Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture Staff: James W. Heisig

Paul L. Swanson

Permanent Fellow and Director, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture
Professor, Faculty of Humanities, Nanzan University
e-Mail address: pswanson@nanzan-u.ac.jp

Paul is an MK ("missionary kid") who was born and raised in Japan. He has four children and one wife, is a Bob Dylan freak, helps edit the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, and is fighting a losing battle against an expanding waistline and inevitable middle age. He did his graduate studies at Sophia University, the University of Tokyo, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His dual areas of specialization are Japanese Religions (Shugendo) and Buddhist Studies (T'ien-t'ai/Tendai Buddhism). His publications include:

Foundations of T'ien-t'ai Philosophy, a study of the threefold truth as the basic structure of T'ien-t'ai Buddhist philosophy, including an annotated translation of part of the Fa-hua hsuan-i.
Religion and Society in Modern Japan, a collection of essays intended for use as a textbook for classes on Japanese religions
Pruning the Bodhi Tree, a collection of essays on "Critical Buddhism"
If you teach me Japanese, I'll teach you English, a guide to exchanging language
Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions, edited with Clark Chilson

Paul's current projects include:

translating the Mo-ho chih-kuan into English (order CD-ROM here)
editing a series of books on Asian religion

A list of published writings is avalable in PDF format and may be downloaded for reading with Adobe Acrobat.