Buddhism and Christianity: Difference between revisions
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==Origins of Buddhism and Christianity== |
==Origins of Buddhism and Christianity== |
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Buddhism [[history of Buddhism|originated]] in India, about 500 years before the [[Apostolic Age]] and the [[origins of Christianity]] in Israel. Both Buddhism and Christianity are |
Buddhism [[history of Buddhism|originated]] in India, about 500 years before the [[Apostolic Age]] and the [[origins of Christianity]] in Israel. Both Buddhism and Christianity are now proportionally diminished in their countries of origin. |
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==Similarities== |
==Similarities== |
Revision as of 05:07, 4 May 2012
There is speculation concerning a possible connection between Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ, and between Buddhism and Christianity, because of perceived similarities. These similarities may be caused by cultural exchanges between the Hellenistic world and the Indian subcontinent.
Origins of Buddhism and Christianity
Buddhism originated in India, about 500 years before the Apostolic Age and the origins of Christianity in Israel. Both Buddhism and Christianity are now proportionally diminished in their countries of origin.
Similarities
A wide range of similarities have been perceived:
- Parallels between Buddha and Jesus:
- The sayings of the Buddha and Jesus
- Birth stories
- Infancy stories
- Miracle stories
- Between Mary, Queen Maya and Guan Yin
- The Wisdom-literature
- Morality
- Religious symbolism
- Administrative structures
These similarities were first noted by European travellers, merchants and Jesuits. When the western colonisation of Asia took shape, academic interest arose. In the 20th century followed lay interest in Buddhism, resulting in the spread of Buddhism in the West.
Greco-Buddhism
Hellenistic influence on Buddhism
With the conquests in the 4th century BCE of Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, the Persian world and parts of the Indian subcontinent came under the influence of the Hellenistic world. These influences are traceable in the history of Buddhism. buddha-statues from this period show the influence of a Greece style. The early post-canonical Buddhist text Questions of Milina reflect a discourse between the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda in Pali) of Bactria, who reigned in the 2nd century BCE, posing questions on Buddhism to the sage Nāgasena.
Buddhist influence on Hellenism
The Buddha's teachings spread north-west, into Parthian territory. Buddhist stupa remains have been identified as distant as the Silk Road city of Merv.[1] Soviet archeological teams in Giaur Kala, near Merv, have uncovered a Buddhist monastery, complete with huge buddharupa. Parthian nobles such as An Shih Kao are known to have adopted Buddhism and were among those responsible for its further spread towards China.
Ptolemy II Philadelphus, one of the monarchs Ashoka mentions in his edicts, is recorded by Pliny the Elder as having sent an ambassador named Dionysius to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra[2]
Buddhist influence on Christianity
Scholars have explored direct connections between Buddhism and Christianity.
Early Christianity
Buddhism may have influenced early Christianity.[3][4]
Buddhist missionaries, sent by Emperor Ashoka to Syria, Egypt and Greece, may have helped prepare the ground for Christian teaching.[5] During the life of Jesus Christ[6] and the period in which texts like the Gospel of Thomas were composed, Buddhist missionaries lived in Alexandria, Egypt.[7]
Some have suggested the Church Fathers were acquainted with Buddhist beliefs and practices.[8][9]
"Among the Indians are those philosophers also who follow the precepts of Boutta, whom they honour as a god on account of his extraordinary sanctity." ( Stromata (Miscellanies), Book I, Chapter XV)[8]
Buddhism and Gnosticism
Gnosticism is the name given by early Christian heresiologists to several Christian sects which flourished in the 3rd-5th centuries.
