Without Buddha I Could Not be a Christian

Knitter claims Buddhism "has the firmest doctrinal foundation for...non-violence" (p 188).Yet according to the Iris Chang's book "The Rape of Nanking" and Victoria's "Zen War Stories" Buddhism was the cause of such Japanese World War II atrocities as the Bataan Death March, the medical experiments which included vivisection without anesthesia, not to mention the civilians buried alive.Every war is filled with horrors, but even the Nazis in Germany had a mere 4% death rate for their captured prisoners, whereas the Japanese were so brutal to their prisoners that close to 30% died. When a Japanese submarine came across the survivors of the Dutch ship Tsijalak, they slaughtered the survivors with swords. Those left alive had their hands tied and then were forced to stand on the submarine while it submerged.In Manila, when it became clear the Americans would win, the Japanese soldiers pointlessly, vengefully, massacred the civilian population. Raped, beheaded, burned alive, shot - some 100,000 defenseless men, women and children butchered. For spite.During, and directly prior to the war, "leaders ...interpreted...Buddhist doctrine of the non-existence of self, coupled with the oneness of life and death, in such a way as to produce an unquestioning willingness to die" (p 144 Zen War Stories) and also to kill. Yes, kill, and this was no new phenomenon. Buddhism "has a very long history of 'moral blindness'...as early as the eighth century...those who are enlightened transcend...good and evil. Enlightened beings ...are no longer subject to moral constraints" (p 15 Zen War Stories). Zen Master Dogen explained that, as Mahayana Bodhisattva, killing was justified, since killing was killing the False. If your heart was filled with compassion, you could kill without compunction.Indignantly, Knitter assures us we need to "get beyond overly simplistic declarations like 'Buddhism denies evil'...Buddhists... don’t want to call any person...evil...you can't define anything as inherently “evil,” just as you can’t define anything as inherently “good.” (p 38).I doubt all the people who were hacked to death would agree. But Knitter relishes that Buddhism rejects truth, insists there isn't any absolute truth. It rejects good and evil. It blames all the iniquity in this world on 'ignorance'.But then what about justice? Don't the souls of the civilians buried alive cry out for justice? Alas, Buddhism denies justice, as well, whereas Christianity's answer to evil is that the God who is eternal love will ultimately draw good from every single evil done on earth. God will give perfect justice, not to mention perfect happiness, to every person who once suffered.Knitter enthusiastically points out that "Buddhists are much more concerned about waking...our... compassion...than they are about working for justice" (p 184).Ah, that would explain the last 2,500 years of almost total lack of action by Buddhists. Buddhists never tried to end slavery, never claimed slavery was wrong (it's pretty hard to claim something is wrong, when you don't believe in absolute right and wrong), never worked tirelessly like Mother Teresa of Calcutta to care for the poorest of the poor. Catholics have been helping the poor ever since the first Christian appeared, based upon the innate worth of every human soul. The worth of every person is why human rights were first argued by the Catholic Francisco de Vitoria in Ius Gentium, who taught them in another Catholic invention, the university.Alfred North Whitehead placed the reason that, of all the great civilizations, only the west developed real science on Christian theology, as opposed to mere technology. "There seems but one source...It must come from the medieval insistence on the rationality of God." From the very start, Christian theologians like Tertullian and Augustine argued that there was absolute truth. Truth was God. And the truth could be discovered by reason.The famous Roman physician Galen was stunned that Christians remained in Rome during the plague (he, of course, fled) and tended the sick, with the result that many died. The ancient Greeks tossed blind women into brothels; as soon as Christianity was legitimate, they formed homes to care for the blind. Even today, with all the government aids, one out of every three charities is Christian.John Bradburne, who died this year, tended to lepers in Africa. He washed them, dressed their wounds, fed by hand those who were incapable. Again, even with government aid, the vast majority of lepers in the world today are cared for by Catholic nuns and priests. People who defeat evil by sacrificing oneself for others, compassion in action.Whereas Buddhists are busy trying to explain why "if there is no self" (p 80), as they claim, then how can this nonexistent self have a rebirth?? Logic would say it's not possible. But then, how can there be karma in a meaningless, Godless universe, and what, what, pray tell, is making the choices for all this karma? Some malevolent Matrix computer? And for heaven's sake, what or who is it that decides what kind of a body the nonexistent self has earned, and what the next nonexistent rebirth will be in? What laws were we supposed to have followed? How dare they give us karma without a clear outline of what is right and what is wrong....oh, we're back to that again.So what decides on every self's karma if there is no God running the show to decide on how the nonexistent self has done in in this life, and of course we haven't even answered the question of the nonexistent self having a new self? And anyone who has tried to have a Buddhist explain something clearly, when Buddhists have spent the last two thousand years muttering that intellectual activity is not helpful, and proving that if Buddhists had been in control we would have never have had modern dentistry.Knitter dislikes "Christian creed and dogma – like 'only-begotten Son ... coming to judge the living and the dead'" God coming to judge is what everybody dislikes. But it's either true or not, and his feelings on the subject are irrelevant.Knitter pontificates, "I can’t believe...in...eternal punishment in hell" (p 76) or that anyone will be "punished for ever and ever and ever – such a doctrine does not seem to promote mental health nor lay the foundations for a mature, adult morality" (p 77). Personally, I wouldn't care to call Jesus Christ a liar, but Knitter has no such qualms. The concept of hell scarcely exists in the Old Testament. The person who kept mentioning hell, and threatening it, was Jesus Christ.Knitter scolds the Almighty God: "If God "loves us he should want to prevent...needless suffering" (p 30). Our capacity to love is dependent upon our ability to choose, so if we had been created without free will we could not freely choose and love God. Tragedy leads us to fear. And pity. And love.Knitter complains that, if there is really only one God, then all other gods are false (p 58) which he objects to strongly, because then “'My truth' becomes opposed to...'your truth'” (p 69). He prefers that we should all see "the resurrection, the cornerstone of Christianity, can be considered a 'historical myth.'” (p 71). Such notions as a risen Christ make him ponder, "Do I really believe?...I don't. I don't because I can't." (p 93).Knitter tries hard to convince us all by explaining further that "the very earliest account of the resurrection...Corinthians...insists that the body Jesus rose with was not physical but spiritual...in some of the earliest communities of Jesus-followers they didn't even talk of the resurrection" (p 103).Simply not true. Decades have past since the atheist biblical scholars tried this one on so there are lots of books refuting it. Pick up a copy of 'Soma in Biblical Theology" by Gundry or Perkins' "Resurrection: New Testament Witness and Contemporary Reflection". And pick up a copy of "The Gospels for all Christians' by Bauckham, which squashes Bultmann's antique claims about communities.Breathtaking narcissism: "But it has to be a relationship of authentic mutuality...which means a relationship in which I... can really affect the Divine. I feel it has to be not just God’s show" (p. 27).More breathtaking narcissism: "relating to God...as an almighty...might... be inappropriate and harmful for me. In such a relationship, how much room was really left for me... If God is the captain of my ship, can I ever be more than a crew-member?" (p 28). Someone needs to tell Knitter that in a relationship in which one side keeps carping about on me, me, me, me, there's not a lot of hope for the relationship.Knitter announces; "I can only be a Christian by being a Buddhist" (p 216).He has achieved nothing of the sort. It is not possible to blend atheism and God, truth and the absence of truth, so he has merely rejected God, rejected Christianity, and rejected truth. And that's tragic.

