2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Americanization of Christianity and Socio-cultural Formation
| Project/Area Number |
17310147
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Area studies
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
MASUI Shitsuyo Sophia University, Faculty of Humanities, Professor (80181642)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
OTSUKA Juro Sophia University, 文学部, Professor (40213772)
TAKAYANAGI Shun'ichi Sophia University, Professor Emeritus (50053575)
IINO Tomoyuki Sophia University, 文学部, Professor (40168084)
KANAYAMA Tsutomu Sophia University, 文学部, Professor (60306983)
ISHII Noriko Otsuma Women's University, Associate Professor (60407385)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2007
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| Keywords | Christianity / Americanization / Puritanism / Evangelicalism / Missionary / Catholicism / Gospel / Unitarianism |
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| Research Abstract |
The members of this project have pursued the transforming aspects of Christianity in North America from the 17th century colonial period to the present. Rather than focusing on narrow theological debates or on denominational developments, the project has aimed at studying varying aspects of religion in America, giving serious attention to its cultural, sociological, and historical contexts, in order to grasp the process whereby Christianity was Americanized over the centuries. Our purpose is to clarify the culturally as well as historically constructed nature of "Christian America" Methodologically this project adopted an interdisciplinary approach, gathering participants from the fields of history, literature, theology, and journalism.
Three distinguished scholars of American religious history cooperated in the project as overseas participants : David D. Hall (Harvard) visited Japan in January 2006 and gave lectures on the theme of New England Puritanism; Richard W. Fox (U. of Southern California) came in June 2007 and lectured on the theme of American culture and Christianity. Although Mark A. Noll (Notre Dame)was not able to visit Japan, he joined the project by contributing to the final report an article on a very timely topic, Evangelicalism and American politics. The chief researcher of the project visited Harvard University libraries and archives for her research every summer during the project term. Other researchers also frequently visited the United States for archival as well as field research purposes. The participants presented the study results at scholarly conferences as well as in their writing both in Japan and overseas. The final report of the project will be published as a book within a few years after the completion of the project term.
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