TAJIMA, Takashi Associate Professor
What is the purpose of life?
What the Old Testament brings us
Besides being a book of faith, the Old Testament also serves as a record of crises such as wars and the downfall of nations. In other words, it is a text that sustained people's lives amidst great turmoil and crisis. We are studying what the Bible teaches us.
Actually, I was in the science stream until my third year of high school, but before taking my entrance exams, I started thinking about the meaning of my life, which led me to my current path. When you think about it, everyone lives with something they can't compromise on. This field of study is about questioning those ultimate values.
- Main research areas: Old Testament studies, ethics
- Courses taught: Introduction to the Old Testament I & II, Old Testament Theology I & II, etc.
Research topic
Old Testament studies, ethics, religious studies
Research Topics
Philosophical interpretation of the Old Testament
Interpretations of the Old Testament can be broadly categorized into two approaches: a historical approach that utilizes archaeological findings and other research to analyze the historical context of the time, examining the process of the document's creation and its contemporary meaning; and a literary critical approach that analyzes the literary significance of the Bible's final form. Both are important analytical methods, but relying solely on one can lead to a loss of relevance for contemporary readers and society, or conversely, to the risk of readers falling into their own arbitrary assumptions. It is necessary to consider both approaches, and with that in mind, we consider God, religion, and human life while re-examining the modern era.
On the other hand, the Old Testament also has the aspect of being a document that survived and was passed down through times of war, forced labor, and crisis. In other words, the Old Testament is a book that documents the memories of those who died tragically, the memories of suffering, and questions of reconciliation and rebirth in the form of questions to God and dialogues with God. In short, the Old Testament is a collection of documents that deal with universal problems that humanity is inevitably forced to face, in addition to its value as the canon of a particular religion, and the aim is to consider the essence of these problems through the Old Testament.
Examples of graduation thesis titles from the Tajima Seminar
- "What was the 'ideal image of a king' that Saul was looking for?"
- "Should the Song of Solomon be included in the canon?"
- "The Application of Narrative Theory to Religious Education: A Case Study of the Abrahamic Mysteries"
- On the elements of misogyny gleaned from the "Pandora myth"
Recent works
- "The Old Testament as Witness," serialized in the May 2024 issue of "Gospel and the World."
- "Guilt, Vengeance, and Forgiveness in the Book of Jeremiah," The United Church of Christ in Japan Publishing House, 2018.
- "Understanding 'Asham' in Isaiah Chapter 53," "Bulletin of the Institute for Christian Culture, Tohoku Gakuin University," No. 39, 2021.
- "A Separation for the World—The Primordial Concept of Separation in Buber," Kyoto Jewish Thought, No. 7 (2), "Special Issue: Martin Buber: Echoes of Dialogical Thought," 2019.
- "Toward a Philosophical Understanding of Elegy," *Journal of Ethics*, Vol. 25 (University of Tokyo), 2018.
For more details, please see researchmap.