現代人の精神構造と古代人の精神構造―田川建三先生の場合

Modern Mind and Ancient Mind―The Case of Dr. Kenzo Tagawa

Whether his conclusions are true or untrue, Dr. Kenzo Tagawa’s dissertation was completed in the socio-political milieu of the post-WWII period, which welcomed the class strife even in the academic world. His book Miracles et Evangile, la Pensée personelle de l’évangéliste Marc appeared in 1966, a time (1960s and 1970s) when Zengakuren-type disturbances prevailed all over the world. Zengakuren (全学連) was an umbrella organization of Japanese left-wing student sects.

I have occasionally visited Dr. Tagawa’s Web site in Japanese, and recently I found that he had revised the site two or three times in the past several months. When I visited this time, what impressed me most were his polite expressions to the reader. In effect, he used the phrase “Sumimasen (すみません)”—which means “I am sorry” or “Excuse me” or sometimes “Thank you”—here and there. Throughout his Web site, Dr. Tagawa is trying to do sales promotion for his books in Japanese, in addition to announcing his Bible and biblical language classes, which he calls “Shijuku (私塾),” or his own private school.

In a sense, I truly admire his recent activities after retirement, like Shijuku and his Web site announcements. After his long career, in my opinion, Dr. Tagawa is now teaching the subjects he likes most. Because of his rebellious (!?) faith, he was expelled from the International Christian University (国際基督教大学), Tokyo, where he got his first teaching post after the publication of his dissertation. The situation in the Japanese Christian world was　(and still is) special. Dr. Tagawa was never again hired as a teacher of the Bible in Japan after the incident, and so he went on to teach French and sociology in secular universities instead.

Well . . . perhaps I have written too much about his private history. Again, whether Dr. Tagawa’s methodology is true or untrue, in the 1960s and 1970s biblical scholars tended toward a “modern mind” interpretation rather than “ancient mind” historical research. That’s his . . . and you may know why I am writing this entry in English.