I recently discovered that Toyohiko Kagawa autographed my father-in-law’s Bible in 1941.
Known as the St. Francis of Japan, the Japanese Ghandi, and other similar monikers, Kagawa was a Japanese theologian, peace activist, evangelist, friend of the poor, and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. Seminarian Joe Davis wrote a thumbnail sketch of his life, as well as a creative “celestial conversation” with him, if you want to know more about this great man, whose life example places him among the likes of Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. So, beyond the personal “wow!” of discovering his signature in my father-in-law’s Bible, I invite the church at large to discover the legacy of Toyohiko Kagawa.
The Gospel as Place
By Scott Bessenecker
The empires of this world exploit the vulnerable. Its economics reward those who plunder the environment. Money gravitates to the center while some people are pushed to the margins. In contrast, the economics in the land of God are centrifugal, pushing resources out to the edges. The social forces are magnetic, drawing the excluded into the center.
