Chikuro Hiroike and Felix Adler

Chikuro Hiroike (1866–1938) in Japan and Felix Adler (1851–1933) in the United States both founded movements as responses to what they saw as an ethical crisis produced by the forces of modernization and secularization in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. Believing that traditional religious organizations were no longer capable of defending the cause of morality, they sought to protect and advance it in new ways. This article compares their approaches, in terms of both thought and action, and finds that they shared a number of features, including a preoccupation with education and good works. The differences between the 2 men, however, especially in their attitudes toward the divine, illustrate the complexity of the reactions to the onset of modernity across the globe, and should be taken as further evidence for the existence of “multiple secularities” during the period in question.