The Routledge Handbook of Buddhist-Christian Studies: (Routledge Handbooks in Religion)

Buddhist-Christian dialogue has a long and complex history that stretches back to the first centuries of the common era. Comprising 42 international and disciplinarily diverse chapters, this volume begins by setting up a framework for examining the nature of Buddhist-Christian interreligious dialogue, discussing how research in this area has been conducted in the past and considering future theoretical directions. Subsequent chapters delve into: important episodes in the history of Buddhist-Christian dialogue; contemporary conversations such as monastic interreligious dialogue, multiple religious identity, and dual religious practice; and Buddhist-Christian cooperation in social justice, social engagement, pastoral care, and interreligious education settings. The volume closes with a section devoted to comparative and constructive explorations of different speculative themes that range from the theological to the philosophical or experiential. This handbook explores how the study of Buddhist-Christian relations has been and ought to be done. The Routledge Handbook of Buddhist-Christian Studies is essential reading for researchers and students interested in Buddhist-Christian studies, Asian religions, and interreligious relationships. It will be of interest to those in fields such as anthropology, political science, theology, and history.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Part I: Theory and Method 1. The Variety of Methods in Buddhist-Christian Studies 2. Buddhism and Christianity through Fractal Eyes 3. Buddhist-Christian Dialogue: A Proposal 4. The Craft of Interfaith Curiosity 5. Dialogue as Contemplative Practice: Buddhist Contributions to Interreligious Dialogue 6. Serving Two Masters: Possibilities and Opportunities of Double Belonging 7. Meeting in kenosis Part II: Historical Encounters 8. Christianity in early Tibet: Shreds of Evidence 9. Ippolito Desideri and Buddhist-Christian Dialogue 10. From Competition to Collaboration: Four Hundred Years of Buddhist-Catholic Engagement in Vietnam, 1620-2020 11. The Christian-Buddhist Encounter in 17th century China 12. Buddhist-Christian Relations in Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts: the case study of Sri Lanka 13. Spiritualities separated at birth or accidentally related? The 'spiritual senses' traditions in Eastern Orthodox Hesychasm and Chan/Zen Buddhism 14. Poor, Yet Making Many Rich: Poverty as Virtue in the Franciscan and Theravada Buddhist monastic traditions Part III: Contemporary Conversations 15. Monastic Interreligious Dialogue and its contribution to Buddhist-Christian encounter 16. A Comparison of Aquinas and Dōgen’s Views on Religious/Monastic Life 17. Millennium World: Thomas Merton, Buddhism, & Monastic Futurism 18. Constructive Catholic Theology in the Light of a Buddhist Imagination 19. Heaven and Sukhāvatī: Martin Luther and Shinran Shonin on Death and What Follows 20. Thich Nhat Hanh’s Buddhist-Christian "Practical Theological Vision" for Rebuilding Hope: Co-designing the Practice for Peaceful Communities that Restore Faith, Courage, and Love 21. The Buddhist Christian Encounter and the Challenges of Multiple Religious Belonging in Asia 22. Zen Buddhism and the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: Toward Mutual Learning and Enrichment Part IV: Social engagement, pastoral care, and the challenge of interreligious education 23. Interreligious Solidarity for an Ecological Civilization: a Catholic and Humanistic Buddhist Conversation 24. Towards a Buddhist Theory of Social Justice: Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Just Society 25. Buddhist-Christian dialogue and inter-religious learning 26. Herding Cows and Sheep: Giving Guidance in Buddhist and Christian Spiritual Formation 27. Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in Art 28. African American and Womanist Buddhist Thought 29. A brief critical appraisal of the Buddhist Modernism Paradigm Part V: Constructive Reflections 30. A Tibetan epektasis? Gregory of Nyssa’s understanding of spiritual progress and the Gelug pa teaching on the four Buddha bodies 31. Aquinas and Dölpopa, searching for foundations 32. Eckhart and Dōgen on Forgetting the Self: A Contemplative Studies Perspective 33. Commensurable Saints? Buddhist-Christian Dialogue and Comparative Notions of Sanctity 34. The Composite Union of Natures: A Study Comparing the Structures of Hypostatic Union in Chalcedonian Christology and Dharmākara Bodhisattva in Shin-Buddhism 35. On Religious Engagement: Shinran and Heidegger’s Paul 36. Creative Tensions in Buddhist and Christian Doctrine 37. The Paths of Purification: Buddhaghosa and John of the Cross 38. Irreversibility and Reciprocity in the Divine-Human Relationship 39. "Being in Love": Religious Conversion in Bernard Lonergan and the Lotus Sutra 40. Buddhist-Christian dialogue and the Kyoto school 41.The Deaths of Buddha and Jesus 42.Matchless on Their Way: Comparative Reflections on Christ and the Bodhisattva

About the Author :
Carol S. Anderson is Professor of Religion at Kalamazoo College, U.S.A. Thomas Cattoi is Associate Professor in Christology and Cultures at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, U.S.A.