is a Japanese researcher of early Christianity
and
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
. Arai is a Doctor of Theology Professor emeritus of
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...
and
Keisen University
is a private women's college in Tama, Tokyo, Japan, established in 1988. The university is linked to the Keisen School for Young Women, founded in 1929 by Michi Kawai, the National Secretary of the Young Women's Christian Associations of Japan.
...
, and a member of the
Japan Academy
The Japan Academy ( Japanese: 日本学士院, ''Nihon Gakushiin'') is an honorary organisation and science academy founded in 1879 to bring together leading Japanese scholars with distinguished records of scientific achievements. The Academy is ...
. He graduated (1962) at Erlangen-Nürnberg University in Germany.
He and his wife (and daughter Keiko) lived in the early 1960s with the family of the later Bishop of Bavaria and President of the Lutheran World Congress, Johannes Hanselmann, in Grub am Forst, Oberfranken, Germany.
Arai was a pioneer of the studies of Gnosticism after the discovery of the
Nag Hammadi library
The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the " Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945.
Thirteen leather-bound papyr ...
.
Works
Books
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Edited by
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References
1930 births
20th-century biblical scholars
Living people
New Testament scholars
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg alumni
University of Tokyo alumni
Academic staff of Keisen University
Asian biblical scholars
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