture and Western perspectives. Kohei highlights the importance of contextualization in making Christianity relatable and discusses the poignant role of influential resources like Japanese Christian novels and anime in shaping spiritual narratives. His experiences underscore the need for understanding the local community in building trust and fostering faith.

In Episode 2 we look at various portions of Kosuke Koyama's Water Buffalo Theology

Welcome to JCATS! Japanese Contextual and Theological Studies, 日本人から聞く日本のキリスト教、Learning about Japanese Christianity from Japanese people. This podcast exists to search out contextualization practices and ideas from Japanese literature, history and conversations with Japanese people, to help missionaries present Christianity in a non-foreign way. In this first episode we discuss what is contextualization and why it's important in Japan, as well as preview some sources to be featured in future episodes. Glad to have you with us!