The Reconception of Religion in Early Modern Europe and the Japanese Christian Mission

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In the first half of the sixteenth century, people from the Iberian nations accomplished the first circumnavigation of the world and permanently linked the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. Many historians argue that these events marked the beginning of modern globalization. During the fiscal year of 2021, I investigated how this early modern globalization forced European thinkers -- more specifically Latin Christians -- to reframe a number of their own concepts so that they could make sense of this "new" world. That is, the Catholic missionaries endeavored to organize this data in a way that would avoid disruption of the traditional Christian worldview. In my research, I focused particularly on the role of Japan in this process. The Japanese Christian mission was seen by the Jesuits, who held the monopoly of this mission for over four decades, as one of their most promising ones. Nevertheless, it still ended up in failure due to the prohibition of Christianity and the harsh persecution promoted by the Tokugawa government. The rationale for labeling Japan a promising land for Christians underpins the new understanding of religion developed under early modern globalization. My conclusions on this topic were presented at the public lecture "Religion in a Global Context: Early Modern Globalization and the Catholic Missions," given at the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies in December 2021, and further elaborated in an article currently under submission to a global history related academic journal.