Masao Takenaka (June 9, 1925 – August 17, 2006)[1] was a Japanese theologian who taught for over 40 years at Doshisha UniversityinKyoto, Japan, where he was a Professor of Christian Ethics and Sociology of Religion.[2][3]
Takenaka was born in Beijing, China in 1925, and lived in China for his first ten years; his father worked for the South Manchuria Railway.[1][4] He began his studies at Kyoto University, but was drafted into the Japanese army during World War II and sent to Hokkaido.[1] After the war, he completed a degree in business and then studied theology at Doshisha. At the Yale Divinity SchoolinYale University, he was greatly influenced by H. Richard Niebuhr; he earned his doctorate there in 1955.[1][5][6] He returned to Japan, where he became a volunteer leader of the United Church of Christ, and then served a term as vicar in Kurashiki before joining the Doshisha faculty.[1]
Takenaka was a proponent of ecumenism, an opponent of the concept of the divinity of the Emperor of Japan, and (later in his life) a promoter of Christian art.[2] He was honorary president of the Asian Christian Art Association.[7] He also worked to fit Christian theology more closely to indigenous culture in Asia, for instance by defining God as the "rice of life" instead of as the "bread of life".[8]
^Takenaka, Masao (1995). The Place Where God Dwells: An Introduction to Church Architecture in Asia. Hong Kong: Christian Conference of Asia. ISBN9780959797152.
