Do you believe in Shinto?
January 5th, 2009
Is it like Judaism in the sense that it's like an ethnic religion?
Can a foreigner be a Shintoist?
If all gods add up to the existence of one spiritual whole, then it's worshiping one God.
I've read several places claim that Japanese religion is Pantheist.
So any sort of Polytheistic religion that has Shamanistic leanings would be softer Polytheism. Most Polytheistic religions don't have that sort of strong Polytheism you would find in the Greco-Roman world.
But by the way Monotheism is commonly meant, which is strong Monotheism, which is to mean Abrahamic religion, yes Shinto is markedly different from any of them.
But even as for that "strong monotheism" is concerned, even Christianity believes in angels and demons.
Well.. I guess it comes down to what one means with a god. (or "theos" in greek. "mono" + "theos" --> one god, "pan" + "theos" --> all is god, "poly" + "theos" --> many gods)
In Christianity the word "God" is reserved for the personal being that created everything as some of the defining attributes attached to the word in Christian circles are "all knowing", "all powerful", and "with no beginning or end". That's why it is usually written with capital "G".
Angels and demons aren't considered as "gods" although in Japanese you might call them that. Still I think the common words used in Christian circles in Japan are "み使い" for an angel and "悪霊" for a demon but I haven't heard or seen them being called "神" ever once. It doesn't mean it isn't possible though..
Also when speaking about the God of the Christian teaching it is often elaborated, like "天地造られた神" for example, to avoid confusion due to the general nature of the word "神".
When defined extremely loosely, I guess someone might even call Pantheism a form of Monotheism although I don't really see any reason for that. The terms exist to describe the different nature of the ideas.
"all is god" <----> "only one God"
A question of terminology.
Ps. To give some background to my previous comment; I'm a protestant Christian.
i think so .
The doctrine might have been lost in the long years during journey
however,it is said its costum is very simillar..
If the japanese truly are the lost tribe of israel, they have come long way from the rest. Just read the jewish scriptures dating thousands of years back
http://www.huldahministry.com/No.151English.pdf
ancient Yamato history was lost because of Book burning in 645. that is all document of Yamato were burnt.
ahter that,The history was written by the hereditary role of narrator in early imperial court.That is, no thing of the part of an especially old age more than the legend about which the people who understood the history from the mind talked.
Therefore, how Nohonshoki is compared with the Bible?
The event that repeatedly looks like well is recorded in both books though
there are many differences.
There is a description written about the god's descendant race in Nohonshoki.
What was happen until making Smera (sumera) kingdom on the ground of Yamato?( japanese emperor is calld sumera mikoto)
http://www.123exp-law.com/t/03784505645/
It is understood that ten tribes existed at least by 800 years from captivity
in a Bible and an ancient record while maintaining race's identity.
That is, it was not lost yet..
according toSuccessive history of Bible?, It is being written that they were the opposite Euphrates, BC4th century
according to Josephus Flavius , 800 later from captivity,
( http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/josephus/josephus.htm )
Ten tribes descend to the other side of the Euphrates side now, become huge crowds, and the population is inscrutable.
It is the second Ezra book written at the first century though the place is not specified............they are there from Euphrates for the distance of one and a half years.
and they passed through a place called Aruzaret?
it is said it was Afghanistan..
The people who say Israeli's descendant live in Afghanistan today.
The meaning called Afghan is a proselyte in Aramaic.
It took four months to return to Jerusalem by Babylonian captivity. (ezura7-9)
if they went through silk road by this pace, where would they get to...central Asia around Kirgiz
It is the vicinity of present Kirgiz recorded for just ten tribes to have been
kidnapped in the Bible.
They lived in Central Asia in Afghanistan and Kirgiz, etc. for about 800 years.
A mongoloid race of the Halha , the Uighur people, Uzbek, and Turkman, etc. lived in Central Asia.
They intermarry gradually and are changed into mongoloid features.
However, I think that it maintained the identity though features are changed at this time.
It is because of relating through the silk road. It is because there was traffic of the thing , information and person.
It seems that there was the race's communication through the silk road until
the first century.
The silk road separates from Luoyang of China into two at the previous huge Taklamakan Desert exceeding the desert area.
It joins both routes again in Mashhad in Iran when westering further.
the caravan comes to Mediterranean sea district by way of Hamadan
They pass the territory in Israel named Hera and Habol(?). The description of the Ezra writing information at end of 1st century can be understood.
why did 10 tribes head to Japan from central Asia.?
I dont know? LOL .I just guess Climate change from 1st~ 3rd century
Taklamakan Desert is the big desert between Kirgiz and Afghanistan.
Land went to ruin by desertification and the town became ruins. People aim at new land.
The name of Taklimakan (Takla Makan) means the town that became ruins by the Hebl Aramaic. (Tikla makom)
According to Sven Hedin,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Hedin
The legend of the town that buried in sand for a long time is described to the
race around here.
In the legend, it was a pagan that lived in this town.
Damnation happened because they had refused teaching Islam.
Sand fall for several days like rain, and the resident was buried in sand
with the ground and the town.
