Kanamori's life-story

by Paul M. Kanamori

I was the first one of the Kumamoto Band who came to Doshisha University, in the summer of 1876. There was not a single building on the whole University campus, so I was connected with that school from its very foundation. Also I was a member of the first graduating class, of 1879. After graduating from this school, I went down to the Province of Okayama as a missionary. I had no money, no salary, no help. As Christ told us, I went to a worthy man, who fed and clothed me for the first year of my ministry. There was an American Board mission station in Okayama, and I worked in connection with it, and after a year there sprang up a Congregational church of about fifty members, and I became its first pastor, receiving three dollars and a half for a month’s salary. But our work was very much blessed. Besides the central church there sprang up many other churches all around, and this province became one of the strongest centers of the Christian world in Japan.

Then I was called back by Dr. Neeshima to his school as a professor of theology. So I came back to my alma mater and assisted Dr. Neeshima in teaching, and also in the work of the presidency. So, you see, at first even I was doing some good work for the cause of Christ. I was regarded as one of the most promising Christian workers of the country at the time.

Now comes my bad turn. During my stay in Doshisha University, as a professor of theology I read many books on that subject. Among them were the books of German New Theology and the Higher Criticism. To me, brought up in almost Puritan strictness of doctrine and practise, their easy and free way of handling the Word of God and interpreting the doctrines of the Bible was so interesting and fascinating that I was completely carried away by their cunning argument. And my positions in orthodox theology were thrown down, one after another, by those fiery doubts shot from the camp of New Theology. I thought I was standing on the rocks of orthodox theology, but now those very rocks themselves seemed to melt under the heat of modern criticism.

Finally I became a convert to this new doctrine, and its devout follower. Not only that, but I became a very zealous propagandist. I began to propagate the new doctrine in preaching and writing. I translated Dr. Pfleiderer’s “Philosophy of Religion” into Japanese, under the title of “The Liberal Theology.” He was the professor of theology in Berlin University, and was regarded as one of the foremost scholars of New Theology of the day. I myself wrote a book called “Present and Future Christianity of Japan.” In this book I prophesied that, though the present Christianity of Japan was orthodox, the future Christianity would be a liberal one. Some liberals say that prophecy has been fulfilled, but I hope not. At any rate, I am sorry to say that this book has led astray many young friends, but I am happy to say that it is out of print now. This book made some stir in the Christian world of Japan at the time.

In those days all the Congregational churches were orthodox and evangelical. Of course, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, and the Baptists were thoroughgoing orthodox, and Congregational ministers were the zealous defenders of the orthodox faith. I was looked at as a very dangerous heretic, and was almost excommunicated. I could not conscientiously stay in the orthodox church, since my theology so greatly differed from theirs, and so I left the Congregational church in order to make my position clear to the world; but when I left the church I left the Christian ministry also.

I wish to call special attention to this point: Why did I leave the ministry when I left the Congregational church? Because, in the first place, my New Theology and Higher Criticism had destroyed my faith in the perfect, divine authority of the Bible; and in the second place, they had destroyed my faith in the perfect deity of Christ. When I had lost these two things I had lost everything. I could not preach Christ alone, and him crucified. I could preach Christian theism, Christian morality, and Christian sociology. In fact, I could preach all the practical side of Christianity, but not the central fundamental truths of Christianity, Christ and his salvation through the cross.

In those days there were many liberals who were saying, “You may have your own theology in your study, but retain the commonly accepted Christian doctrine in the pulpit. There is no need of entering into the discussion of theological questions in the pulpit, because it is for the common people, and not for the scholars.”

But I said: “I cannot use two theologies in my ministry, one for myself, and the other for the people. I cannot handle the Word of God in such a double-handed way. What I have learned in my study that I will preach in my pulpit.”

But such was quite the common practise among the liberals of those days. Not only in those days, but even now, there are many liberals who are practising these worldly counsels of handling the Word of God cunningly and deceitfully. They are proclaiming from their pulpits, not the salvation of souls by the blood of Christ, but only what they call social salvation, moral uplift, and world reconstruction by the example of Jesus of Nazareth, thus hiding their skeptical theology and agnostic philosophy under the cloak of practical Christianity.

Some liberal churches invited me to come to their side and help to spread the liberal Christianity in Japan. But I declined all invitations. I thought if social reform and moral uplift are the only work of the Christian ministry, and not the salvation of souls by the blood of Christ, there is no need of my staying in it any longer. Such social service could be rendered out of it just as well, if not better. So I left the ministry, and joined a politico-social reform campaign in my country. Now I became a political and social reformer, and in this capacity spent more than twenty years. Thus I squandered away the best portion of my life in unprofitable worldly pursuit; thus my life was shipwrecked in the midst of my life-work, and thus I turned away from Jesus Christ, whom I had found seventeen years before in such a wonderful manner, and to whom I had pledged my allegiance at the top of the Mount of Flowers. The purpose of the Devil, which could not be accomplished by bitter persecution, had been now accomplished by the help of the New Theology and Higher Criticism. This is the Devil’s way of working. When he cannot gain his object by sword or fire, he resorts to an entirely different method.