Sophia Magazine vol.3 / SUMMER 2016

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Shimazono: Insofar as it gives greater weight to a cross-sectional viewpoint and interdisciplinary approach, our pro-gram of Applied Religious Studies is a new field of study that departs from both the study of individual religions such as theology—the study of Christian beliefs and practices—and comparative religious studies that do not involve practical awareness of issues. I hope that our conversation today will shed some light on how inevitable it was that Japan should give rise to such a field of study, and how it therefore has all the greater potential to contribute to the world.The strong demand for this field of study came about in large part as a result of the 2011 Great East Japan Earth-quake and Tsunami, which drew global attention. In the course of providing support, in particular care for heart-mind, to survivors who have suffered unimaginable losses, there was renewed recognition of the role that religion and its networks can play, even as the associated difficulties and challenges came to light. And the following year, an endowed course bearing the name of Practical Religious Studies was established at Tohoku University, located in the region af-fected by the disaster.Minegishi: It goes without saying that spiritual care, grief care and the care for heart-mind shows greater efficacy in A new field of scholarship is about to bloom in Japan and at Sophia University. This April, Sophia Uni-versity established a graduate program in Applied Religious Studies. With Death and Life Studies (Thanatology) as the major starting point, the pro-gram studies methodologies for how religion can more actively and effectively engage with people and society today, while nurturing practitioners of these methodologies. It intends to draw on Japan’s heri-tage and yield results ahead of the global curve. What is the approach taken by the program? To learn more, we sat down with Soto Buddhist Abbot Shoten Mine-gishi and graduate of Sophia’s Department of Phi-losophy in the Faculty of Humanities, Sanji Yamao-ka, Assistant Provincial, Japan Province, Society of Jesus and Sophia’s former Trustee for General Af-fairs, and Professor Susumu Shimazono, Dean of Sophia’s Graduate School of Applied Religious Stud-ies and Director of the Institute of Grief Care.the presence of a religious underpinning. However, a major-ity of Japanese do not believe in any particular religion, and not a few are skeptical, even critical, of established religious traditions. How do we provide valid care to such people? This is also a growing problem in other fields such as medi-cal care, but on the front lines of a major disaster, the issue manifested in an urgent way.Yamaoka: Sophia University has provided ongoing support for those affected by the disaster, largely through the Insti-tute of Grief Care, and has continued to gain firsthand expe-rience of the situation on the ground.The problems that have been pointed out are not things that can be resolved by one particular faith. The essential thing here is to seek out a path to interfaith partnerships or dialogue. In this respect, it was perhaps inevitable that it was Sophia University that launched a graduate program to serve as the full-scale center of scholarship for Applied Religious Studies, since Sophia possesses a track record in developing professionals in interpersonal care in addition to accumulated scholarship in theology and religious studies, and has as its bedrock the Society of Jesus of the Catholic church, which has never hesitated to learn from other faiths.Shimazono: Following the disaster, action by volunteers, chiefly young people, had an astonishingly wide impact. Can we take the strength of their desire in evidence there—the desire to serve others—and further connect it to a desire for a better everyday livelihood, something like a sense of truth-seeking? In other words, can we close the distance between them and religion? This too would be something to explore in Applied Religious Studies.Minegishi: Though not linked to religion as a concept, Japanese people do in fact carry a deep religiosity in their heart of hearts. I would like to draw that out where it can be seen. And ultimately, I want young people to feel that only by spending their lives with others, with everyone, do they achieve happiness, as opposed to what happens when one lives in isolation.Yamaoka: And that is nothing other than the fruition of the Sophia philosophy of “For Others, With Others.” I myself offer a practicum course on volunteerism at Sophia, and it gives me great hope to see how seriously the young people want to learn. However, right now, I can also see that they have so much to learn that perhaps they cannot spare a mo-ment to be mindful of their own feelings.Shimazono: One aspect of Applied Religious Studies is that it starts with those problems arising from the environment and conditions endemic to Japan, including issues brought into focus by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Yet, the phe-nomenon of a waning or even outright loss of religious iden-tity in the context of runaway materialism, capitalism and rapid globalization is one that is spreading, certainly in the West, and really, around the world. If we are to frame Japan as the model for this phenomenon, then universality will be the result of research done here. In other words, I believe that Applied Religious Studies is a field for Japan today that should be disseminated to the whole world.Japanese Society as a Model for Challenges Faced by Religions around the World17Special Talk

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