Customer Reviews

Encountering Jesus & Buddha: Their Lives and Teachings

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New Testament Professor (University of Berlin, Switzerland) Ulrich Luz and Professor of Classical Indology (Southeast Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg) Axel Michaels pool their years of study in Encountering Jesus & Buddha: Their Lives and Teachings, a thoughtful examination of what Jesus Christ and the Buddha preached, contrasting views of each leader's passion and suffering, and the connections between community and church and the words of the original teachers. Presented in an essay-response format, such as "The Buddha and Meditation" by Axel Michaels followed by "Response: Buddhist Meditation Is Not Prayer" by Ulrich Luz, Encountering Jesus & Buddha meticulously traces similarities and disparities resulting in a balanced theological discussion in which each speaker listens to, carefully weighs, and challenges the words of the other. Highly recommended for theology and religious studies shelves.

I was disappointed. The title of the book led me to believe that it would compare the teachings of Jesus and Buddha, but it didn't. It seemed to jump back and forth between the two great men, and was crammed with too many Biblical references for me... made it difficult for me to keep my attention on the ideas.