Jesus Mortal |
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Buddha Around 500 years before Jesus, a sage living in India established Buddhism, which has since become one of the world’s largest religions. He lived during a time of religious upheaval and innovation, and he gathered disciples around him in the tradition of the time. He preached that one should seek enlightenment by detaching oneself from the world, renouncing vice, and contemplating true reality. His school continued after his death, but a major branch of Buddhism merged with folk religions to create a tradition far astray from the Buddha’s teaching, and his following persists primarily outside his homeland. The Buddha may be the closest other heavy-duty holy man to Jesus, closer than Lao Tzu, Confucius, Muhammad, Francis of Assisi, Joseph Smith, and Gandhi. Like Jesus, the Buddha was a sage, not someone backed up by a church, or a conquering army, or a nation (that’s Zoroaster, Muhammad, and Moses, respectively). Like Jesus, the Buddha led a band of disciples who forsook their worldly lives to follow him, and he taught people to renounce hatred, greed, and worry. He preached about ethics and about how one was to live, not about the afterlife, the origin of the cosmos, free will, or other immaterial concerns. The Buddhist practice of studied nonviolence lines up nicely alongside the Christian tradition of promoting peace. Nineteenth-century Transcendentalists, with their unitarian heritage, found Buddhism quite to their liking, Thoreau especially. As with Jesus, the Buddha’s wayward followers now worship him as a deity, tell stories about his miraculous birth, and treasure his relics. The Buddha and Jesus, however, are different in tone and direction. The Buddha saw the world as a cycle of suffering to escape. Jesus saw it as the LORD’s special creation. In the words of the seven-days creation story, the almighty created the world and it is good. For the Buddha, best you could hope from this world is not to notice it. He pitched asceticism: no drinking, no copulating, no trying to gain enjoyment from the material world. For Jesus, life was a sacred feast. He ate and drank, he hung around with women. They both taught that worry was a mistake, the Buddha because the world is false, Jesus because God is a loving father. The Buddha said “Don’t harm”; Jesus said “Do good.” Buddhism gives us the modern understanding of the universe: “Vastness, no holiness” (Bodhidharma, 500s AD); Christianity gives us the modern understanding of God: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Jesus and the Buddha are like a photograph and its negative. The negative came first, defining the positive image that would come later. A partisan on Buddha’s side might fairly suggest that the history of Christian warfare, invasion, persecution, indoctrination, and slave trading demonstrates how easy it is to take Jesus’ call to engage and turn it into a mandate to conquer. Perhaps humans just aren’t reliable enough to follow the positive version of the program, and we need to stick with the negative rule or risk turning evil. On the other hand, if Buddhism has been used as a call to war, neither does it have a history of establishing human rights where it spreads. On balance, which is really better? I’m sure the Buddha would advise against regarding anything as “better” on account of its so-called effects in the illusory material world, so perhaps an appeal to history is beside the point.
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contents table of contents you're already looking at it introduction for the inquisitive reader biographical overview who he was and wasn't
afterlife not Jesus' concern animal sacrifice bloodless religion apocalypse did Jesus preach hellfire? baptism sin wash for Jesus and others beatitudes Jesus' words and others' words beloved disciple witness for the un-gospel bible scripture old and new bishop the unjesus body focus on the physical Buddha Jesus' close kin charity key Christian virtue and legacy of Jesus The Da Vinci Code secret (and false) messages divorce women's status dreams convenient literary device Elijah Jewish prophet with his own second coming equality ancient source of modern egalitarianism exorcist Jesus and demons failure reinterpreting Jesus as a failure faith from trust to blind belief father Jesus on titles of honor Francis of Assisi the most Christlike Christian Gandhi the 20th century's most Christly holy man Galilee Jesus' inauspicious homeland gentiles Jesus' inadvertent audience god how Jesus became god golden rule key to Jesus' success gospels competing accounts heaven from sky to spiritual home hell revenge fantasy humanism Jesus' legacy inerrant Christian treatment of scripture Thomas Jefferson ethics of Jesus Jewish guilt Christian libel John's gospel the un-gospel John the baptist, see John the washer John the washer Jesus' apocalyptic mentor Judaism libeled religion of Jesus kingdom of god what Jesus promised Lao Tzu poet of the cosmic way logos jesus as the word of god C. S. Lewis famous, flawed trilemma little drummer boy Luke beats Matthew logos Jesus as the divine word LORD Yahweh transitioning to the one god of all Luke's gospel the all-around best gospel Mark's gospel the gospel that lost its point Mary of Magdala women, visions, and sex massacre of the innocents bloodshed starts early Matthew's gospel best gospel for church reading Mormon, see Joseph Smith Moses Jewish lawgiver Muhammad a prophet who got it right mystery Orpheus and transubstantiation oppression origin of Jesus' compassion The Passion of the Christ Luke as buzzkill Paul revealer of the revealer private and public public Jesus and secret Christ relativism the secret power of the golden rule sacrifice Jesus' death and Christian sacrament Albert Schweitzer Jesus as a failure sheol dark pit of death show Jesus' deeds as put-ons slavery abolished by Jesus' efforts Joseph Smith flesh-and-blood Jesus Socrates secular Jesus son of god on close terms with the man upstairs soul, see body synoptics three gospels that agree temple center of Jewish religion trinity unifying and divisive doctrinre vision, see dreams Yahweh, see LORD Zoroaster Persian dualistic holy man
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