Christianity and Buddhism

. From a moral/ethical but not theological standpoint, Christianity has more in common with Buddhism than with either Judaism or Islam. Indeed, even from a theological point of view, it is possible to interpret Christian faith in a way that shows more commonality with Buddhism than with Judaism or Islam.

The linkages between the three monotheistic religions can easily be demonstrated. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have in common the fact that each was an institutional outgrowth of existing religious practice and belief. Judaism represented a monotheistic response to tribal polytheism, with Yahweh, "the one true God," demanding exclusive worship (Molloy 296). That Christianity evolved out of Judaism is a very familiar narrative of Western history. Islam broke from two different religious traditions: traditional desert tribal polytheism on one hand and Judaism and Christianity on the other (Molloy 434). The nod that the Quran makes to both Judaism and Christianity supports a contention that these three religions have something in common. Indeed, the evidence of the Quran is that Islam was meant to either fix everything that was wrong with Judaism and Christianity in particular, or to supplant them altogether. After rebuking Jews and Christians for their religious exclusivity, the text explains:

Indeed, those that surrender themselves [accept Islam] to God and do good works shall be rewarded by their Lord: they shall have nothing to fear or to regret (Quran 2:111, qtd. in V

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Christianity are also alike in their recourse to a charismatic founding teacher whose life altered the course of human history. The figure of the Buddha as the supremely enlightened teacher is not unlike the figure of Jesus as teacher. The ascetics closest to the Buddha can be compared to the apostles. The ascetics' absorption of his teachings meant that "their intellectual eye was purified for the attainment of perfect wisdom. . . . Everywhere all kinds of evil became tranquillized, and everywhere an ardor for all that helps the good Law manifested itself" (Buddhacarita 16.1, 28-50, qtd. in Van Voorst 86). That text is not unlike the lesson of the Sermon on the Mount, which describes which kinds of people are "blessed" (Matt. 5-7). The biography of Jesus, bound up with his death and resurrection, is the core concern of Christian thought, and the truth about the nature of Jesus and the meaning of his teachings preoccupied rival Christian scholars for centuries after the Crucifixion (Molloy 364ff). 4. Modern experience of Islam strongly suggests that it is inherently the most violent of the religions we have studied in this course. While 21st-century thugs who claim Islam as their religion cannot seem to do enough to prove that

Category: Philosophy - C