| Position | Associate Professor |
|---|---|
| Faculty | Religious Studies |
| Graduate School | Religious Studies |
| Department | Religious Studies |
Career
| July 2012: | Withdrew from the doctoral program in the Department of Religious Studies, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo after completing the coursework. |
| April 2019: | Appointed to the Faculty of Letters, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo |
Research Area
Religious Studies, History of Religion
1) Early Modern European Mysticism (la mystique)
Historical and philosophical study of mystical experience and faith through the reading and interpretation of early modern mystical texts centered on Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, and Jean-Joseph Surin.
2) History of Christian Spirituality
Historiography of Christian spirituality focusing on the continuities and discontinuities from the High Middle Ages to the early modern period and from the early modern period to the modern and contemporary eras. (Recently, I have been actively incorporating feminist perspectives.)
3) Research on Michel de Certeau
This includes the development of Certeau’s groundbreaking research on mysticism and religion, as well as an understanding of his ‘thelogoly’ as a response to the crisis in contemporary Catholicism since the 1960s.
I am conducting research on the intellectual trend known as 'mysticism (la mystique),' which flourished primarily in early modern Europe, especially in 16th-century Spain and 17th-century France. My aim is to understand this intellectual movement, which emerged during the transitional period from the medieval to the modern era, not solely within the framework of religious history or the history of Christian spirituality but also in the context of the seismic shifts in the relationship between faith and knowledge that Western Europe experienced during the Reformation, the Age of Exploration, and the Scientific Revolution. The initial results of this research were compiled in my work Jean-Joseph Surin: A Twilight of 17th Century French Mysticism (2016). In addition to delving into early modern mystical texts, I am also engaged in redefining the concept of 'mysticism,' which has dominated religious studies since the 19th century, and exploring the potential to reinterpret it as a form of contemporary religious thought―a radical knowledge that seeks to speak of the 'Other.' Currently, I am working on a genealogical study of the interpretative history concerning John of the Cross's 'Dark Night.' Furthermore, I am trying to advance the reevaluation of Michel de Certeau's works.
