INTERCULTURAL ENCOUNTERS AS RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: JAPANESE STUDENTS AT A CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY AND THEIR RELIGIOUS TRANSFORMATION

It is commonly acknowledged by many that Japanese teenagers in general hold very negative views of organized religious. However the researcher, as an educator at a Christian University in California, observed every year a great number of Japanese international students becoming persons who paint positive pictures of religion. A study done on those students, utilizing die method of grounded theory, uncovered the following. One, their cross-cultural experiences created crisis situations, which became a catalyst to question their uncritical beliefs about religion. Two, their positive personal encounters with religious people in the United Sates caused them to experience transformation.