著者

岩村 太郎 イワムラ タロウ Taro IWAMURA

雑誌

恵泉女学園大学人文学部紀要 = Keisen University Bulletin

巻号頁・発行日

vol.15, pp.3-14, 2003-03-20

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This paper aims to introduce the whole life of Chiune Sugihara. In 1939, he was sent by the Japanese government to Kaunas, Lithuania, to open a consulate. In the summer of 1940, thousands of Polish Jews came to the Japanese consulate and begged Sugihara for transit visas to escape from Poland through the Soviet Union to Japan. Although the Japanese government did not agree to Sugihara's intentions, consul Sugihara did issue the visas to save Jews. So these visas are called "VISAS FOR LIFE." This is a well known historical story. However, few Japanese know that Sugihara was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church, when he lived in Harbin. Consequently, special attention is paid to his Christian faith in this paper. Jewish Proverb states "If you save the life of one person, it is as if you saved the world entire."

著者

岩村 太郎 イワムラ タロウ Taro IWAMURA

雑誌

恵泉女学園大学人文学部紀要 = Keisen University Bulletin

巻号頁・発行日

vol.13, pp.A1-A21, 2001-01-20

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In this paper, I would like to analyse Paul Tillich's understanding of existentialism and courage. It is certain that existentialism is well known philosophical attitude to us today, however, Tillich's understanding of it is a bit different from what is called "Existentialism". When we talk about Tillich's usage of the word "Existentialism", we ought to notice that he clearly uses it as the word which is opposed to the word "Essentialism". Hence, the central problem is that the semantics of essentialism should be made clear. Moreover, his point of view of existentialism is definitely based upon Christian theism. Because there are many instances of atheistic existentialism in the world, we must remember this as the major premise. As Kant regarded mathematics as the good luck of human reason, as Hegel adopted dialectic in order to explain the process of history, Tillich regards existentialism as one of the pieces of good luck of Christian theology. Tillich has contributed to the understanding of contemporary men who are suffering from the emptiness and meaninglessness of life,since he has provided the intrinsic answer and the meaning of life for us in relation to Christianity itself. Existential questions and theological answers are interdependent in Tillich. Both are necessary. Existential questions without theological answers will lead inevitably to nihilism. In this paper, special attention is paid to how Tillich tries to affirm life in his theology.