Buddhism and Christianity

Buddhism And Christianity

Following the initial contacts between Christian missionaries and Buddhism in the 13th century, discussions regarding the similarities and differences of, and a possible relationship between Buddhism and Christianity began and the 20th century witnessed a better understanding of the issues and the concepts.

Although surface level non-scholarly analogies have been drawn between the two traditions, Buddhism and Christianity have inherent and fundamental differences at the deepest levels, beginning with monotheism's place at the core of Christianity and Buddhism's orientation towards non-theism and its rejection of the notion of a creator deity which runs counter to teachings about God in Christianity; and extending to the importance of Grace in Christianity against the rejection of interference with Karma in Theravada Buddhism, etc. Another irreconcilable difference between the two traditions is the Christian belief in the centrality of the crucifixion of Jesus as a single event that acts as the atonement of sins, and its direct contrast to Buddhist teachings.

Modern scholarship has roundly rejected any historical basis for the travels of Jesus to India or Tibet or influences between the teachings of Christianity and Buddhism, and has seen the attempts at parallel symbolism as cases of parallelomania which exaggerate the importance of trifling resemblances.