Toyohiko Kagawa and Reinhold Niebuhr

Toyohiko Kagawa, a Japanese evangelist and social activist, preached and practiced cooperatives as integral to the nature and mission of the Christian church. Using pulpit, podium, and pen, Kagawa blended a call for heart conversion with a call to establish Christian cooperatives. When Kagawa stumped America promoting this vision in 1936, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr expressed reservations. Unlike Kagawa, Niebuhr saw cooperatives as no panacea, though lending his support to an experimental cooperative in the U.S. that was doomed to fail. Kagawa faced opposition from within the church, but shared the podium with Billy Graham during the young evangelist’s Tokyo crusade in 1956. This essay draws from Kagawa’s vision and Niebuhr’s critique insights for the church today: the need for visions without illusions, the difficulty of linking church and cooperatives, and the value of reforming the church’s approach to mission through reflection and a deeper analysis of the human condition.