Buddhism vs. Christianity: Core Beliefs and Moral Paths

Introduction: World Religions in Context

Christianity is the most widely followed religion in the world. Islam is second, and several other religions bring up the rear. Buddhism is followed by a comparatively smaller number of people worldwide. Jainism and Sikhism, two religions primarily followed in India, may be rarer still. Indeed, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India, though strictly speaking, Buddhism arose in what is modern-day Nepal. Smaller religious movements that border on cults certainly exist, but they are not widely recognized outside immediate circles of followers, nor do they espouse grand philosophies capable of drawing the numbers that major religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism attract (Bowker 1997).

Each of the major religions has various sects. Among the Christian traditions are the Protestants, a sect that arose in Europe—specifically in Germany under the leadership of Martin Luther. From there, Protestantism spread through England and the rest of Europe. It is worth noting that Protestantism came to England partly because King Henry VIII embraced it in order to marry Anne Boleyn and divorce his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, since the Catholic Church did not permit divorce. Before Protestantism emerged, Christianity was largely synonymous with Roman Catholicism. Today there are several Protestant sects: Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and others. Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses are also considered Christian, though their beliefs vary from one another and from other Christian denominations.

Even though Buddhism has one of the smaller global followings among major world religions, it encompasses several sects with differing beliefs: Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana, Tibetan, and Zen Buddhism, as well as more modern variants.

This essay is not, however, about a comparison of the variations among Christian or Buddhist sects. It is, first, about identifying the basic differences between Christianity and Buddhism. The second portion is devoted to exploring the question of how each religion addresses the ultimate completion or fulfillment of human life. Most religions preach good living and arose from humanity's need to identify with goodness and reject evil. The evolution of human civilization from primitive societies to modern ones is grounded in religio-moral precepts. Atheists espouse good civic and familial living; believers attribute their sense of goodness and its consequences to a deity. Human life is seen as full of trials and failings—what Christianity calls sin. A related concept in Buddhism, though not identical in meaning, is dukkha.

All religiously observant humans aspire to goodness, struggling against evil in hopes of one day attaining salvation. Buddhists call this enlightenment. Even followers of Islam believe that the travails of the world lead toward salvation, where those who enter paradise are greeted with unimaginable reward. In the New Testament, a passage near the beginning of one of the Gospels reads: "God became man (Jesus), so that one day, man might become God."

Bibliography

Bernstein, Alan E. The Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993.

Bowker, John Westerdale. The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Easwaran, Eknath. The Dhammapada. Petaluma, Calif.: Nilgiri Press, 1986.

Meeks, Wayne A. The Origins of Christian Morality: The First Two Centuries. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.

Raatnam, Ram Kumar. Dukkha: Suffering in Early Buddhism. Ed. Digumarti Bhaskara Rao. New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House, 2003.