James W. Heisig

Professor emeritus, Nanzan University,
Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture

After completing his studies in Europe (Ph.D. Cantab.), Dr. Heisig taught philosophy and religion in the United States and Latin America for five years. He joined the staff of the Nanzan Institute in 1978 and served as Director from 1991 to 2001.
 His writings, which have appeared in 18 languages, include over 90 volumes of original works, translations, and edited collections. Among them:

• El cuento detrás del cuento: Un ensayo sobre psique y mito
• Imago Dei: A Study of C. G. Jung’s Psychology of Religion
• Filósofos de la nada (available in English as Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School)
• Dialogues at One Inch above the Ground
• El gemelo de Jesús: Un alumbramiento al budismo  (available in English as Jesus’ Twin: A Dialogue with the Gospel of Thomas)
• Nothingness and Desire: An East-West Philosophical Antiphony
• Much Ado About Nothingness: Essays on Nishida and Tanabe 
• Of Gods and Minds
• In Praise of Civility 
• Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook (ed. with J. C. Maraldo and T. P. Kasulis)
    

Dr. Heisig is also the general Editor of the series “Nanzan Studies in Religion and Culture” and “Frontiers in Japanese Philosophy,” co-editor of Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture, an Italian series on Japanese philosophy, “Tetsugaku,” a series of volumes on “Korean Religions,” and the author of a best-selling series of books on the Japanese writing system and later a series on the Chinese writing system.

In 2015 he was awarded a doctorate honoris causa by Tallin University, Estonia. In 2021 he was awarded the Kanazawa University International Award in Commemoration of Daisetz T. Suzuki and Kitaro Nishida. In 2023 he was awarded Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure.