The “Hidden Christians” or Kakure Kirishitan went underground in the 17th century when the Tokugawa shogunate repressed Christianity from 1638 until the ban was lifted in 1873. In response, many Christian believers modified their spiritual practices to resemble Buddhist ones on a surface level, but which held hidden Christian meaning.

Depictions of the Virgin Mary modeled on the Buddhist deity Kannon (Avalokiteśvara), goddess of mercy, were known as "Maria Kannon". The prayers were adapted to sound like Buddhist chant, yet retained many untranslated words from Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Bible and other parts of the liturgy were passed down orally, because printed works could be confiscated by authorities.

Approximately 30,000 secret Christians came out of hiding in 1873 after the Meiji Restoration. The Kakure Kirishitan became known as Mukashi Kirishitan or 'ancient Christians.' Some Kakure Kirishitan did not rejoin the Catholic Church and became known as the Hanare Kirishitan or 'separated Christians' and live on the Gotō Islands. Today, there are less than 100 Hidden Christians left on the island of Ikitsuki in Nagasaki, down from 10,000 in the 1940s.

In this episode, Christine Leong interviewed me to explain what I discovered about these “Hidden Christians”.

I have heard of Malta but knew very little about this speck of rock between Europe and Africa. Until I visited this crossroads of Afro-Euro maritime civilization.

Western civilization is inextricably linked to Christianity. Although Jesus never left Israel and did not leave us any writings, Paul wrote half of the New Testament and traveled across the Roman Empire covering three sides of the Mediterranean Sea. Both Christianity and western civilization were shaped by Paul. It is impossible to understand Europe, the Americas, Australasia as well as much of Africa and Asia without a basic knowledge of Paul’s travels and thoughts.

In AD 60, Paul was shipwrecked and imprisoned in Malta. But his 3 month stay led to Malta becoming the first European community to embrace Christianity. Modern archaeology affirms this account. Today, Malta has 360 churches for a population of just 500,000 residents.

In October, I traced the Footsteps of Paul in Malta and visited St Paul’s Grotto, the cave where the Apostle was under arrest.

St. Augustine wrote that Christianity is FAITH SEEKING UNDERSTANDING.

With the benefit of the science and technology of archaeology, we can separate the facts from fictions of faith. This is how Thinking Things Through leads to a Faith that Seeks Understanding.

This episode features a tribute to one of Ron’s mentors, Samuel H. Moffett of Princeton. Moffett was born inPyongyang, Korea to a missionary family. He was a pioneer in documenting the story of Christianity east of Jerusalem, in Asia. Sam passed away in 2015 at the age of 99.

This 10-minute episode captures Sam Moffett’s influence on Ron’s thought.