Crosscultural Religions:
Buddhism and Christianity

Themes

• cross-cultural exchange:
• "world religions"
  • Spread of Buddhism: Central Asia and Southeast Asia
  • Spread of Christianity: Roman Empire and beyond
• transmission and forms of religion
• adaptation in art and story

Transmission of Buddhism

• Environment and Development: forms of Buddhism
  • India
    • Theravada
    • Mahayana
    • Maitreya [Alt Maitreya]
    • Avalokiteshvara [Alt Avalokiteshvara]
    • decline in India: Buddha as Hindu god
  • Central Asia via Silk Road: non-Mahayana
  • China: Mahayana
  • China to Japan and Korea
  • Southeast Asia
• Buddhism in China
  • Taoism and Confucianism
  • schools:
    • Lotus School 6th century
    • Flower Garland School 6th-7th centuries
    • Pure Land: Amitabha; Kuan Yin [Alt Kuan Yin]
    • Meditation: Ch'an (Zen)
  • cultural mix:
  • adaptation:
  • Pu-tai, Laughing Buddha (Maitreya) [Alt Pu-tai]
• spread to Korea and Japan
  • Korea: pagoda temple *; Maitreya *
  • Japan and Shintoism: Heian Kyoto Shrine*; Maitreya [Alt Maitreya]
• Southeast Asia
  • through __________
  • __________ and __________
  • aesthetics: Thai Images of the Buddha

Spread of Christianity

• Environment and Development: forms of Christianity
  • center:
    • Palestine 1st-2nd cen: parousia
    • Roman Empire 4th-6th cen.
    • heterodoxy vs orthodoxy: gnostics, monophysites, dyophysites (Nestorians), Arians
    • Manichees
  • southward into Africa:
    • Egypt: Coptic
    • Ethiopia: Axumite Kingdom 3rd-8th centuries
    • Nubia, mid-6th century-mid 15th centuries
    • South Arabia (Yemen), early 6th century
  • eastward:
    • Nestorians and others in Syria
    • Nestorians in Tang China, 8th century
  • westward:
    • Arians in parts of Europe
    • Celtic Christianity in Ireland 3rd-6th centuries
• Orthodoxy and Empire
  • conversion of empire
    • Constantine
    • Theodosius
  • creation of orthodoxy:
    • Council of Nicea, 325; Nicene Creed versus Arianism
    • Council of Chaledon, 451: dyophysites (Nestorians), monophysites, and Chalcedonites
  • politics and religion: the fall of Rome
    • Rome and Constantinople
    • Augustine, Two Cities
• Heterodoxy on the Frontiers
  • Syrian Christianity: Ephraem the Syrian (c. 306-373); religious art
  • Coptic Church in Egypt: desert monasticism; Coptic art
  • Ethiopia: Roman, Coptic, or independent?
    • Axumite Kingdom royal stele 4th cen. C.E. [Alt stele]
  • South Arabia: the martyrs of Najran (517)
  • The race for Nubia: Justinian and Theodora (mid-6th cen)
• Beyond the Frontiers
  • Nestorian Christians in Tang China: stele circa 781
  • Celtic Christianity in Ireland
    • missionaries: St. Patrick and St. Brigid
    • monasticism: Rule of St. Columba; St. Columban's Boat Song
    • Book of Kells [Alt Kells]

Conclusions and Comparisons

• adaptation and diversity
• religion and culture

Explore!

• Chinese images
• Buddhist Sculpture in Japan
• Ecole Initiative
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Wheaton
• Late Antiquity website primary sources
• Medieval Sourcebook Selected Sources
• Images from History
• Catholic Encylopeda (partisan, dated, but extremely useful)
• Go to Syllabus Lecture Outline