Elaine Pagels proposes Buddhist influences on Gnosticism. Pagels suggested that there are parallels with teachings attributed to Jesus Christ andh teachings found in Eastern traditions, but concludes that these parallels might be coincidental, since parallel traditions may emerge in different cultures without direct influence.[10]
Philip Jenkins (2002) takes a critical view on attempts to contextualise the Christian and Jewish sources of Christian gnostic movements towards Buddhism.[11] Since the mid-19th century, new and fringe religious movements have often created images of Jesus, presenting him as a sage, philosopher and occult teacher, whose teachings are very similar to those of Asian religions. In his view, in modern scholarly writing, Jesus has become more of a Gnostic, Cynic or even a crypto-Buddhist than the traditional notion of the reformist Jewish rabbi.[12]
Mainstream scholarship considers the Gnostics texts within Jewish-Christian traditions. No evidence of a connection to Buddhism has yet been verified.[13]
Christian influence on Buddhism
Christian missionaries
Since the 16th centuries Christian missionaries have been active in Asia, such as in China and Japan. Their influence has been marginal, as they were often seen as a threat to existing political and religious systems.
Buddhist modernism
Though the prevalent romantic view on Buddhism sees it as an authentic and ancient practice, contemporary Buddhism is deeply influenced by the western culture. With the rise of western colonialism in the 19th century, Asian cultures and religions developed strategies to adapt to the western hegmony, without losing their own traditions. Western discourses were taken over, and western polemic styles were applied to defend indigenous traditions.[14]
Contemporary Buddhist-Christian exchange
Buddhism in the west
Buddhism is gaining popularity in the west. Starting with a cultural and academic elite in the 19th century, it is now being spread out among the western culture, especially since the 1960's.[14]
Buddhist-Christian dialogue
Prominent figures of both the Buddhist and the Christian tradition have engaged in buddhist-christian dialogue, such as Masao Abe and Thomas Merton. Heinrich Dumoulin, well-known author on Zen, was a Jesuit living in Japan and studying Japanese culture and religion, just as Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle.
See also
- Buddhism in the West
- Christianity and world religions
- Jesus Sutras
- Yuz Asaf
- God in Buddhism
- Christianity in Asia
- Miracles of Gautama Buddha
- Jesus in Little Tibet
References
- ^ "The Silk Road city of Marv (Grk. Margiana), situated in the eastern part of the Parthian Empire, became a major Buddhist center" Foltz, "Religions of the Silk Road", p47
- ^ Pliny the Elder, "The Natural History", Chap. 21
- ^ Bentley, Jerry H. (1993). Old World Encounters. Cross-cultural contacts and exchanges in pre-modern times. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507639-7.
- ^ Iqbal Singh, S. Radhakrishnan, Arvind Sharma, (2004-06-24)). The Buddhism Omnibus: Comprising Gautama Buddha, The Dhammapada, and The Philosophy of Religion. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195668987.
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(help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ 1. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage, Part One (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1935), vol. 1, p. 449.
- ^ Maguire, Jack (2001). Essential Buddhism. Simon and Schuster. pp. 159–160. ISBN 0671041886.
- ^ Brockman, John (2003-07-17). "The Politics of Christianity: A Talk with Elaine Pagels". The Third Culture. Edge Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
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(help) - ^ a b Hellenic Buddhism and Buddhist Christianity
- ^ The Lotus and the Cross
- ^ Pagels, Elaine (1979, repr. 1989). The Gnostic Gospels. New York: Random House.
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(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ Hidden Gospels:How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way Oxford University Press, 2002
- ^ Jenkins, Philip. "How Gnostic Jesus Became the Christ of Scholars".
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(help) "He attributes this bias to both a postmodern search for meaning and a lay audience hungry for religious truth, while noting that only new interpretations advance academic careers and attract media attention" - ^ The Nag Hammadi library in English p7 Marvin W. Meyer, James McConkey Robinson - 1977 "Thus the history of Gnosticism, as documented in the Nag Hammadi library, takes up about where the history of the Essenes, as documented by the Dead Sea Scrolls, breaks off. Later Jewish mystical traditions, traced especially by Gershom .."
- ^ a b McMahan 2008.
Sources
Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (April 2010) |
- Allegro, John, The Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls Revised, Grammercy Publishing Co., New York, 1981 (first published Penguin Books, 1956).
- Amore, Roy C., Two Masters, One Message, The Lives and the Teachings of Gautama and Jesus, Parthenon Press, Nashville, 1978.