Once in a rare while a book comes along which is filled with such profound theological insight, spiritual wisdom, and especially courage and humility, that one wants to rush out to buy a dozen copies to send to one's friends. Knitter, Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary, studied theology at the Gregorian University and then under the renowned Jesuit Karl Rahner as a graduate student. For most of his adult life he has struggled with virtually all of the doctrines of Christianity. More accurately, he has struggled with their exposition and interpretation in our wordy, dualistic, Western terminology. He shares his struggles and questions with the reader, never imposing solutions but simply offering another perspective that he finds in the teachings of the Buddha. Is there any thoughtful Christian who has not winced at the anthropomorphisms, inconsistencies, intelligibility, and outright contradictions that often permeate our God talk, liturgical services, and prayer life, not to mention credal declarations? Knitter's questions are directed at the conceptual language we use about God's transcendence and immanence, the Trinity, the Incarnation, creation, evil, the afterlife, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, salvation, the afterlife, eternal damnation, God's will. There is scarcely a piece of our belief system, our spiritual and liturgical life, or our Christian praxis that does not come under scrutiny. This includes the contemporary aversion to silence in liturgy and spirituality (he would increment the Sacraments to include a Sacrament of Silence), the prayer of petition (God the Super-magician who is asked to upset the order of nature for my benefit), eternal damnation (impossible!), just war theory (an oxymoron). These are not the rantings of a disillusioned Christian, but the thoughtful reflections of a theologian who would see our faith enlarged and enriched. He permits us to throw out the dirty bath water so that we can see and touch the baby again. You will finish this book (probably after a second reading) with a deepened sense of the divine, a renewed and enlightened Christian faith. Finally and logically Knitter leads us to Christian praxis and a vision of the radical changes required if, as individuals and church, we would realize God's "Kindom," to use his pregnant neologism. Knitter is no armchair theologian. Having come out of the liberation theology tradition, he has worked actively in Latin America in the cause of peace, justice, and reconciliation. Thus the concluding chapter of the book addresses a Christian praxis rooted in the example and teaching of Jesus (and the Buddha). It reminds us that, to use the Buddhist expression, "to make peace we must be peace." No reader can finish this book without concluding that Christianity and just war theory are simply incompatible. Knitter looks to the day when we can read a book entitled "Without Jesus I could not be a Buddhist."