Hedin has seen trees of the poplar in the shore in ruins in the town town in the lake that is ashore and the river before.
According to Ellsworth Huntington,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellsworth_Huntington
there was rich life because the brige in the desert, the glass, the kneading thing, the neck decorations, and etc are seen.( coins were made in Han Dynasty)
They do after a while and arrive at Kaifeng of China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng
they are called chinese -Jewish today
William Whyte wrote "The discovered ancient inscription shows that the Jew came here first during the Han dynasty."
They have been changed into other similar Chinese and mongoloid features.
Knowledge that means where the ancestor has already come is lost, too.
Large majority advances toward northeast further and will arrive at a Korean
peninsula before long.
They hear that there is a big island in the place in which it goes across the
sea in the east.
First of all, the island really was suitable for the living or, might have sent the advance force.
( then I understand the relation between korea and Japan at that time)
The native people' subjugation might have quoted Yevusi= Emishi from the Bible. ( it mean the Enemy to conquer the land of promise in Bible)
The communication with the Jew in Jewish land before was completely lost.....
I think that was 2~4th century
http://www.keikyo.com/books/hada/
http://www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37550
circumcision of emperors are very famous in Japan
http://search.yahoo.co.jp/search?p=%E5%A4%A9%E7%9A%87+%E5%89%B2%E7%A4%BC&ei=UTF-8&fr=top_ga1&x=wrt
it is said in 1912
http://sea.ap.teacup.com/nikkeif/img/1216482877.jpg
http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/index.html
http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/index.html
http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/BIImgFrame.php?JP_NUM=40013257&VOL_NUM=00001&KOMA=172&ITYPE=0
Can a foreigner be a Shintoist?
[QUOTE]The first Austrian Shinto priest accredited by Jinja Honcho, the Association of Shinto Shrines
A 20 year old Austrian man started his carrier as a priest at Ueno Tenmangu Shrine in Nagoya
２０歳のオーストリア青年、念願の神職に
神社に仕えて神事をつかさどる「神職」。オーストリア人青年ウィルチコ・フローリアンさん（２０）が名古屋 市千種区の上野天満宮で外国人としては全国初の神社本庁が認める神職として働いている。
http://www.meitai.net/archives/20080116/2008011604.html
[/QUOTE
Is it like Judaism in the sense that it's like an ethnic religion?
Can a foreigner be a Shintoist?
Shinto is native to Japan but in many ways it doesn't seem to be as strict as judaism when it comes to what is required of a follower so I would imagine it to much easier for a foreigner to be a shintoist than a judaist.
A non-jew turning into judaism isn't unheard of either though.
I am very much a monotheist and don't believe in the kind of worship that shinto (way of the gods/spirits) suggests.
I think comparing judaism and shito might get quite hard because of their fundamentally different nature.
http://www.essortment.com/all/animejapanchri_rfdy.htm
http://www.essortment.com/in/Culture.Asian/index.htm
ancient Jew's religion was also "the way of god", that is ,Shinto
what is " the way of god"?
just check Joseph Eidelberg and Marvin Tokayer out
http://36525.ld.infoseek.co.jp/
it is very interesting for me though I basically dobut it...
Yes. You could translate it "shinto" but it wouldn't be accurate since it doesn't differentiate between singular and plural. The idea of what god is is quite different in judaism and shinto.
It is just speculation but if the japanese truly were a lost tribe of israel, they would have come a long way from the rest. Just read the jewish scriptures dating thousands of years back. The ideology is quite different from the japanese polytheist shinto.
Those were interesting links about the judeo-christian influence on anime and I'll have to check those up later!
Now I only took a quick peek though.
El Elohim echad!
http://www.essortment.com/all/animejapanchri_rfdy.htm
http://www.essortment.com/in/Culture.Asian/index.htm
ancient Jew's religion was also "the way of god", that is ,Shinto
what is " the way of god"?
just check Joseph Eidelberg and Marvin Tokayer out
http://36525.ld.infoseek.co.jp/
it is very interesting for me though I basically dobut it...
I think so.
Deities are everywhere you believe that they are.
They are the personifications of natural phenomena or objects, animals like snakes, foxes and raccoon dogs, mythological heroes and great persons in the history.
Sometimes I just have to shake my head.
Well, wouldn't Pantheism technically be a form of Monotheism?
If all gods add up to the existence of one spiritual whole, then it's worshiping one God.
I've read several places claim that Japanese religion is Pantheist.
So any sort of Polytheistic religion that has Shamanistic leanings would be softer Polytheism. Most Polytheistic religions don't have that sort of strong Polytheism you would find in the Greco-Roman world.
But by the way Monotheism is commonly meant, which is strong Monotheism, which is to mean Abrahamic religion, yes Shinto is markedly different from any of them.
But even as for that "strong monotheism" is concerned, even Christianity believes in angels and demons.
Seeing as Shinto is not exclusive of other religions, I would say that the very concept of "converting" is alien to Shinto.
It is very common for there to be a Shinto shrine on the grounds of Buddhist temples. Also very common for family tombs centered on Buddhist iconography to feature a Shinto torii as their rearmost element.
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