VI. The Gospels of the Infancy, the Lalita Vistara, and the Vishnu Purāna

Buddhism and Christianity are essentially unlike, no two religions more so, but no other worldwide religions have so many points of superficial resemblance. Some of these resemblances are natural or accidental. For instance, Christ and Buddha taught in parables, because, as Galen says, parables are the most instructive form of teaching for simple men. Again, Buddhism and Christianity lay stress on right conduct; and although Buddhists and Christians do not mean exactly the same thing by these words, both lay hold of great ethical principles. Such coincidences are in the nature of things. But the greater number are undoubtedly due to the secular contact of the two religions in Central Asia from the second to the twelfth century a.d. , and they are confined of necessity to legend and to ritual

Accidental · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Buddhism · Christianity · Comparative religion · Eastern religions · Epistemology · Gautama Buddha · Legend · Literature · Natural (archaeology) · Simple (philosophy) · Theology · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Philosophy · Religious studies · War, Ethics, and Justification

• Philology of the Gospels (1898)

  Friedrich Blass, Friedrich Wilhelm Blass•Philology of the Gospels•1969

  Add to list