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Rejoicing in Hope a Tribute to Kosuke Koyama

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Rejoicing in Hope a Tribute to Kosuke Koyama Rejoicing in Hope Drew Theological School in 1954 and his Ph.D. at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1959. A Tribute to Kosuke Koyama After graduating from Princeton with a dissertation on Luther’s interpretation of the Psalms, Koyama was sent by his Straight lines seemed to be an image of imperialism. I became home church, the United Church of Christ in Japan (Kyodan), aware that the love of God—hesed, agape—is more of a as a missionary to the Church of Christ in Thailand. Serving as zigzag than a straight line. For the sake of others, love makes a pastor in northern Thailand, he found himself in theological self-denying zigzags, displaying its power as it overcomes conversation not only with Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, profound frustration. and Karl Barth, who had been his interlocutors at Princeton, —Kosuke Koyama but also with the farmers who now made up his congregation. The re- he earth-bound portion of Kosuke Koyama’s “zig- sult was “water buffalo theology,” a Tzagging” life came to an end on March 25, 2009. “Ko,” term that would permanently enter as many knew him, died in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the the name of Koyama in the register age of seventy-nine. He had been battling esophageal cancer of twentieth-century contextual for several years, but the immediate cause of his death was theologies. pneumonia, according to his son, Mark, with whom Ko and Ko wrote several works in his wife of fifty years, Lois, had recently been living. Thai during this period, but it was Koyama was born in 1929 in Tokyo into a Christian fam- the English publication of Water ily. His paternal grandfather had become a Christian around Buffalo Theology—a collection of the turn of the century, and his father had followed him in meditations and academic pre- Christian faith. Ko himself was baptized at age fifteen, in the sentations from 1960 to 1968 that midst of World War II. He often reflected through the years was first circulated in 1970 by SPCK and later published by on the significance of this experience of being baptized into Orbis Books (1974 and 1999)—that gained him widespread “the religion of the enemy.” The pastor who baptized him, Ko recognition. Other books in English followed: Fifty Meditations recalled, told him that God loved the Americans as well as the and Theology in Contact (1975), No Handle on the Cross (1977), Japanese. That became the heart of his ecumenical theology. Three-Mile-an-Hour God (1978), and Mount Fuji and Mount Sinai Ko lived through the firebombing of Tokyo in March (1984). Koyama’s bibliography included numerous articles 1945, in which 88,000 inhabitants were killed by those same and reviews as well, in English, Thai, and Japanese. Through Americans. The experience was to significantly shape his arresting images and a profound sense of irony, he sought to understanding of history, the idolatry of power, and the suf- move beyond rabid triumphalism and crusading ideology to fering of God. Following the war, he enrolled in Tokyo Union realize in a fresh way what it means to “let the same mind be Theological Seminary, graduating in 1952. He then moved in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), which for Ko could to New Jersey, in the United States, to complete his B.D. at only mean the crucified mind. His reflections were laced with 138 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 33, No. 3 wit, wisdom, candor, and copious biblical references, challeng- in history. This God whose emotions are agitated all together ing his hearers and readers to move beyond the provincialism is salvation to us who engage in dancing between God and that too often passes for theological sophistication, in order to Baal in this historical hour.” relate Christian faith to the diverse hopes and aspirations of Koyama felt the pulse of resurgence of Christianity human beings in their everyday world. around the world at a time when others were skeptical about In 1968 he left Thailand for Singapore, where he became its future and even of the prospects of religion in general in dean of the South East Asia Graduate School of Theology the West. He brought a largeness of heart, mind, and soul (SEAGST), formed two years earlier. In 1974 he became se- to bear on urgent issues confronting world Christianity and nior lecturer in phenomenology of religion at the University the ecumenical movement as they were living through the of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. Six years later he ac- decolonization of the latter twentieth century. At a time when cepted a call to Union Theological Seminary in New York to many had no inkling regarding the importance of Christian assume the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Chair in Ecumenics and voices outside the Western hemisphere, Koyama urged his World Christianity and to serve as director of the Ecumenical listeners to take seriously the challenge of contextualization Center, a project inaugurated by his predecessor at Union, as it reshaped the Good News Christians had for the world. Robert McAfee Brown. During his years at Union, Koyama Christianity cannot be one-way traffic, he argued, but, aligned brought together the disciplines of mission studies, ecumeni- with the agenda of the crucified Christ, must follow him to cal studies, and the study of world religions in creative and the peripheries of history. He urged all who would listen to at times courageous ways. Long before many others in North exemplify the virtues that were embodied by Jesus, becoming America were talking about religious pluralism, Ko was disciples who were also neighbors. teaching Christian seminarians that there was much they An African proverb states that “borrowed garments never had to learn from the world’s diverse religious traditions, fit a person well, they are usually either too tight or too loose; and he was leading classes into neighborhoods of New York proper fitting is achieved when one wears one’s own clothing.” City to visit diverse religious communities that were flour- Koyama wore his theological garment very well, and it fitted ishing there. Ko lived out this dialogue of religions in his him properly and snugly. We give glory to God for his life. We own life, “dancing” (as he liked to say) between Buddhism celebrate his intercultural, interconfessional, and interreligious and Christianity, or between eschatology and cosmology. He theological contributions and imagination. And we look for- had an immense appreciation for Judaism and would often ward to talking with him again at the banquet table where he cite the impact of Buber and Heschel on his work. It was his always taught that we would one day be seated. deep appreciation for the God who was revealed on Mount —Dale T. Irvin and Akintunde E. Akinade Sinai that drew him back time and again to a God who, in a favored figure, was “hot.” Toward the end ofMount Fuji and Dale T. Irvin is Professor of World Christianity and President of Mount Sinai he wrote: “At the depth of history there is the New York Theological Seminary. ‘agitated mind of God’ which judges all forms of idolatries. Akintunde E. Akinade teaches world religions at Georgetown The one who judges history is the one who is most involved University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. July 2009 139.
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