Studies and Translations in Western Languages A Bibliography

most outstanding figures in the history of thought in Japan. Nonetheless, we have to admit to the fact that the greater part of the nearly two hundred studies on him listed below mainly concentrate on his becoming a soldier of Christ and of his country, and not on his specific contribution as a thinker. This may be due to the fading topicality of Uchimura’s most important philosophical problem, that of how to unite science (meaning the theory of evolution) and Christian belief. Some of his followers continued this inquiry, in a slightly different form, as a search for a synthesis of Marxist ideas and Christianity. Certain scholars regard these disciples as the true ones. Others adopted his emphasis of the Non-church principle (Mukyôkai shugi) and/or his Biblical interpretations. There are some studies in Western languages about the Non-church Movement which have a sociological and historical focus, but studies on Uchimura’s theological thought are still rare. Another obstacle to the understanding of his life and work is the commentary of his followers and scholars on the question of whether his Christian belief represents a special Japanese form of Christianity, or the original Christianity of the first church. Uchimura became known in the Western world through his autobiography How I Became a Christian, and through a book on prominent figures in Japanese history, Japan and the Japanese, later reprinted in an expanded version under the title Representative Men of Japan. Uchimura actually wrote How I Became a Christian before Japan and the Japanese, but because of its harsh criticism of American “Christendom ” he could not find an overseas publisher until it was published by a Japanese company and Japan and the Japonica Humboldtiana 4 (2000) Japanese had already come out