Business content

Business purpose

The purpose of this project is to confirm that the foundation of Christian material culture lies in theology, by studying cultural properties related to our university from theological and humanistic perspectives, and to establish and build a "research base for theology and humanities in Tohoku." This objective is based on the following three perspectives.

The first point concerns the cultural properties of Tohoku Gakuin. Specifically, Tohoku Gakuin's "DeForest Hall" has been designated a National Important Cultural Property, and the "Rahäuser Memorial Chapel" and other buildings have been designated as Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in recent years. Among these cultural properties, the stained glass depicting the Ascension of Christ installed in the Rahäuser Memorial Chapel has been identified as the only surviving work in Japan by Heaton Butler & Vine, an important Victorian workshop. This is a manifestation of the revival of medieval Christianity in modern Britain and provides a good opportunity to reconsider the importance of the Middle Ages and theology as the foundation of modernity, the relationship between theology and anthropology, and the relationship between imperial universality and regionality in Europe. The Rahäuser Memorial Chapel itself is in the Tudor style of the Gothic Revival of the medieval period, and on the other hand, the fact that it was built using stone from Akiu with funds from Miss Rahäuser and within the regional context of Sendai in Tohoku clearly demonstrates that Christianity, despite being an anomaly within the regional context of Tohoku, is rooted in that region. The university's research on cultural properties serves as an opportunity to reaffirm that theology is fundamental to the humanities. Conducting academic research on these cultural properties, along with disseminating their cultural value and meaning, is crucial for contributing to the cultural development of Sendai. The chapel and worship services are open to the public, allowing citizens to experience medieval Christianity and prompting reflection on the foundations of modernity and modern material culture.

The second point relates to the social issues in Tohoku, in which our university is deeply involved. In Tohoku after the earthquake, for example, population decline and aging have become serious problems, making it difficult to envision a bright future for Tohoku. However, the pre-modern regional characteristics of Tohoku, as pointed out by Isabella Bird's observations, Christopher Noss (Tohoku: the Scotland of Japan, 1918), and Kunio Yanagita (Tono Monogatari, 1910), can be a tourist resource from a Christian perspective as a postmodern cultural heritage that retains primal sensibilities. In this context, as advocated in the "TG Grand Vision 150," which was formulated in 2015 as a medium- to long-term reform plan, our university has set the development of human resources who can work in cooperation with the region and respond to social issues and needs as a long-term goal. Such human resources must acquire practical knowledge and skills, as well as cooperation and tolerance with others, and intellectual creativity, and the cultivation of these is possible through the spirit of humanism underpinned by theology.

The third point is the university reform being pursued by our institution. For 130 years since its founding, our university has promoted character education based on Christian principles and contributed to the development of the region. Through "TG Grand Vision 150," we have defined our vision, new brand image, and the nature of education, research, and social contribution, and are now moving into the implementation phase of the plan. In reforming university education, we aim to further deepen the understanding of the world through scientific methods based on theology, recognizing that theology has been the starting point for all fields of science since the Middle Ages, a fact that has been overlooked in modern Japanese education. We will make this a cornerstone of our branding efforts by concretely demonstrating and shaping it within the curriculum.

Based on the three points above, this research, initiated by the investigation and study of cultural properties at our university, positions theology as a foundation of the humanities, reconsiders material culture, and views the regional characteristics of Tohoku as cultural resources with postmodern value. In other words, we will establish a base at our university that supports material culture from a comprehensive perspective of theology and humanities, and confirm the basis of material culture established in medieval Christianity by opening to the public a chapel and stained glass windows, which represent a revival of the European medieval period when Christianity was established. This will also contribute to developing the regional characteristics of Tohoku Sendai as cultural resources.