Buddhism + Christianity = Enlightenment

[lunamoth]

Originally Posted by Vajradhara

from what i hear, this literalist phenomena is more prevelant in American Chrisitianity than in other countries.. i'm quite curious to know why that is.. though it is possibly something that i'll never know.

I recommend K. Armstong's The Battle for God to learn more about this phenomenon (sorry to keep mentioning this book but I am still in the middle of it so it is "on top" for me). Her hypothesis is that the advent of rationalism and enlightenment in the west had at least these two effects on Christian thinking for some people:

1) the effectivness of the scientific method for material progess caused people to lose respect for myth and so as a recourse scripture started to be viewed as factual, rather than mythical. In her terms, mythos (timeless, mythical) was turned into logos (rational, pragmatic, scientific). A few quotes from her book: "Because by the end of the nineteenth century science and rationalism were the watchwords of the day, religion had to rational too if it was to be taken seriously." "The New Light Presbyterian seminary at Princeton, NY, became the bastion of this scientific Protestantism....In 1873, Charles Hodge,..., published the first volume of his two-volume work Systematic Theology....(the) title reveals its scientific bias. The theologians' task was not to look for a meaning beyond the words, Hodge insisted, but simply to arrange the clear teachings of scripture into a system of general truths. ...Archibald A. Hodge (his son) and Benjamin Warfield (said)...Every word of the Bible was divinely inspired and must be taken seriously; it should not be distorted by allegorical or symbolic exegesis....'All the stories and statements of the Bible were absolutely errorles and binding for faith and obedience.'"

2) Many people were adversely affected by modernization and were alarmed by events that left them feeling powerless. At the same time that the scriptural literalism was taking place another movement was Christian liberalism and The Higher Criticism (new theories about the bible). Conservatism was a backlash against this liberalism and it was rooted firmly in fear: "Things were not getting better, as the liberals believed; they were getting worse every day." The influx of immigrants and increasing number of Catholics was threatening to many people. "A paranoid fear of conspiracy would continue to charaterize the response to the upheavals of modernization..."

All quotes from K. Armstong, The Battle for God, pp141-146

In my words, the Enlightenment and modernization emasculated a mythological reading of the Bible while at the same time the historical/factual basis of the bible came under attack. This really pulled the rug out from under people, so naturally there was a rebellion against it. I think that, ironically, a literal reading of the bible and extrabiblical sources like Darby have created a new futuristic mythology (like the Left Behind series).

This is an inadequate summary, but I thought you might find it interesting.

[Vajradhara]

Namaste lunamoth,


thank you for the reply and the explanation.

as an aside... the post Enlightenment period of Europe is why, in English, we call what happened to Siddharta Gotama "Enlightenment" rather than "Awakening".

again.. the approach to a rational religion caused the apolegists to present Buddhism as a "religion of Enlightenment". perhaps correct in some sense, it rather distorts some of the fundamentals of the tradition, in my view.

again.. thank you for the reply.

[Zenda71]

Originally Posted by lunamoth

Vaj pointed me in the direction of Thomas Merton (thanks again Vaj!). I've only read one book by him so far but I did find it very interesting in how he finds connections/places of common understanding between Christianity and Buddhism. You might also want to look up St. John of the Cross, a Christian mystic. Personally I think the idea of no Self fits very well with the idea of Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."

Interesting quote! Thanks luna. I've tried reading Merton a few times at the urging of many people who love his writing, but I'm afraid that I don't find his style engaging. I will look up St. John though.

Be well!
Zenda