日本のキリスト教教育における「キリスト教文化倫理学」の意義と課題─「教育の神学」批判Part II─

Sato Toshio, a famous Japanese theologian, asserted the significance of "Christian Ethics of Culture" in 1987. It consists of three concepts: life, personality, and human rights. According to him, Emil Brunner\u27s Gifford lectures in 1947, "Christianity and Civilization" provide us the theoretical basis of his new ethics. The purpose of this paper is to analyze on his ethics that adopted a new approach toward Christian education, compared with so-called theology-centered education in the past. It seems that the basic idea of his ethics has appeared in his thesis, "Faith and Social Science," in 1972. The relationship between Christianity and science is regarded as "aim and method" in his paper. Therefore, the following critical points arise. The first point is that Sato would consider education merely as a method of mission. The second point is whether Brunner\u27s lectures could provide us either a new theory of Christian education in Japan or an old-fashioned theory that is basically limited within theology-centered education. This is because the main issue presented by the lecture is the influence of Christianity on European civilization. The theoretical background of Sato\u27s Christian Ethics of Culture should be radically criticized in the context of Japanese culture