- Blavatsky, H. P. Isis Unveiled (1877)
- de Silva, Lynn, A., The Problem of the Self in Buddhism and Christianity, Macmillan Press, London, 1979. -Reincarnation in Buddhist and Christian Thought, 1968.
- Derrett, J. Duncan M., The Bible and the Buddhists, Sardini 2000. ISBN 88-7506-174-2 [1] [2]
- Foltz, Richard, Religions of the Silk Road, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, ISBN 978-0-230-62125-1
- Richard Garbe: Indien und das Christentum [3]
- Elmar R. Gruber & Holger Kersten. The Original Jesus: The Buddhist Sources of Christianity.
- Haring, Hermann & Metz, Johann-Baptist, eds., Reincarnation or Resurrection?, SCM Press, Maryknoll, 1993.
- Head, Joseph, & Cranston, S.L., eds., Reincarnation An East-West Anthology (Including quotations from the world's religions & from over 400 western thinkers), Julian Press, New York, 1961.
- Howe, Quincy, Jr., Reincarnation for the Christian, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1974.
- Johnston, William, S.J., Christian Zen, Harper & Row, 1971. ISBN 0823218015
- Leaney, A.R.C., ed., A Guide to the Scrolls, Nottinham Studies on the Qumran Discoveries, SCM Book Club, Naperville, Ill., 1958.
- Lefebure, Leo D., The Buddha and the Christ, Explorations in Buddhist and Christian Dialogue (Faith Meets Faith Series), Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1993.
- Lillie, Arthur, Buddhism in Christendom or Jesus, the Essene, Unity Book Service, New Delhi, 1984 (first published in 1887).
- India in Primitive Christianity, Kegan House Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1909.
- Lopez, Donald S. & Rockefeller, Steven C., eds., The Christ and the Bodhisattva, State University of New York, 1987. Phan,
- McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195183276
- Peter, ed., Christianity and the Wider Ecumenism, Paragon House, New York, 1990.
- Pye, Michael & Morgan, Robert, eds., The Cardinal Meaning, Essays in Comparative Hermeneutics: Buddhism and Christianity, *Mouton & Co., Netherlands, 1973.
- Radhakrishnan, S., Eastern Religions in Western Thought, Oxford University Press, 1939.
- Siegmund, Georg, Buddhism and Christianity, A Preface to Dialogue, Sister Mary Frances McCarthy, trans., University of Alabama Press, 1968.
- Smart, Ninian, Buddhism and Christianity: Rivals and Allies, Macmillan, London, 1993.
- Streeter, Burnett H., The Buddha and The Christ, an Exploration of the Meaning of the Universe and of the Purpose of Human Life, Macmillan and Co., London, 1932.
- Tweed, Thomas. The American Encounter With Buddhism, 1844-1912 : Victorian Culture & the Limits of Dissent. University of North Carolina Press.
- Tambyah, Isaac T., A Comparative Study of Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity, Indian Book Gallery, Delhi, 1983 (first edition 1925).
- Walker, Susan, Speaking of Silence: Christians and Buddhists on the Contemplative Way, Paulist Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8091-2880-2.
- Wilson, Joseph A.P., 'The Life of the Saint and the Animal: Asian Religious Influence in the Medieval Christian West', Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 3(2):169-194, 2009.
- Yu, Chai-shin, Early Buddhism and Christianity, A comparative Study of the Founders' Authority, the Community, and the Discipline, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1981.
- Grabar, André (1968). Christian iconography, a study of its origins. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691018308.
- Foucher, Alfred (1994 (reprint)). The beginnings of Buddhist Art. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 8120609026.
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External links
- Dalai Lama questions on Buddhism & Christianity
- Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast on contemporary impact of Christian/Buddhist dialogue
- Ecumenical Buddhism
- Was Jesus a Buddhist?
- Similarities and differences 1
- Similarities and differences 2
- Contemplatives in Dialogue, "an organisation of Buddhist, Benedictine, Franciscan and secular humanist and contemplatives"
- The Zen Way Back