Lausanne World Pulse – Interfaith Interface with Buddhists

By Chandler H. Im
January / February 2010

Two major branches of Buddhism exist in Asia: Theravada and Mahayana. Theravada (“Little Raft”) is strictly ascetic in nature, and has appealed to monks predominantly in these Southeast Asia countries: Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Burma). Mahayana (“Big Raft”) Buddhism emerged about four hundred years after the Buddha’s death. Mahayana Buddhism is less strict in interpreting the Buddhist sutras, and has attracted many lay people and flourished in the Far Eastern countries of China, Japan, and Korea. To treat Buddhism as an Eastern religion is an obsolete view, for Buddhism has been steadily increasing its influence in the West in the last 150 years as well.

It is important to mention here that Buddhism, as in Christianity, has a variety of branches, ranging from non-theistic, iconoclastic Zen Buddhism to pantheistic (pan-Buddhistic, Buddhists would argue) Pure Land Buddhism. Accordingly, their buddhologies (plural, as in theologies) on key doctrines such as karma, nirvana, and enlightenment vary from tradition to tradition.

Interacting with Buddhism
In the current backdrop of postmodern religious pluralism, in which religion A is as valid and true as religion B, Christian-Buddhist interface would be fruitless if focused only upon the religions’ similarities without examining their differences as well. Two major irreconcilable differences between Christianity and Buddhism are (1) the existence of God and (2) Jesus as the historical incarnation of God.⁹

In today’s academic circles, the debate on whether the Buddha was an agnostic or atheist is still ongoing. He simply preferred not to speak of the Divine, for he firmly believed that speaking about the metaphysical would not relieve anyone from his or her suffering. To him, it did not matter whether God exists or not, since God’s existence is irrelevant to human sufferings.

On the contrary, Christians believe the Judeo-Christian God exists and has names (e.g., the name God gave Moses in the burning bush was “I AM WHO I AM”; Exodus 3:14). Christians maintain that God has also revealed himself to humanity through the Bible and in the person of Jesus. Jesus is the incarnate being, the consummate revelation of God by himself, who came down from heaven to redeem the children of God. In Buddhism, there is no specific mentioning of “beginning” per se, and no sharp-lined separation exists between the Absolute and its creations.

In Judeo-Christianity, there is a distinctive beginning and an end executed in time. The very first verse in the Bible proclaims God as the Creator of the universe: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The Christian religion teaches that the creator/creature difference exists, and that the distinction is of monumental importance.

Based upon the above items discussed briefly, Christians would do well to refrain from initially striking interfaith dialogue with Buddhists at a supernatural level on Christian theology-based topics. Christian presuppositions of supernatural nature (such as the existence of God and creation) neither attract nor convince the Buddhist mind.

Beginning the Conversation
Instead, I propose we start a conversation with Buddhists at the ground level (since Buddhism is a down-to-earth, existentialistic religion in essence), and that we start moving up (literally and figuratively) from there. In other words, as Kenneth Cragg, the renowned Christian scholar on Islam, suggests, we ought to start from where they start. Since suffering is an issue many Buddhists (if not all) can identify with, it is a good and safe topic to use.

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Dr. Chandler H. Im is director of Ethnic Ministries at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. He also serves as director of the Ethnic America Network and is adjunct professor of missions at Faith Evangelical Seminary (Tacoma, Washington, USA).