Approaches East and West to the History of Religions: Four Japanese Thinkers

Abstract

In Japan recently, new overviews for the comparative study of the history of religions have been presented. Taking into account the plurality of Japanese religions, religious studies scholar Yamaori Tetsuo has reevaluated the theories of the history of Japanese religions. Umesao Tadao, a leading ethnologist and scholar in the comparative study of civilizations, reviews the historical phases of religions East and West on the Eurasian continent with his theory of the hypothesis of phasic correspondence. Murakami Yasusuke, a theoretical economist with expertise in Japanese history, studies the encounters between a nomadic society and an agricultural society in the light of Robert N. Bellah's theory of religious evolution to give insight into the origin of historic religions. Another religious studies scholar, Shimazono Susumu, attempts to revise Bellah's theory both with a new framework on salvation religions and with an original understanding of New Spirituality Movements.