Welfare thought and its practice

Welfare thought and its practice

One of the origins of welfare thought is the poor relief system in ancient Jewish society. The system is based on the “Book of Ruth” of the Bible, etc., and the poor relief was regulated as the Peah (Gleaning) in Mishnah and Talmud in Judaism. In the 1st century AD, in the primitive Christianity, the philosophy and method in the charity of Judaism until that time was inherited as the charity of Christianity.
In the Middle Ages, Mishneh Torah was written by Maimonides who was a Jewish spiritual leader, in which systematization of the Jewish charity (philanthropy) was performed. The idea of Jewish charity by Maimonides was later taken over to Jewish social work, which is still alive today.
Meanwhile, in Christianity, in Europe, the practice of the Gleaning or “the Parable of the Good Samaritan” became rooted as a volunteer spirit of the Christian society. In France, the decree for “The gleaning” was issued in 1554, in order to guarantee the lives of the poor, and the provisions of the gleaning are also seen in Napoleon’s Code of 1810. The work of that famous Millet’s painting “The gleaning (Des glaneuses)” painted in 1857 was created by projecting the story of the gleaning of the “Book of Ruth” of the Bible into the custom of the gleaning of the Millet era.
In this way, the thought of welfare has been developed to protect people’s lives as a part of human history. To the social welfare of today, the welfare thought which has followed such a long history flows as an underground waterway. I am engaged in such a research and hope that my students will be interested in the root thought of welfare (“welfare” means “happiness”) through learning.

TANAKA Toshimitsu

TANAKA Toshimitsu

Professor
Subject of Studies : Thoughts on Welfare