Christian-Buddhist dialogue

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The Christian-Buddhist dialogue is an area of interreligious dialogue that is particularly shaped by the fact that Buddhism does not recognize a creator God , while Christianity presupposes such a creator . Nonetheless, fruitful connections between Christianity and Buddhism have emerged on various levels.

History of dialogue

Until the 19th century, according to Hans Küng , Christians did not even know “the difference between Hinduism and Buddhism”. The first mention of Buddha in Christian sources, on the other hand, can be found around 200 AD in the carpets (stomata) of Clement of Alexandria : “There are also those in India who follow the Buddha's commandments , whom they worship like a god because of his great holiness ".

Practical level

Since Buddhism rejects the idea of ​​a creator God, Christianity and Buddhism are seemingly irreconcilable in their goals. But on the other hand, this separation enables a connection, since the Buddhist method of meditation can be used by many Christians as a mere means of a Christian-spiritual path, precisely because of the lack of Buddhist dogmatics. The meditation methods from Buddhism, especially those of Zen , seem to fill a perceived deficit in the Christian tradition, whose own meditative practices ( Jesus prayer , Lectio divina , rest prayer according to Cassian, scripture meditation according to Ignatius von Loyola ) seemed to be forgotten for some time . An example of how far this connection between Buddhism and Christianity can go, but also what problems it creates, are the Benedictine monk and Zen master Willigis Jäger , who has received a teaching ban from the Catholic side, the Jesuit priest and Zen master Hugo Makibi Enomiya -Lassalle , as well as the Pallottine priest and Zen teacher Johannes Kopp .

Also to be mentioned are the sometimes very intensive contacts between Buddhist and Christian monks. Exchanges have been common here at least since the early 1980s. The Archabbey of Sankt Ottilien plays a special role in the German-speaking area . What connects them here are both the similar way of life and similar experiences. The Trappist and mystic Thomas Merton was one of the pioneers at international level .

Theoretical, scientific level

Another, more philosophical connection arises through the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart . In his negative theology he transcends the personal Christian image of God to an unknowable one, which he describes as nothing, as in the following quote from Sermon 42 (after counting the fifth): "You should love him as he is a non- God, a non-spirit, a non-person, a non-image, even more: how he is a pure, pure, clear one, separated from all duality. And in this one we should sink forever from something to nothing. God help us to do this. Amen."

In Master Eckhart's negative theology, many factual parallels to Buddhist teaching can be made, in particular that of the nothingness of negative theology and Buddhist emptiness . The Christian religious philosopher Bernhard Welte states that Christianity and Buddhism "wave to each other" through Meister Eckhart. Especially through the two Japanese religious philosophers Shizuteru Ueda and Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki , a Christian-Buddhist dialogue about Meister Eckhart took place on the scientific level.

Points of contact between Buddhism and Christianity

A relationship in ethics cannot be mistaken. It can be described with the keywords charity , mindfulness and compassion .

Christians and Buddhists both strive to live in peace according to their teachings .

Some Christian, Jewish and Buddhist commandments are also similar: these religions forbid killing, stealing and harming others.

In all his behavior, according to Hans Küng's theological assessment , Jesus of Nazareth bears more resemblance to Buddha, "than, for example, to Muhammad , the fighter, warrior, statesman, who remained joyful until his end".

Possible historical connection and influence

A few arguments can be made for the fact that Buddhism had an influence on Western, Greek philosophy, or was at least known there:

