The Buddhist-Christian Interfaith Dialogue: From Roots to New Heights

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to document the movement of the interfaith dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity. First, I will look at a history of the dialogue, including reasons why it has taken place, where it has taken place, the people or groups that have participated, their views on what the dialogue should be, and the topics that dialogue focused on. Then I will move into a reason for and way to go about dialogue that properly addresses today's issues as well as the reoccurring themes of the traditional dialogue throughout the world. With the idea pluralism creating more interactions between people of different religions in mind, I address the ideals of tolerance, love and wisdom, highlighting aspects of the dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity that comment on these subjects. This portion of the paper goes into where I feel we should move with the dialogue today, a conversation towards personal and religious transformation and world peace.