Outline
Autobiographical Prelude
Describes my personal journey from cradle Christianity through atheism, teenage
Buddhism, and Christian ministry, to this present state which I have to write to
be clear about.. At each stage something in my faith has been 'ego-bound'; as with
a pot-bound plant, the ego-pot had to be shattered, placing me in deeper soil.
Introduction: Ways of Being a Buddhist Christian
Looks at the historical encounter between the two faiths, at the pluralism in faith
I want to avoid, at forms of 'Christian Buddhism' that sit light to both faiths,
and the issue for me: whether it is possible to combine definite Christianity and
definite Buddhism, as defined in the creeds and core statements of both faiths.
1 Dharma Embodied: the Buddha and the Christ
How Buddha and Christ exist in their respective faiths, as different kinds of mediator
linked to different kinds of trinity.
2 Was Jesus a Buddhist? The Teachers and their Teachings
Exploring - as far as we can at our distance in time - the two human teachers that
lie behind these awesome figures of Buddha and Christ.
3 Everything on Fire: Suffering, Sin and Desire?
Buddhism sees the root problem as desire leading to suffering, Christianity as sin
leading to death. Both trace the problem back to egocentric desire, but while Buddhism
seeks release from all desire, Christianity seeks to restore desire to its true
goal in God.
4 Webs of Desire: the Politics of the Self
Exploring the nature of desire in the negative sense, and how we cannot free ourselves
from it because we are socially enmeshed in it.
5 Faith for Fools: Liberation and Atonement?
Looking at Honen (founder of Pure Land Buddhism) and Luther. Both despaired of the
idea that we can save ourselves, and showed the need for faith in an Other. Criticising
the widespread understanding of the cross as bearing our punishment for sin, and
using the Bodhisattva ideal to make better sense of what Christ has done for us
in his death and resurrection.
6 Butter Sculptures: the Arts of Transformation.
Looking at the practices of faiths and whether they can be combined, or enriched
by each other. Looks at meditation, mindfulness, preaching and reading the scriptures,
koans, visuals, imagination, mantras, music, confession, intercession, worship,
bodily acts and sacraments.
7 The Hollow Flute: Life, Time, the Universe and Everything
Looking at quantum physics, evolution and modern cosmology, showing how science,
far from being opposed to religion, reveals a world very amenable to the insights
of a Buddhist Christianity. We should not delegate the mystery of the universe to
a Mind that made it - better to see the universe as embodying the mystery that we
may name as God, or Emptiness.
8 Grasping the Nettle: God - or Emptiness?
The Christian God is personal - but also impersonal and multipersonal. There are
traditions that portray God in very anthropomorphic terms, or see God as a supreme
Being, but others affirm God's 'nothingness' of God. Meanwhile Buddhist atheism
is not the article of faith it is for, say, Richard Dawkins - a kind of article
of faith - but rather a real affirmation of impermanence and Emptiness. The chapter
argues that God and Emptiness can be reconciled in 'the inscendent Trinity'.
9 A Buddhist Way to follow Christ?
Reviews whether the position reached in the book can be regarded as authentically
Christian and authentically Buddhist at the same time. Affirms that it can, and
that it makes sense to hold Christian beliefs and live out a Christian commitment
in a Buddhist way. Being Buddhist in this way has enabled me to be a Christian.
The book ends with an act of commitment that combines the Baptismal creed of Christians
with the fundamental truths of Buddhism. Make of this what you will - it is much
stronger position than I expected to reach when I started writing!
I am a member of
The Buddhist Christian Vedanta Network
A Network for Those Interested
in Exploring the Contemplative Teachings of These Traditions and the Interface Between Them
http://buddhist-christian.org
