Geschichte des Christentums in Japan

Abstract

IN this second volume Dr. Haas—whom we congratulate on the well merited doctorate in theology recently conferred upon him by the University of Strassburg—pursues the history of the Christian missions in Japan from the departure of Xavier in 1549 to the year 1570 under the leadership of the Jesuit superior Cosmo de Torres, of Valencia. During that period, and, indeed, almost up to the close of the sixteenth century, the task of conversion lay entirely in the hands of the Jesuits, while the increasing trade with Japan was monopolised by the Portuguese. The sources of Dr. Haas's history are almost wholly European, and above all the famous letters of the Jesuit missionaries from Japan, of which the volume is largely a prècis. These authorities are not, however, sufficient, and with the progress of the work it becomes more and more evident that the true history of the Christian century in Japan can only be written in the Peninsula, where, as Father Cros's great book on “St. Francois de Xavier” tells us, in the inexhaustible archives and libraries of Lisbon and Madrid, and in those of Simancas, Coimbra, Evora, and Ajuda, are to be found the original documents in vast numbers from which alone an adequate account of that most interesting chapter in the world's history can be gathered. Geschichte des Christentums in Japan. By Dr. J. Haas. Band ii. Pp. xxvii + 383. (Tokio: 1904.)