James W. Heisig (Boston, 1944), holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, England, and spent several years dedicated to teaching in the United States and Latin America before joining the team at the Institute of Religion and Culture at Nanzan, Nagoya (Japan) as a permanent member in 1979. During the years spent under the Institute, where he was director between 1991 and 2001, has worked actively to promote dialogue among religions and philosophies of East and West, both in Japan and throughout East Asia. His published work as an author, translator and edited volumes amounts to a compendium of over 55 titles in 10 languages, which include Imago Dei: A Study of C. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion (1977), Philosophers of Nothingness (Barcelona, 2002), Dialogues within an inch of soil (2004) and the globalization of the Japanese philosophy (2006, in Japanese). He currently leads an international team of researchers in the preparation of a comprehensive reference work on Japanese philosophy.