Masao Takenaka (June 9, 1925 – August 17, 2006)[1] was a Japanese theologian who taught for over 40 years at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, where he was a Professor of Christian Ethics and Sociology of Religion.[2]
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] [3] 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 School in Yale University, he was greatly influenced by H. Richard Niebuhr; he earned his doctorate there in 1955.[1] [4] [5] 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.[6] 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".[7]
Takenaka was the author of several books: