Christopher Ives teaches in the area of Asian Religions and in his scholarship he focuses on modern Zen ethics. In 2009, he published Imperial-Way Zen (University of Hawaii Press, 2009), a book on Buddhist social ethics in light of Zen nationalism, especially as treated by Buddhist ethicist Ichikawa Hakugen (1902–86). Currently he is engaged in research and writing on Zen approaches to nature and Buddhist environmental ethics. His other book publications include Zen on the Trail: Hiking as Pilgrimage (Wisdom, 2018); Zen Awakening and Society (University of Hawaii Press, 1992); a translation of philosopher Nishida Kitaro’s An Inquiry into the Good (co- translated with Abe Masao, Yale University Press, 1990); a translation of Hisamatsu Shin’ichi’s Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition (co-translated with Tokiwa Gishin, University of Hawaii Press, 2002); The Emptying God (co-edited with John B. Cobb, Jr., Orbis Books, 1990); and Divine Emptiness and Historical Fullness (edited volume, Trinity Press International, 1995).
