[Buddha-l] religious pluralism in Asia

[Vicente Gonzalez]

Franz Metzcalf wrote:

FM> I know you were having fun when you wrote this, Dan, but it reminded me
FM> of something I've been telling students in earnest and have always had
FM> nagging doubts about. It's the old saw that when the Jesuits learned of
FM> Pure Land Buddhism they lamented that that damned Lutheran heresy had
FM> somehow reached Japan before they had. Folks love this story, perhaps
FM> too much for it to be veridical (despite the really obvious parallels
FM> between Pure Land and Lutheran soteriology).

well, also one should to remember the problems in Europe in those
times. Catholic Europe thought that Protestant Europe had lost
the only true religion. Doctrines of converting the world were imposed
everywhere. It was the main religious mission for any believer.
Therefore, those times of the first public contacts with the East were
unfortunately influenced for an extreme Christian fanaticism.

It was the time of the funny Spanish Empire, when Religion and Politics
were absolutely the same thing. The reports of year 1575 of the first
public contacts in China with Spanish Agustinian and Jesuits monks
shows how those monks spend little time to review the beliefs of the
people. Just they wrote about Kuan Yin images were everywhere,
vegetarian monks, etc... In the first moment, Chinese people and
authorities were curious about the Christian religion, asking them to
get some Bibles and prayers to know more. In a general way, they
dispensed a very nice treatment to Christian monks.

However, it seems that many of those Christian monks were really
brain-washed people. Religious reports doesn't show any special effort
to appreciate local coincidences in  religious practices. Although also
probably some of these reports were censored. The practice to censor
religious ideas is very rooted in my country until recent years.
Still today we enjoy of a Catholic hierarchy trying to censor our
society while they are maintained with taxes of all the people.

** By the way, for similar reasons there is an increasing and popular
movement in my country to make apostasy of the Catholic church.
If somebody knows how Buddhism contemplate this apostasy I will be very
grateful to know. Some people ask me about this matter but until now I
cannot find any stuff.
**

The first missionaries wrote about Buddhist, Taoist, nuns, monks,
ascetics, etc... but they don't put any interest in their 
beliefs, The only obsession was the conversion. Some years later, the
first religious debates were unfavorable and difficult for Christians,
who were surprised for the depth of Eastern argumentation.
Logically, they become more interested in increasing the political
influence as a way to get conversions. It was a main cause in many
Chinese authorities to fear the foreign influence. Few years later,
added problems with pirates were also a main obstacle to obtain a
peaceful relation with Chinese people.
In Japan there is a similar thing. The crucifixion of 26 Christians in
Nagasaki appears involved in political fights between samurais, who
were reluctant to the increasing Christian influence. Also here we
should add the inner fights and intrigues between Portuguese, Spanish
and Dutch, to control the commercial traffic.

However, in a rulers level, Japan, China and the West, they had common
interest to improve relations and knowledge. In 1614 a Japanese
embassy visit Felipe III to establish relations with the Empire, and
people gives to them a nice attention. They surrounded them with
luxury and common people applaud them, etc...  Next year, Japanese
expend some time in St. Tropez before visiting the Pope, also enjoying
of a similar treatment. It was the first contact of French with Japanese.
In a general way, Japanese were happy for the many attentions of
Europeans. There is this relate in 1615 of the curious French people
in seeing the strange visitors for the first time.  ( * Note the
existence of Kleenex in 1615 !! ) 

"They never touched the food with its fingers, but they use two small
twigs that they held with three fingers.  They sneeze in papers of
smooth silk which are not used again. They threw them to the ground
after using them, and they were funny to see our people around the
floor to gather them.  Their swords cut so much that they can cut a
smooth paper putting them on the edge with the wind blowing in them."
-Relations of Madame of Saint Tropez, 1615, B. Inguimbertine

1/3 of this expedition never return to Japan. They were established in
an Andalucia city. Probably to enjoy of wine and the rest because today
the surname "Japon" is a frequent one in this little town. The statue
of Hasekura ambassador still is the village:
http://www.ayto-coriadelrio.es/apelljap.htm 

Well I think that understanding between cultures could be easy,
however the religious fanaticism of 16th century and difficult
communications were main causes in the failure to get better
relations. Fortunately, today many Catholic missionaries are more
interested in helping others. It is a radical change to offer a more
authentic Christianity. Although tnow some evangelic groups don't
think the same.

Some bib:
- Boxer, C.R. (1951). The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650,
Berkeley, California: University of California Press. 1993.
- Marcouin, Francis and K.Omoto (1990). Quand le Japon s'ouvrit au
monde, París: Découvertes Gallimard.
- Sotelo, Luis (1634). De Ecclesiae Iaponicae Statu Relatio.