Christian and Buddhist Altruistic Love
Nostra Aetate urges Christians to enter into dialogue and collaboration with religions, and to acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral truths found in them. It is in this spirit that this article makes a comparative theological study of altruistic love in the Christian and Buddhi...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Ed. Pontificia Univ. Gregoriana
2006
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| In: |
Gregorianum
Year: 2006, Volume: 87, Issue: 4, Pages: 810-826 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
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| 520 | |a Nostra Aetate urges Christians to enter into dialogue and collaboration with religions, and to acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral truths found in them. It is in this spirit that this article makes a comparative theological study of altruistic love in the Christian and Buddhist Scriptures. Such comparison does not only facilitate better mutual understanding but also helps each tradition to understand itself better. The New Testament favours agapē and related words to express the idea of altruistic love, while Buddhism uses the words mettā (maitrī) and karuṇā. After presenting the main characteristics of altruistic love in Christianity and in Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhism, the article launches into the theological comparison. Christian and Buddhist love are altruistic and universal. Both are opposed to malice and cruelty, are forgiving and move one to transfer one's merit, and both go to the extent of loving one's enemy and even sacrificing one's life for another. But there are many differences arising from their different worldviews. Christians love others because God has loved them, but in Theravāda the motivation is different, since there is no Supreme Being. In Mahāyāna the Buddhas will not forgive people unless they forgive others. However, it is not the Buddhas who are the highest, but it is the Ādi Buddha that is the Supreme Being. In Theravāda love is developed through personal effort, i.e., through meditation; while in Christianity love is a gift of God and cannot be cultivated merely by effort. In Christianity the person loved has intrinsic worth, but in Theravāda every person is a mere series of momentary aggregates and in Mahāyāna does not really exist. Christian love is more spontaneous and personal while Buddhist love is more sedate and detached. On the other hand, Mahāyāna love has greater warmth of feeling than that of Theravāda. Christianity has shown greater social concern than Buddhism, but it has been more violent and intolerant. Unlike Christian love, Buddhist love is extended not only to human beings, but to all living beings. In Mahāyāna the ideal is to even delay one's salvation for the sake of others. Buddhism teaches a stoic ideal of not even feeling hurt so that, in a sense, there is no need of forgiveness for no offence has been taken. These differences with regard to the presuppositions, the motivation and the expression of love spring from the divergent worldviews not only of Christianity but also of Theravāda and Mahāyāna among themselves. It is through altruistic love that Christianity and Buddhism can reach out to each other, foster dialogue, collaborate in service, and work together to build bridges of peace and harmony to heal our broken world. | ||
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