| Part 1 The Theory of Faith | Hirohumi Hoshika |
Afterwards, with the help of a friend I moved to Tokyo and visited a church near my apartment in Nishi-Ogikubo. Due to certain previous circumstances, I had decided that buying a Bible and visiting a church were things I would definitely do when I came to Tokyo.
The folk tales by Tolstoy that I came across in my third year of high school and Chekhov's "The Student", which was in my textbook, all had Christianity in their background. I felt that I could not read foreign literature without knowing the religion that these authors believed. I was also wondering if foreign traditional religions like Christianity have the same ideas as Japan's new religions.
So I thought that if I wanted to learn about Christianity, it would be quicker to go to a church rather than reading the educational books sold at the local bookstore.
I went there based on the address in the telephone directory and found it to be a church in an old Japanese house. When I asked, I was told it was an "tan-ritsu" [independent] church that does not belong to any denomination. There seem to be many different types of church, but in any case, I can't study Christianity in a church unless it's a place where traditional beliefs are maintained, so when I asked about this, the pastor explained that his own denomination was a "moderate Calvinist Protestant." I found out that it was conservative orthodox Christianity, and decided to get involved there.
On Sunday afternoon, a Bible lesson was held in a prefabricated hut next to the church, and I ended up listening to the lecture among some high school-aged sisters who seemed to be relatives of church members. A "church member" is a member of a Christian church, and the church is a membership system. "Sister" is also an honorific title for women in the church.
After a few weeks, I asked my pastor, "What does it believe when you have faith?" "This is what we believe," he said, pointing to the Apostles' Creed printed on the inside of the cover of the hymnbook used in the morning service.
When I looked at it, I found a confession of faith consisting of about 10 lines, starting with "I believe in God the Father almighty". But I found there a row of phrases that were hard to believe at first glance and that I wasn't used to hearing, such as "Hell", "Judge the living and the dead", and "The Holy Spirit", and "Resurrection of the body".
For me, who was somewhat familiar with Christian atmospheres such as Kierkegaard's "The Concept of Anxiety" and Frescobaldi's "Fiori Musicali", these words seemed foreign and had a strong religious smell. If I were to put it in an analogy, it smelled similar to the endemic faith that "I believe in a 'so-and-so god' that is enshrined at a local shrine in such and such a place". Contrary to the image fostered by the sophisticated Christianity that passed through Europian culture, the Apostles' Creed was a harsh shock from a primitive culture.
But I tried not to flinch at the wording. Instead, I thought it was the right decision to had visited the church. I could never have been able to experience this kind of vividness by reading an educational book, and considering that Christianity is also a religion, I didn't think it could be helped no matter what people believed. Rather, I should have expected that people in charch might believe in something far removed from everyday life. I considerd the fact that this house was not church-like was not an obstacle to my approaching Christianity. So I wouldn't reject the Apostles' Creed either.
However, there were words that came to my mind at that time. This was the impression that the friend who had recommended the religious scriptures to me during high school shared with me after returning from a "summer training session" held by that religious organization. "I knew what I have to believe through the session. But I had no idea at all why I could believe it," he said.
I too had the same thoughts when I saw the Apostles' Creed laid out before me at that time. "I understand what Christians believe, but why do they believe these things?" However, as I was just beginning my involvement with the church, it seemed like too big of a question for me, so I didn't ask it at the time.