This is a very important book. It is also moving and powerful. Sometimes I wish Prof Knitter had had an easier journey: starting as a Roman Catholic when he did in the unreformed past (though the present isn't a lot of fun either) cannot have been easy for him. He is evidently a person of courage and supreme intelligence. He has needed those qualities as he has grappled first with theology as it was taught in the 60s and 70s, and then with clerical celibacy, wisely opting out and marrying his wife who has obviously been a great soul friend both to him and their children. Finally he has had to use both courage and intelligence in his encounter with Buddhism. This book is the fruit of all those encounters and meetings.Although the book makes great demands upon the reader, I must confess that I felt a lot of sympathy with Prof Knitter. I have been an Anglican priest for more than 35 years though increasingly at odds with the whole business. At times this has resulted in considerable mental stress. Reading this book may take me (and you) onwards. Increasingly Prof Knitter found himself ill at ease with the Thomism he was taught by great men such as Lonergan and Rahner, though he retains enormous respect for both. He doesn't recount how he first encountered Buddhism but his involvement is clearly not been superficial at all. He has had to learn to pray again, under the influence of Zen. He has had to learn to think again, to feel again and his chapter on suffering is particularly moving, telling as it does of his in involvement in El Salvador.There was a moment when my levels of frustration were rising considerably and I thought to myself why does he not just simply become a Buddhist, like his wife. But my frustration may have been my own story and I finished the book (for the first of many times) asking just what it might mean for me to look honestly at my inner life and ask where it is going. Happily there has been a particular resolution of this problem for Prof Knitter - can there be for us his readers?It isn't always an easy book but as I said at the beginning I believe it is a very important one. In these days when evangelical fundamentalism has become so dominant within Christian circles I fear that few will read it but that few will be richly strengthened by it. Highly recommended.

I am not a theologian, and read this book as someone who grew up with experience of both the Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions but who had become increasingly troubled coming to terms with Christianity in today's world and drawn towards trying to understand other faith traditions, especially Buddhism. This book brought me great joy and is one I have already read twice and will keep close to me. It is incredibly honest - or, to be fair, asked all the questions I had been asking and gave responses that resonated deeply with what I was seeking. It is simply so clearly written for someone who is not a theologian to understand, yet does not simplify answers to insult the intelligence. I do hope others read it and have a similar experience. For me - a book of rare quality.

This is a truly excellent book. I have to admit my prejudices, that I like it because I can identify so fully with it. The questions he raises about his Christian faith are the very same questions that I raised and which troubled me so much. He then journeyed into Buddhism as I journeyed into Buddhism, both finding so much that was helpful. He then reinterprets his understanding of Christianity in the light of his experiences of Buddhism, and came to the same conclusions as I did. Amazing.Perhaps the only difference is that he has returned to a Christian setting, his new insights overcoming the frustrations he feels at times with Christianity. I myself have seen less of the positives that he outlines, and have remained a Universalist Quaker. But it has been challenging to me to look at those positives and I have learnt some deep truths.So, a wonderful book. One that in time will be seen as a classic. Not quite so easy if you are new to Buddhism. Dense at times, but this is not a simple subject, and he has an easy going style. And the final reminder, that this is something that is ultimately beyond words and can only be experienced, and then with practice.

Paul Knitter makes no claims that this is other than his personal spiritual journey. My own opinion is that he seems to accept both Buddhism and Christianity in equal measure because they are not mutually exclusive. I found the book well written and thought provoking and especially interesting for those who are coming to terms with the realisation that the faith they grew up with no longer satisfies all their spiritual needs in today's world. Great stuff.

Extremely well written, gives a good theological basis for the direction I’ve been leaning towards for some years. Now I feel justified in doing so!