ya, I can see it.

good

I’m hoping to investigate the ‘heart question’ of the Japanese. For example, a Western person might say ‘what must I do to receive forgiveness of sins and peace with God? But a Buddhist person might ask ‘what must I do to escape the cycle of pain and achieve enlightenment?’ But that feels difficult to reconcile with Christianity. I hope to phrase the question to which Jesus is the ultimate answer better for Japanese people.
-Also-
What might a Japanese Christian person’s life look like? My first suspicion is that Japanese Christians have been taught to reject all sorts of Japanese holidays due to perceived links with Eastern religions (tanabata, Obon, etc.), but then they (as taught by Westerners) celebrate Christmas on the anniversary of a pagan holiday, and Easter which is even a pagan word. Perhaps there are ways to redeem Japanese holidays, but I assume that’s only a start.
-Finally-
Though it is fascinating to try to contextualize much of Japanese cultural practices with Christianity (like with the idea of holidays), I feel like the modern Japanese person isn’t super into ancient cultural identity as much as whatever modern Japanese identity is, I’d like to find out what that is and try to reconcile it with Christianity.

Jonathan, those sound like pretty awesome objectives/desires. I am with you for many of them.

Yes, Jon, I have wrestled with some of the same things you describe. Those are the things I am hoping to learn through this course…