Comparing Christianity And Buddhism Salvation

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Compare Christianity and Buddhism salvation

A comparative analysis of salvation in Christianity and Buddhism exposes stark contrasts between the grace of Jesus Christ and the self-saving action and enlightenment of Buddha. I attempt to compare the Christian and Buddhist concepts of salvation in this essay to emphasise on the significance of each founder's roles in salvation, and to extract similarities and differences between them both.
First, Christianity and Buddhism’s fundamental view for Salvation will be briefly defined. Second and third, the life and teachings of Christ and Buddha will be respectively examined as their idea of salvation is significantly embedded within their scriptures. Lastly, the salvation that Christ compromises, and the salvation that Buddha teaches will be compared and evaluated.

It is essential to commence with the following two quotes which respectively define the Christian and Buddhist’s fundamental notion of salvation, and displays aspects of the two opposing worldviews. Firstly, Jesus said "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16, NIV). Secondly, Buddha spoke "The long road of transmigration is a road of pain for the traveller: let him rest by the road and be free" (The Dhammapada, translated by Juan Mascaro 1973, v. 302). The first quote assumes a lineal event-filled theocentric view of time, a world-loving empathetic view of suffering, and salvation being Christocentric. In general, Christianity’s means of salvation is also defined through Christ's death and resurrection, by grace, through faith, not by works lest anyone should boast (Ephesians 2:9). The second quote however, Buddha assume...

... middle of paper ...

...only through Christ can a person find salvation (Acts 17:30–31). Ultimately, Christ entered into human suffering, sin and debt, emptied and redeemed humanity from the curse of sin to give humans eternal life with God; whereas Buddha taught humans to disattach themselves from suffering, sin, and debt in order to be enlightened and dissolve into emptiness.

Therefore the major differences of Salvation between between the Christian and Buddhist soteriology is the difference between “Amazing Grace” and “Amazing Non-selfness”, and that Christ claims to be humanity’s saviour whilst Buddha claims to be humanity’s teacher for salvation,

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A Century of Theological and Religious Studies in Britain, 1902–2007 by Ernest Nicholson 2004 pages 125–126

John P. Meier "How do we decide what comes from Jesus" in The Historical Jesus in Recent Research 2006 pages 132–136

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