What is the relationship between religion and power? Is secularization an aspect of modernization? Kiri Paramore's probing analysis of the role of anti-Christian discourse in Japanese politics between 1600 and 1900 sheds new light on these questions. His argument that imagined Christianity played a key role in the two major instances of Japanese state formation during this period is both provocative and persuasive. This is an ambitious and important new work. - Hiroshi Watanabe, Professor of Japanese Political Thought, University of Tokyo.
In this fascinating study, Kiri Paramore bores deeply into the textual history and intellectual legacy of Christian and anti-Christian thought in Tokugawa Japan. As he shows, anti-Christian writings increasingly served the purposes of contemporary political criticism and controversy that had little to with Christianity, and everything to do with stigmatizing the enemies of 'order' in an unanswerable manner. This was an ideological strategy, Paramore further shows, that if anything gained force as Japan's leadership committed itself to an emperor-centered program of modernization following the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Not only is it important to have these materials newly available, the research behind them is fresh and engaging, reflecting the best of recent Japanese scholarship. This is an admirable and eye-opening work. -Andrew Barshay, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley.
Ideology and Christianity in Japan by Kiri Paramore is an important and thought-provoking contribution to the field of Tokugawa intellectual history. It will be of interest to specialists and advanced students who are engaged in the study of Tokugawa ideology and cross-cultural exchanges between Easten and Western philosophy and religion. -William J. Farge, S.J., Loyola University New Orleans, Journal of Japanese Studies, 36:1.
Paramore's study of the anti-Christian discourses depends for the greatest part on original Japanese sources which for the first time were translated and discussed in this context. This makes the book especially interesting and valuable. - Claudia von Collani, Vatican City; Bibliographia Missionaria, 2011.
