The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1580 page)

see
MO TZU
.

 
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(1730–1801).
Leading scholar of the New Learning (
Kokugaku
) movement in the Shinto revival (
Fukko Shint
). Motoori was a pupil of
Kamo no Mabuchi
, who had insisted that the Many
sh
poetry of the 8th cent. (and earlier) had been free of foreign influence and thus expressed the genuine Japanese spirit without adulteration. Motoori pushed this quest for the genuine Japanese spirit into other areas, especially in rescuing the
Kojiki
from relative neglect in comparison with the
Nihongi
(
Nihonshoki
). The adoration of the Sun (
Amaterasu
) indicates that Japan gave birth to the Sun (Nippon means ‘origin of sun’), from which it follows that Japan and its people are ‘closer to God’ than any other people. Motoori took other classic Japanese works and set them in the foundation of the true and pure spirit which should inform life—e.g.
Shinkokinsh
(The New Collection of Poetry Ancient and Modern, compiled
c.
1205) and Murasaki Shikibu's
Tale of Genji
. He took the latter to be portraying the sensitivity of a good life—what he called
mono no aware
, which becomes the key virtue in the Shinto revival.

 
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(1865–1955).
American
Methodist
layman and
ecumenical
pioneer. He was instrumental in convening the first International Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910, devoting himself tirelessly to the
ecumenical
movement through the International Missionary Council, ‘Life and Work’, and the World Council of Churches, of which he became co-president in 1948.

 
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(Lat., ‘on his own initiative’). A papal ordinance emanating from the
pope
himself (rather than the
curia
) and bearing his signature. It deals with matters of discipline less important than in an ‘apostolic constitution’.

 
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