Chapter XXVII: Some Religious Conceptions

Japanese conceptions as to deity--The number and relation of the gods to the universe--Did the Japanese have the monotheistic conception?--Attractiveness of Christian monotheism--Confucian and Buddhist monism--Religious conception of man--Conception of sin--Defective terminology--Relation of sin to salvation--"Holy water"--Holy towels and the spread of disease--The slight connection between physical and moral pollution--W.E. Griffis quoted--Exaggerated cleanliness of the Japanese--Public bathing houses--Consciousness of sin in the sixteenth century--A recent experience--Doctrine of the future life--Salvation from fate--"Ingwa"--These are important doctrines--"Mei" (Heaven's decree)--Japan not unique--Sociological interpretations of religious characteristics, 310