  • As the capital of the Greek Ptolemaic empire, the ancient Egyptian Alexandria was on the one hand the dominant spiritual center in the centuries around the turn of the times. The Alexandrian School was the first university in the modern sense and, with the Library of Alexandria, had the best library of antiquity. Alexandria was also an economic metropolis. The Indian trade in particular received a new boom when the Alexandrian Harpalos described the monsoon winds and their influence on shipping to India at the University of Alexandria around the turn of the century. Through trade, philosophical and religious teachings also spread.
Ashoka sends Buddhist ambassadors
  • The Ptolemaic rulers in Alexandria tried to equip their library not only with Greek works, but with the texts of all peoples and cultures. It is said that Ptolemy I wrote a letter to all the kings and rulers of the earth and asked them to send him the works of any authors: "Poets and prose writers, rhetors and sophists, doctors and fortune-tellers, historians and everyone else too" . Ptolemy III, a contemporary of the Indian Emperor Ashokas , is known to have given the order to search all incoming ships, to confiscate the books found in the process, to have them copied and finally to give the owners a copy instead of the original .
  • On the other hand, the Indian emperor Ashoka was the one who ensured the spread of Buddhism beyond his great empire. In his XIII. The Edict of the Rocks names five non-Indian rulers with whom the emperor was in contact: Antiochus II of Syria, Ptolemy II of Egypt, Antigonus of Macedonia, Magas of Cyrene and Alexander of Epirus.
  • When Plotinus , the actual founder of Neoplatonism , left Alexandria after the death of his teacher, according to the report of his pupil Porphyry , he joined a dangerous Roman campaign in Persia, with the express wish to learn more about Persian and Indian philosophy. The campaign failed, however, and Plotinus then founded his philosophical school in Rome. Ernst Benz suspected in 1951 that Plotin's teacher was an Indian philosopher or Buddhist monk; thereby an "explanation of the influx of Indian philosophy into the pagan and Christian world of Alexandria" can be given.
  • The Neo-Platonism outlined by Plotinus, with its mystical exaggeration of thinking, in which the one thing is accomplished, is alien to previous Greek philosophy on this point, but it is "deeply related to the basic mood of Indian philosophy".

Should there have been this historical Indian or Buddhist influence on Greek philosophy, Neoplatonism and, above all, negative Christian theology would be particularly affected. It would be an indication that Meister Eckhart's spiritual proximity to Buddhism is not purely coincidental.

Limits to Dialogue

Some Buddhists see with discomfort how their tradition is being adapted to the needs of a Western market. They fear that by adapting too quickly the path to the actual path of the Buddha will be blocked. Not infrequently, terms and religious practices are presented in a simplified manner in Christian assessments. Similarities between Christian and Buddhist are placed in the wrong context.

It is not uncommon for people from the Christian culture to project onto the Buddhist religion everything that is missing from their own Christian religion. Buddhism thus serves as an idealized counter-image to Christianity.

The dialogue between Christians and Buddhists remains "a conversation between two religions, each with its own profile, on the basis of mutual respect for the other, also in terms of being different", states the Protestant theologian Reinhart Hummel .

Further representatives in the Christian-Buddhist dialogue (20th and 21st centuries)

Places and institutions of Christian-Buddhist dialogue

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Küng and Heinz Bechert , Christianity and World Religions. Buddhismus, GTB Sachbuch 781, Gütersloher Verlag, Gütersloher 1990, 2nd edition, p. 43; there also the quotation from Clement of Alexandria , ISBN 3 579 00781 5
  2. ↑ Hans Küng , Heinz Bechert : Christianity and world religions. Buddhism. GTB Sachbuch 781, Gütersloher Verlag, Gütersloher 1990, 2nd edition, ISBN 3-579-00781 5 , p. 63.
  3. ↑ Manfred Clauss : Alexandria - fates of an ancient cosmopolitan city. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 978-3-608-94329-0 , p. 140.
  4. ↑ a b M. Clauss 2003, p. 97
  5. ↑ Hans Wolfgang Schumann : The historical Buddha - life and teaching of Gotama. Diederichs, Munich 1988, p. 23
  6. ↑ Ernst Benz : Indian influences on early Christian theology. Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz 1951, pp. 197-202.
  7. ↑ Hans Joachim Störig : Small world history of philosophy . Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 1988, p. 205
  8. ↑ Reinhart Hummel , Problem areas in Christian - Buddhist dialogue , accessed on March 15, 2019