This book is the work towards which Kosuke Koyama's previous books, from Waterbuffalo Theology to Three Mile an Hour Cod, have been leading. He describes it as a report of his personal pilgrimage, showing how he has brought together his historical experience and his confession of faith, how he has been led to dialogue between his own historical experience and the theology of the cross.
That historical experience begins, and was shaped by, life in Tokyo, devastated by constant bombing. Reflecting on the destruction of Japan he was led to make a critical evaluation of his own nature-oriented culture, focussed on emperor worship and culture worship. This involved moving from Mount Fuji, in a country made a wilderness by conventional and nuclear bombs, to Mount Sinai, set in another wilderness, and the scene of God's mighty acts with his people Israel, which stand at the beginning of the Jewish and Christian tradition. It proved to be a pilgrimage raising vital questions, which have taken a long time to answer.
The result is a fascinating study of inter-reaction between East and West, between idolatry and the worship of the true God, leading to a theology of the cross presented against the background of a world dangerously fragmented by violent militarism and racism, and under the threat of nuclear war.
Kosuke Koyama is Professor of Ecumenics and World Christianity at Union Theological Seminary, New York.