No.38 Referenced from ~ Part2 - Chapter 1 - Section 4

The reason why Thomas's theology should be criticized

Evangelism is the work of conveying things that are unknown to the people, but it is also the work of re-presenting things that people think to be already clear, as Christian things.

In the early days of Christianity's introduction to Japan, the Christian God was conveyed through traditional Buddhist terms such as "Tenshu [Lord of Heaven]" and "Dainichi [Great Sun]." Modern church terms such as "Kami [God]" and "Seirei [Holy Spirit]" are themselves derived from Shinto religion, and as concepts they cannot escape Shinto connotations.

In other words, it is difficult to completely eliminate non-Christian assumptions, and "reason under sin" and "Greek reason" are not the only non-Christian things. Nevertheless, these non-Christian terms have conveyed Christianity to non-Christian reason.

Therefore, with regard to Thomas' theology, the more Greek of the two concepts of God contained therein should not be criticized for its paganism, but rather for the lack of encounter between the two concepts of God.