This is the spiritual biography of one of Japan's foremost thinkers, Uchimura Kanzo, who died in 1930 and whose ideas influenced contemporary historians, political scientists, and international religious followers. Known as the originator and proponent of a particularly "Japanese" form of Christianity known as mukyokai, Kanzo attempted to purge the Protestantism that was flowing into Japan from the accretions to the biblical faith that had developed after several centuries of Western history.

In his lifetime, Kanzo was a well-known figure, becoming famous in Europe. His major...