In May 1925, the New York Times reviewed Toyohiko Kagawa’s Before the Dawn, an English translation of the Japanese Christian social reformer’s Shisen o koete. A semi-autobiographical novel written while Kagawa was in prison in 1920 and 1921, Before the Dawn told the story of a young man attempting to apply the teachings of Jesus to Japan’s modern social problems with tragic results. The book was a bestseller in Japan and helped to bring Kagawa national public recognition both at home and in the United States. Kagawa would go on to publish more than ten works translated from Japanese into English and embark on international speaking tours where he would address crowds of thousandsNorth Americans reviewers labeled Kagawa a mystic comparable to American spiritualists such Walt Whitman. But why was Kagawa, who in the Japanese context was primarily known and recognized as a social reformer, termed a mystic?
Kagawa’s significance and his representation to American audiences as a mystic is best explained against the backdrop of another Asian Christian author who was published during the 1920s – Sundar Singh. Though Singh has been largely forgotten by North Americans today, he was internationally famous during the 1920s and was and remains an important figure in South Asian Christianity. Singh was a Sikh convert who lived as a Christian sadhu, or holy man, and gained international attention through his books and speaking tours. Well-known Western theologians such as B.H. Streeter and Friedrich Heiler wrote books promoting Singh to European, United Kingdom, and American Christians, and Streeter provided a forward for Singh’s Reality and Religion: Meditations on God, Man, and Nature (1924). Like Kagawa, Singh and his theological writings were largely discussed as mystical. As the only Asian Christian predecessor in the North American publishing market, Singh’s success prior to Kagawa helped to set the horizon of expectations according to which Kagawa was received.
This paper looks at Singh and Kagawa’s reception during the 1920s within the context of North American interest in mysticism and non-traditional religious movements and seeks to understand 1) how the reception of Singh informed the reception of Kagawa, and 2) how the publishing successes of both men shaped the North American religious imagination with regards to Asian Christianity and theology. I will use a literary historical methodology and my primary sources will be book reviews, popular and academic theology articles, and citations of Singh and Kagawa’s books between 1920 and 1930. I will also rely on the scholarship of Courtney Bender and Leigh Eric Schmidt with regards to North American interests in mysticism; Matthew Hedstrom and Daniel Vaca on 20th century Christian book cultures; and several scholars of American literary Orientalism.
In May 1925, the New York Times reviewed Toyohiko Kagawa’s Before the Dawn, a Japanese bestseller that helped to bring Kagawa national public recognition both at home and in the United States. North Americans reviewers labeled Kagawa a mystic comparable to American spiritualists such Walt Whitman. But why was Kagawa, who in the Japanese context was primarily known and recognized as a social reformer, termed a mystic? Kagawa’s significance and his representation to American audiences as a mystic is best explained against the backdrop of another Asian Christian author who was published during the 1920s – Sundar Singh. Singh was a Sikh convert who lived as a Christian sadhu, or holy man, and became internationally famous through his books and speaking tours. Like Kagawa, Singh and his theological writings were largely discussed as mystical. This paper looks at Singh and Kagawa’s reception during the 1920s within the context of North American interest in mysticism and non-traditional religious movements and seeks to understand 1) how the reception of Singh informed the reception of Kagawa, and 2) how the publishing successes of both men shaped the North American religious imagination with regards to Asian Christianity and theology.