Heinrich Dumoulin

Dumoulin was born in the village of Wevelinghoven, Rhineland, Germany, the son of a notary public. He studied philosophy in Holland and France, receiving his doctoral degree in 1929, and was ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1933.^[2] In 1935, he was sent to Japan on missions under the guidance of Fr. Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle, where he became fluent in the Shinto religion and Buddhism.^[3]

Dumoulin was a scholar of Zen Buddhism and wrote several books on its history, first urged to do it by the American Buddhist Ruth Fuller Sasaki. His Zen Buddhism: A history was published in 1988, translated from the original German by James Heisig and Paul Knitter.^[4]

He died in 1995 at the age of 90, after being hospitalized for three weeks, and was buried at the St. Ignatius Church, Tokyo.^[5]

According to John Jorgensen Dumoulin was "the foremost exponent of the history of Zen Buddhism to the West".^[6] The 1985 double number of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies was dedicated to him and his work.

• The Development of Chinese Zen After the Sixth Patriarch in the Light of the Mumonkan (1953, First Zen Institute of America)
• A History of Zen Buddhism (1963, Pantheon Books)
• Christianity Meets Buddhism (1974, Open Court Publishing)
• Buddhism in the Modern World (1976, Macmillan Publishing)
• Zen Enlightenment: Origins and Meaning (1979, Weatherhill)
• Zen Buddhism in the Twentieth Century (1992)
• Understanding Buddhism: Key Themes (1994), Weatherhill
• Zen Buddhism: A History; Volume 1 India and China, (2005, World Wisdom) ISBN 978-094153289-1
• Zen Buddhism: A History; Volume 2 Japan, (2005, World Wisdom) ISBN 978-094153290-7