Contrasting and Similar Views in Christianity and Buddhism

Introduction

The religion is an important subject that has been discussed in the past by large number of authors. Various religions are present in the world and a certain number of individuals believe all these religions due to the one or other features possessed by each of them. According to the statistics, the largest religion with respect to the followers present in the whole world is “Christianity”. Around 6.8 billion individuals are the followers of Christianity while the second largest religion is “Islam” that has 2.1 billion followers in the whole world. The religion that has least number of followers among important religions of the world is “Buddhism” that has 376 million followers all over the world. In this paper, the religious beliefs and concepts of “Afterlife and role of mortality” with respect to the Christianity and Buddhism have been discussed. The beliefs in all the religions greatly varies from God to Budha in Christianity and Budhism, however various similarities are also present in these religions.

Purpose

The growing concern of authors and researchers in finding out the similarity and differences among important religions is a common practice now. Various researchers and authors have discussed the similarities and differences in various concepts of the religions. The purpose of this carrying out this paper is to compare and contrast the role of mortality and after death concepts in important religions that are Christianity and Buddhism. The two beliefs are considered to be the important beliefs in the world that share some of the concepts. However have some of its concepts similar. However

Discussion

It has been observed that the Buddhism and Christianity are the two religions that have similarity in their approaches of salvation. The process of salvation in both of the religions cannot be fulfilled individually by the people and must need the presence of mediator. It is largely claimed by the followers of Buddhism including Dalai Lamas that Jesus himself was a bodhisattva that is related to the Amida. Moreover, on providing further explanation of this point, they pinpoints to the reformers that are Shinran and Martin Luther in the Buddhism and Christianity. These personalities are considered to be the key figures and are founders in the Pure Land of Japan as both of them lived around the same time period and had many similar ideas about the lack of human ability to either be reconciled to God or to obtain nirvana.

Comparing and Contrasting Buddhism and Christianity

In the current era, the growing concern of the religious scholars in comparing the religions of world has made them said that the grace given by Buddha Amida is comparable to that of Christianity. It is not only caused by globalization but also due to the large levels of interaction between these two important religions that are Buddhism and Christianity. The argument is that somehow Amida and Christ are similar in purpose, both being claimed be bodhisattvas, have been interpreted similarly in such a way as to make ...