Research

Curriculum Vitae

List of publications

Research Interests

I received my MA in philosophy from Tokyo Metropolitan University. At the postgraduate school, I studied the problem of human freedom and divine foreknowledge in Augustine’s Free Choice of the Will and other writings. In the following years, I was engaged in my doctoral thesis in philosophy and received Ph.D. in 2004 from Tokyo Metropolitan University. It was entitled ‘Spiritual Exercises and the Transformation of the ars vivendi,’ in which I considered the problem of exercitatio animi and its correlation with the late antique ethics and hermeneutics in Augustine’s early works.

My principal area of research is the philosophy of late antiquity and early Christian thought. I also have an interest in both the exegesis in patristic literature and Ancient philosophy and its later influence. I have written papers about Augustine’s view of ethics and scriptural interpretation to be defined as a prescription of a philosophical, spiritual, and common way of life in the North African faith community. I am currently pursuing a research project: ‘Christian Identities and Their Relationship with Monasticism in the Works of Augustine.’ This project directs my attention to the writers of North African Christianity, that is, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Lactantius.

During the previous several years I worked on the projects entitled ‘Joint Studies in the Perspectives on Poverty in an Era of Crisis: Testing Some Social Models of Early Christianity’ and ‘Augustine’s Understanding and Practice of Poverty in an Era of Crisis.’ Both projects focus on the approach to Patristics socio-ethical texts, especially thinking about the wealth, poverty, and eschatology in Augustine’s Sermones ad populum, Enarrationes in Psalmos, and some related writings.

I also explored the details of the scriptural exegesis in Augustine’s early treatises on both the book of Genesis and Pauline’s epistles. I was particularly interested in not solely on what is often called ‘Ancient Christian exegesis’ in a broader currency. Instead, the solid model for interpreting and preaching the scriptures in the context of contemporary philosophical, theological, and pastoral thinking of Augustine is chosen to indicate a much clearer spectrum of the project: ‘The Theory and Practice of the Scriptural Exegesis in Augustine.’

Equally interested in the development of web-based resources for the study of Augustine of Hippo and his later influence.

Research Grants

2021–2023: ‘A New Approach to Late Antique Philosophy: Augustine’s Contribution to Christian Psychagogy’

2017–2021: ‘Memories of Utopia: Destroying the Past to Create the Future (300–650 CE)’

  • Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project (DP170104595 June 2017–December 2021), served as an International Collaborator
  • Project website, part of Humanities Commons

2017–2019: ‘Patristic Thoughts and Con-viviality in Our Time’

2014–2016: ‘Christian Identities and Their Relationship with Monasticism in the Works of Augustine’

2011–2013: ‘The Theory and Practice of the Scriptural Exegesis in Augustine’

2009–2011: ‘Augustine’s Understanding and Practice of Poverty in an Era of Crisis’

2008: ‘Joint Studies in the Perspectives on Poverty in an Era of Crisis: Testing Some Social Models of Early Christianity’