Critical Readings on Christianity in Japan is a multidisciplinary collection of scholarship on the history, cultural reshaping, and social impact of a relative latecomer to the world of Japanese religions. The selected studies are arranged historically and analyze the particular challenges and roles played by this minority religion over the course of five centuries, beginning with the mission of the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century.

The readings critically examine the diverse institutional forms of Christianity, including transplanted mission churches from the West, indigenous movements, and charismatic movements and churches from the new, non-Western centers of world Christianity. Particular attention is given to the role of Japanese actors in movements of social reform and political engagement, and to alternative expressions of Christianity through ritual, theology, and literature.