Under what conditions does compassion become altruism, a selfless act without any expectation for reward? Who is moved to share suffering, even when doing so comes at one’s own expense? And how does the transformation of compassion into a selfless act change the ways that society is organized and governed? In this talk, I trace a history of the compassionate activities of Rissho Kosei-kai (RK), a “new religion” formed in 1938. I explore how the formation of the category of religion in postwar Japan binds certain groups of people to self-destructive practices of giving and facilitating “relationships." Understanding this process – a process whereby compassion ironically breaks down durable forms of belonging – is critical to understanding how religious traditions are moved to produce secular society. It is also critical to understanding why other traditions actively avoid categorization as “religious” or work to produce religious nationalisms. In the broadest terms, tracing a history of how compassion has become altruism vis-à-vis the category of religion offers insights into the relation between governance and alienation in contemporary Japan and beyond. 

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About the speaker.

Michael Berman is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in Anthropology at Brandeis University. He was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities at Brown University and has held positions at UC San Diego, CUNY Hunter College, CUNY City College, and the University of Tokyo. His research links questions about the nature of form, relations, generality, language, and history to questions posed at the level of experience and interaction. More specifically, he asks why it is sometimes difficult to sustain meaningful relationships despite the desire to do so; how the processes involved in creating a form of relations, like a religion or humanitarian movement, sometimes lead to its undoing; and why many people come to feel isolated despite being surrounded by other people in their daily lives.

Michael has published multiple translations, including Yuki Masami’s book Foodscapes of Contemporary Japanese Women Writers (2015), and is revising his first book manuscript, Heart of a Heartless World. His original work has appeared in several top-tier journals, including American Ethnologist, Language and Communication, positions: asia critique, and the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology.