On the Future of Buddhist-Christian Relations

Buddhist-Christian relations have suffered setbacks in recent decades, after the progress made at the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. This article suggests that progress can be made again if Christians recognize the different paradigm they encounter in Buddhism rather than attempting to read Buddhism through the paradigm that Abrahamic faiths represent. This paper also suggests that Buddhist-Christian relations have suffered through "religious appropriation" of Buddhist practices on the one hand and defensive misrepresentations of Buddhism on the other. It suggests that relations can improve if Christian-Buddhist exchanges are conducted with the understanding that two religions are meeting in a "soft secular" space of equality. In this space, certain first principles are respected: proselytization and evangelical motivations are parked; attempts to understand the other through the self are suspended; and sharing action is emphasized over sharing scripture, in an embodied relationship with outcomes in the social world.