Buddhism and Christianity
There were links between Buddhism and the pre-Christian Mediterranean world,[1] with Buddhist missionaries sent by Emperor Ashoka of India to Syria, Egypt and Greece from 250 BC.
The majority of modern Christian scholarship rejects any historical basis for the travels of Jesus to India or Tibet and has seen the attempts at parallel symbolism as cases of parallelomania which exaggerate resemblances.
Starting in the 1930s, authors such as Will Durant suggested that Greco-Buddhist representatives of Ashoka the Great who traveled to ancient Syria, Egypt and Greece may have helped prepare the ground for Christian teaching.
Some modern historians have suggested that the pre-Christian monastic order in Egypt of the Therapeutae is possibly a deformation of the Pāli word "Theravāda",[13] a form of Buddhism, and the movement may have "almost entirely drawn (its) inspiration from the teaching and practices of Buddhist asceticism".
The early church father Clement of Alexandria (died 215 AD) was also aware of Buddha, writing in his Stromata (Bk I, Ch XV): "The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers.
[21] In the 13th century, international travelers, such as Giovanni de Piano Carpini and William of Ruysbroeck, sent back reports of Buddhism to the West and noted some similarities with Nestorian Christian communities.
[citation needed] When European Christians made more direct contact with Buddhism in the early 16th century, Catholic missionaries such as St. Francis Xavier sent back accounts of Buddhist practices.
[22] With the arrival of Sanskrit studies in European universities in the late 18th century, and the subsequent availability of Buddhist texts, a discussion began of a proper encounter with Buddhism.
[26] Late in the 20th century, historian Jerry H. Bentley also wrote of similarities and stated that it is possible "that Buddhism influenced the early development of Christianity" and suggested "attention to many parallels concerning the births, lives, doctrines, and deaths of the Buddha and Jesus".
In it, Fox relates the Buddha-nature to what scholars John Dominic Crossan and Bruce Chilton call Paul's original "cosmic" or "metacosmic" view of Christ.
[4] However, the notion of theistic creation is generally foreign to Buddhist thought, and the question of the existence of God is perhaps one of the most fundamental barriers between the teachings of Christianity and Buddhism.
[34] Jan Nattier states that while Buddhism has a notion of "relative eschatology" that refers to specific cycles of life, the term "Buddhist eschatology" does not relate to any "final things", or that the world will end one day – Buddhist scripture routinely referring to the "beginningless Saṃsāra" as a never ending cycle of birth and death with no starting point.
[11][38] Buddhist scholar Masao Abe pointed out that while "the event of the Cross" is central to Christianity, it is not possible for Buddhism to accept its importance.
[38] Buddhist philosopher D. T. Suzuki stated that every time he saw a crucifixion scene it reminded him of the "gap that lies deep" between Christianity and Buddhism.
[1] Buddhist missionaries, sent by Emperor Ashoka of India to Sri Lanka, Syria, Egypt and Greece, may have helped prepare for the ethics of Christ.
Schopenhauer elaborates:[When] this Indian doctrine entered into the Promised Land there arose the task of uniting the knowledge of the corruption and misery of the world, of its need for redemption and of salvation through an avatar, together with the morality of self-denial and atonement, with Jewish monotheism and its 'Behold, it was very good'.
[58][59][60] The DIMMID (Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique - Monastic Interreligious Dialogue) has hosted several encounters between Buddhist and Catholic monks, such as the Gethsemani Encounters at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani which were attended also by the Dalai Lama, as well as exchange programs in which Buddhist monks and nuns visit Catholic monasteries and vice versa.
[66][67] Referring to some elements of Buddhism as "negative theology" the document states: Still others do not hesitate to place that absolute without image or concepts, which is proper to Buddhist theory, on the same level as the majesty of God revealed in Christ, which towers above finite reality.
