Religio-political violence between Christaians and Buddhists are sharply on the rise in south Asian and south east Asian countries, since last ten years. Religious conversions, hate speeches, loss of life, and organized attacks on places of worship and houses are widespread in Sri Lanka, Burma and South Korea. This religious violence is not a new phenomenon. It has a long history dating back to the Colonial Period, when two Papal Bulls, Romanus Pontifex (1454) and Inter Cetera (1493), were issued by Pope to Spain and Portugal, to confiscate indigenous lands and convert them into Christian Empires.
In the present context, following escalating religious violence, the ball is in the Church’s court. But it refuses to accept any faith opposed to its theology. In 1989, the Catholic Church, through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, rejected attempts at mixing some aspects of Christian and Buddhist practices, in a letter titled “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of Christian meditation“, generally known as the Aspects of Christian meditation letter. The document issues warnings on differences, between the two faiths and referred to Buddhism as “negative theology”. Similar warnings supported by Southern Baptist Convention were issued in 2003 in ‘A Christian reflection on the New Age’ which also negatively views Buddhism.
Pope John Paul II’s, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, illustrates the core dissonance over the doctrinal contrast of salvation between Christianity and Buddhism – a dissonance declared existent by the authors of the Second Vatican Council.
Buddha lived 500 years before Christ and his ideas were rooted in Upanishads, the intellectual fountainhead of India, which questioned irrational rites and untenable practices at that time. Buddha became Boddhisatva in Mahayana School and ninth incarnation of Vishnu in Vaishnavism. While Buddhism is a movement of self-realization, Christianity is a religion of God’s revelation. There are inherent differences in the Christian and Buddhist perspectives regarding cosmology and eschatology. Buddhism sees empty space as eternal and without a starting point of creation, while Christianity believes in Genesis creation narrative. Buddhist goal of Nirvana is incompatible and contradictory with Last Day of Judgment in Christian theology. Buddhism expresses belief in doctrine of Karma and Bodhisattva which is very different from the notion of Creator God in Christianity.
Currently, the only way left before the Church to counter Buddhism in Asia was to penetrate, make inroads, engulf and launch a theological and cultural invasion. The church has involved in inter religious dialogues and publications to meet this target. Conflicts between Buddhists and Christians can be resolved through peace education, said the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue in 2007. Paul F Knitter, Paul Tillich, Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, authored the book Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian published in 2009 is another typical example.
In India, the Church has aimed to hijack and inherit the Buddhist heritage for multiple reasons. Practicing Buddhists are demographically few in India. Hence by entering this cultural vacuum through the backdoor, the Church can assert itself a long cultural history in India which is studded with epistemology and art left behind by Buddhism. Secondly, at least in some regions in India, Buddhism is related with violent Dalit/subaltern movements. By claiming a Buddhist legacy and patrimony, the Church can easily attract Dalits to its fold.
What has been discussed above on contemporary Buddhism and Christianity is a preface to understand some contradictory issues raised in a recent article in Indus Scrolls by Dr CI Issac, titled How Buddhism Influenced Christianity in Kerala? It is argued by the author with vigor that the cardinal evidence for the Buddhist sway over the Christians is that the image/idol that they worship as St Thomas resembles or looks like bodhisattva. He argues that above all, ideological similarities between Christianity and Buddhism accelerated the course of action. Boddhisattva is one dedicated to attain Bodhi or enlightenment beginning the career by generating aspiration or Pranidhana by cultivating six perfections, Sad Paramita, and four means of attracting beings, Samgraha Vastu, over the course of three immeasurable Kalpas. In what context is Boddhisattva related with a missionary who is believed to have arrived for conversions?
It is strange that the author has identified Bodhisatvva with Apostle Thomas who is believed to have landed at Kerala in a divine ship, performed miracles rather than intellectual debates and dialogues and was involved in religious conversions. The author has no fundamental knowledge on the roots and growth of Buddhism and hence his claim that Christianity and Buddhism have much similarities. Buddhism is not a religion and is rooted in Sanskrit and Pali rather than Hebrew, Latin and Greek. The author also argues that synonym of the word ‘maargam’ in Malayalam is Nirvana or salvation. The attainment of Nirvana marks the end of cyclic existence in samsaara which has nothing to do with Biblical theology of conversion. The Indian concept of cosmology is cyclical and western concept is horizontal. The historian should have this fundamental idea before raising such absurd claims.
It is also argued by this historian that the names of the Buddhist villages of ancient Kerala are suffixed with the expression palli and hence all contemporary places that are suffixing palli are either a Christian or a Muslim centre. The historian is unable to put forward any reliable textual sources, or archaeological reports to substantiate his stand. This historian should understand that Buddhism has nothing to do with village settlements in India. Historians and archaeologists have provided clinching evidence to show that except very few sites, most of the early historic urban centres in India were religious centres in some form with stupas, monasteries and temples. Kerala provides no archaeological evidence of urban centres or townships prior to 800 AD.
The archetypal Jewish mercantile prince Joseph Rabban landed at Muziris or Kodungallur in Kerala in 900 AD. Until 19th century, erstwhile princely state of Cochin had huge Jewish mercantile families such as Rahabis, Abrahams, Surguns and Halleguas. They also financed the Cochin princely state at times of financial emergencies. The Jews were predominant in the mercantile field and trade network of Kerala till hundred years ago, until they diminished demographically and many left for Israel.
With Jews dwindling to a minority in Kerala, organized attempts are launched by Church to submerge their 1200 years old ancestral history. The church aims to claim the Jewish heritage of maritime trade with west Asia. A classical example is Kodungallur or Muziris in Kerala the site of Indian Jewish sovereignty. The site has been currently expunged in the Left government-sponsored 200 crore Muziris Heritage Project. Instead, a new site called Pattanam has been manufactured by the Left historians under Kerala Council for Historical Research. JNU Left historians such as KN Panikkar and Romila Thapar gave wholehearted support for this venture. Cultural material has been duplicated and reports sabotaged. The Vienna Papyrus which documents maritime trade of Jews at Muziris and Indian Ocean has now been juxtaposed with this newly constructed site, Pattanam. Biblical scholars such as Frederico de Romanis, Istvan Perczel, Irving L.Finkel and Roberta Tomber had been imported at Pattanam with which Apostle Thomas has been incorporated and virtually syndicated. The ancient Jewish history in India is thus getting deleted using Muziris Heritage Project by Left and Church historians.
A massive programme has been launched by the Church to expropriate Buddhist legacy and heritage, target the Dalit groups, bifurcate them from Hindu society and break the fundamental unity of the nation.
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