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Book Review: Holy Warriors

September 5th, 2007 at 08:12am Albert McIlhenny

The Way of the Christian Samurai: Reflections for Servant-Warriors of Christ – Paul Nowak R.A.G.E. Media (June 15, 2007) Topic: Ethics, Morality, & the Christian Life Summary: Application of Samurai principles to Christian living Rating:

A lot of people will get nervous about a book that suggests Christians have something to learn from the Samurai about how to serve the Lord. After all, weren’t the Samauri pagans? And doesn’t all of this reek of the sort of syncretism that attempts to equate all religions? It might except for two facts: Not all pagans were monsters and the modern West (including most of the Christians living there) have a lot to learn from the Samauri about the time honored concept of willing servitude.

Paul Nowak attempts to remedy that situation with The Way of the Christian Samurai. Consisting on excerpts from noted samauri masters (the samurai were a class of elite warriors in feudal Japan) with commentary noting applications to the Christian life, the book demonstrates how much modern society has lost in its quest for unrestrained egalitarianism. Certain passages in the New Testament – particularly those showing the deference given by the Apostles and others to Jesus (even before they knew His true nature as the Son of God) – can be misconstrued without understanding the cultural milieu wherein a respected figure was shown honor by those he visited and subservience by his followers. This is at odds with our own tradition on self-reliance to the point of self-centeredness that has led to the highly individualistic form of Christianity that has taken root in America (both on the liberal and conservative ends of the spectrum). The result is the claim of Jesus as Lord without fully grasping the import of claiming someone as Lord.

The samauri may not have been Christian but they did understand concepts that are applicable to the Christian life – often better than we. Integrity, loyalty, honor, service, courage, and self-sacrifice are all things that the samurai were instructed to live. Naturally, many failed in their personal lives but that is as true of Christian clerics as of samurai warriors. The important thing was that they understood the standard for which they strived while in many cases we in the postmodern world are oblivious to the existence of standards.

The excerpts on serving one’s lord are eye-openers for any Christian with a “soft” view of service that rarely goes beyond activities at their local church. The willingness of a warrior to give himself completely to his lord underscores what it means to make oneself part of the “body of Christ”. The Church, in this context, is not an abstract collection of like-minded individuals, but a concrete force sent out to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ a dying world.

To Nowak’s credit, he constantly emphasizes that the Samurai are not in any way Christian and the Samurai way is infinitely inferior to the Way of Christ. The samurai way is at times at odds with the Christian way and in these instances we are to reject the samurai teaching. However, we can learn how we are to serve our lord by the standards the samurai set in serving theirs. It is not a direct application of samurai teachings but one by analogy. It in a sense becomes comparable to how the early Church was able to utilize classical pagan philosopy in systematizing its own theology.

In all this talk of service, one might ask: What about freedom? Indeed, the Christian faith is certainly about freedom. It is about being freed from the bondage of sin but this freedom is found in placing oneself under the headship of Christ. Christians find freedom in becoming part of Christ’s body the Church when we place ourselves in service to Him. This does not at all correlate with the modern idea of freedom that insists we must follow our own desires, but looks back to a time when willingly placing oneself in the service of a great leader was considered a virtue not a vice.

The Way of the Christian Samurai is truly an unusual book among the many published that seek to link Christianity to various Eastern religions or philosophies. It’s uniqueness lies not in any success in doing so, but in its insistence that any such linkage must be judged by the known truths of the Christian faith. Given the limited focus of the book, its acknowledgment of the superiority Biblical teaching, and its usefulness in shedding light on often ignored facets of the Christian way, it is an important book that can be read with profit by those in the Church.

Entry Filed under: Essential Books, Ethics, Morality, & the Christian Life, Nowak, Paul