The BUDDHA and the CHRIST (Summer 1998)
The Buddha: "All life is suffering,"
The Christ: "Tell me about it, man."
(an apocryphal anecdote)

Without doubt the two most influential religious leaders of all time are Jesus of Nazareth, recognized by his followers to be the Christ, and the Indian prince-turned-sage, Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha. The religions which were founded by these two men have encompassed more adherents than all the other religions combined. It actually has only been in the last decade that Christianity has slightly edged ahead of Buddhism in popularity and adherents, and that is no indication of a decisive victory since Buddhism still continues to find converts as its message is heard increasingly in the West. This course will focus on the lives and teachings of the two great religious founders and the meeting and dialogue between them. The "head-to-head encounter" of these two universal religions has been an inevitability for sometime. Max Müller, often recognized as the Father of the History of Religions, himself predicted, "I believe the final struggle between Buddhism and Christianity, whenever that comes to pass, will be a hard one, and will end in a compromise—there is a prophecy." Whether this phase of the encounter is still or yet a struggle or whether Max Müller was a prophet is still a very open question. Alfred North Whithead's view had a different tact. He felt that "Christianity, Buddhism, and science were the three major forces shaping the modern world," that Christianity and Buddhism were in decline, and that this decline could only be halted if "they would interact with each other." Christianity and Buddhism can thus be seen as both rivals and allies. Let it suffice for now to say that aside from those who have converted out of western traditions to Buddhism that there is furthermore a built-in attraction within the basic structure of the two religions which propels towards encounter. If nothing else, it is the intellectual and spiritual equivalent to the old physics question of what would happen when the irresistable force meets the unmoveable object.
There are a number of striking parallels between the two traditions. Both Buddhism and Christianity tell the stories of two young men in their primes who come to and manifest realizations that transformed the traditions out of which they spoke. Both are teachers of profound insight, compassion, and power. They founded missionary religions, universal in scope and message. Both gained Imperial champions; Constantine for Christ and for Buddha, the great King Ashoka, "one of the most remarkable rulers that the world has yet seen," who established Buddhism wherever he went. Perhaps most importantly "Buddhism and Christianity from their inception have had to formulate strategies for dealing with other religions. For the Buddhists there were Samkhyas, Ajivikas, Vedantins, and Jains to deal with in India, Confucians and Taoists in China, Shintoists in Japan and Bonnists in Tibet. Christianity had to to establish its position with regard to Judaism, gnosticism, Greek mystery religions, and the pagan philosophies. Each tradition often assimilated its rivals, with the Buddhists usually adding the gods of the native religons of Asia to their pantheon and the Christians borrowing freely from Plato and Aristotle, among many others, for the formulation of their theology. Each tradition quickly crossed over the borders of its homeland to encompass the universe, or so it seemed."
The impact of these two religions and the continual popularity and influence of its founders has shaped the cultures of contemporary world civilization. Many of the tenets and teachings of both the Buddha and the Christ have seeped into modern consciousness and have found independent existences outside of their traditional forms such as is evident in New Age thought. This course will avail itself of the broadest possible horizon in which to view these two figures and their meaning in their own times and today.

AGENDA:
(Before the first weekend, students should read the prefaces and familiarize themselves with table of contents, the introductions and the cover-jacket information to the books we will be using.)
The first weekend will provide an introduction and overview to the study, comparison, and dialogue between the Buddha and the Christ and their subsequent communities.
The second weekend will be devoted to the life of the Buddha his teachings and the transmission of the dharma which he manifested.
The third weekend will be an examination of the doctrines and development of Buddhist doctrine and meditational techniques down to the present age.
The fourth weekend will focus upon the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, and the growth and development of the Christian Church.
The fifth weekend will be a discussion of the development of Christian theology and the understanding and search for Jesus today.
The sixth weekend will compare, contrast, evaluate and interpret the two traditions in the context of the current Buddhist/Christian dialogue as it exists today.

TEXTS: Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha; The Holy Bible; Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening by Stephen Batchelor; Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh; The God We Never Knew by Marcus Borg Jesus at 2000 Marcus Borg (ed)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: reading assignments, class participation, one
mid-term examination, one research paper on a relevant topic of your
choice, a glossary, one final-examination, and, of course, good mental
hygiene. All reading assignments will be given in class. Attendance is
mandatory and a factor in grading evaluations.
THE RESEARCH PAPER: The choice of paper topics has a wide range of
flexibility in the hopes that the students will pursue subjects that command
their interests and spark their imaginations. You will want to begin
exploring possible topics from practically the beginning of the course and
should not only feel free but consider it a necessary step in your
preparation to consult the instructor concerning your topic. Various
strategies for generating a viable topic will be discussed in class. Upper
division students are naturally expected to write a much more expansive
research paper than lower division students due to their advanced
sophistication and greater academic preparation.