In many aspects of social life Japan shares with the whole world the consequences of the World War, particularly in the intricate connections between social unrest and spiritual agitation. Japan had passed through two wars in recent times; they aroused the nation to national self-consciousness, but they brought also many new problems. Yet those wars were fought far from Japan itself, and did not bring home the disasters and miseries of war. In the World War Japan took a part, but it remained for the people a matter of distant lands. Thus they were comparatively indifferent to the various issues raised by the war, such as the combat between militarism and democracy, the questions of international justice and the self-determination of nations, the problems of peace and social reconstruction. Moreover, their indignation against the aggressive Occident led the people to discredit the pleas of the allies against Germany, and often to incline to sympathize with the German claim of “a place in the sun.” These circumstances tended to keep the Japanese comparatively untouched by the problems created by the war. But the collapse of the great empires and the final outcome of the war could not fail to produce a profound impression among the Japanese. Although the people at large did not realize the whole situation, yet the gravity of the changes and problems was more or less fully grasped, and serious thought was stirred on social and religious questions.

In the introduction to my first article (Harvard Theological Review, October 1921) I have already remarked that it is neither necessary nor possible to present the literature of mediaeval church history with the fullness which is desirable for the history of the early church. In a general survey everything that has only a local interest must be omitted, and even in what remains the wheat must be winnowed from the chaff. The reviewer need not complain of lack of material; indeed what is valuable greatly exceeds in amount what is unimportant. This is especially true of those comprehensive treatises which deal either with the Middle Ages as a whole or with special periods.