In Memory of Yoshihiko Masuda(1946 - 2015)

Dr. Yoshihiko Masuda, a professor at the Cheong Shim Theological Seminary, ascended to the Spirit World at his daughter’s home in Arizona while recovering from a stroke. Dr. Masuda was a kind, gentle, soft-spoken man of deep inner conviction. He was blessed in marriage to Yasuko Takahashi in 1977 and is survived by two sons and two daughters.

Dr. Yoshihiko Masuda was born on September 4, 1946, joined the Unification Church in Tokyo in 1965, came to America in 1973 and was blessed in marriage to Yasuko Takahashi in 1977. He graduated from the first class of the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) in 1977.

He earned his doctorate at the University of Southern California by writing a thesis on the social implications of Dr. Martin Luther King’s theology. He taught at UTS for several years in the 1990s and worked with Dr. Andrew Wilson (UTS ’78) on the World Scripture project.  His most notable work was the Japanese publication of True Love, Absolute Sex and Health (TLASH) based on True Father’s guidance to blessed families. He published several works in English that have circulated including “The 20 Daily Life Habits That Make a Supremely Happy Couple,” a selection of excerpts from TLASH.

September 4, 1946 – February 20, 2015

1965 – 1972 University of Tokyo, Department of Law, Major: Political Science. B.Law

1972 Director of Tokyo University CARP Center

1972 Director of All Japan HARP (Highschool Students’ Association for the Research of Principles)

1972 – 1973 District Leader of Hyogo-ken and Director of Kobe Church

1973 – 1975 Missionary to the United States

1975 – 1977 Unification Theological Seminary, Barrytown, New York, Religious Education

1977 – 1978 Special Assistant to Mr. Kamiyama

1978 – 1980 Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Historical Studies: Anglo-American Theology, M.A.

1980 – 1987 University of Southern California, Religion (Social Ethics), Ph.D.

1987 – 1993 International Religious/Cultural Foundation, World Scripture & Encyclopedia Projects, Researcher

1987 – 1993 Part-time Lecturer, Unification Theological Seminary, Barrytown, New York.

1994 – 2004 Assistant Professor & Associate Professor, College of Theology & Graduate School of Theology, Sun Moon University

1994 – 1999 Dean at the Graduate School of Theology, Sun Moon University.

2004 – now Associate Professor at Cheongshim Graduate School of Theology

Dr. Masuda wrote for the first volume of the Journal of Unification Studies in 1997:

In this paper, we will discuss certain cultural trends by examining paradigm changes of the way relationships are conceived in the family and in the world. We will attempt not only to describe these cultural trends but also to prescribe the desirable changes in culture. Scholars have discussed “culture” from a number of different perspectives. In this paper, it would not be wrong to say that, by culture we generally mean “shared values.” In other words, its meaning is not so different from a common-sense use of the term.

Looking from the perspective of Unification Thought, we affirm with an increasingly large consensus of scholars in that the family is the most important place for inheriting and creating a culture of shared values. Therefore, in the first section of this paper, we will discuss cultural trends in families by focusing on the relationship between husband and wife. We will illuminate the paradigm shifts in the relationship between men and women, in large part, through examining the rise and transformation of the feminist movement in the United States. On that basis, we will present as the general flow of the paradigm shifts in the relationship between men and women as from dependence to independence to interdependence.