Buddhismus und Christentum. Ein Vergleich im Licht fraktaler Strukturen

Schmidt-Leukel, Perry

Research article (journal)

Abstract

Comparative studies often present Buddhism and Christianity as religions marked by contra-dictory or even antagonistic features. The paper argues that this view is largely based on ahomogenizing and essentializing perspective which does not do justice to the actual diversityfound within both traditions. It further argues that major typological differences betweenboth traditions reappear within each one of them and might be better understood as comple-mentary than contradictory, that is, differences between a world-renouncing and a world-affirming spirituality, impersonal and personal conceptions of Ultimate Reality, concepts ofthe mediators as enlightened teacher or divine incarnation and concepts of the path of salva-tion as one of self-help or other-help. The paper thus illustrates the theory that religiousdiversity displays, to a large extent, »fractal« patterns: The typological differences that con-stitute religious diversity at the inter-religious level replicate at the level of intra-religiousdiversity and even at the level of intra-subjective religious diversity. By getting a better under-standing of such fractal patterns we will not only arrive at a new understanding of the relationbetween Buddhism and Christianity but of religious diversity in general, an understandingwith far-reaching theological implications.

Details zur Publikation

Release year: 2023
Language in which the publication is written: German
Link to the full text: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.14315/evth-2023-830608/html