Kenneth Lewis Kraft (July 16, 1949 – October 1, 2018) was a professor of Buddhist studies and Japanese religions (emeritus) at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
[1] In 2008, he participated in "Secrets of the Samurai Sword," a NOVA documentary, and, in 2009, "Inquiry into the Great Matter: A History of Zen Buddhism," an independent film.
Kraft documented Daitō's life,[4] his teaching,[5] and his role in the development of capping phrases (jakugo), a form of spiritual/literary commentary.
Columbia University scholar Thomas Yarnall has criticized the work of Kraft and other "modernists" who "appropriate, own, and reinvent Buddhism from the ground up."
[13] Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism, an anthology coedited in 2000 by Kraft and Stephanie Kaza, was an early contribution to an emerging field.
In 2005, he received a Lindback Foundation Award for distinguished teaching by a senior member of the Lehigh University faculty.