Save the date! 15th Conference “Buddhist and Christian Perspectives on the Mind”, Hamburg, 2.−6. July 2026

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The next conference of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies will be  2.−6. July 2026, at the St. Ansgarhaus, Hamburg (in cooperation with the University of Hamburg).

Topic of the 2026 conference will be "Buddhist and Christian Perspectives on the Mind"

More info soon on this webseite!

Beyond Boundaries

BeyondBeyond Boundaries

Essays on Theology, Dialogue, and Religion in Honor of Perry Schmidt-Leukel

Melanie Barbato, Mathias Schneider, Fabian Völker (Editor) with the assistance of Madlen Krüger

Perry Schmidt-Leukel has made significant contributions to the academic study of religion and religious diversity through his innovative work in Theology and Religious Studies. In his publications, he has not only overcome apologetic barriers between Buddhism and Christianity and demonstrated the potential for mutual enrichment of various religious traditions in dialogue, but also championed a pluralist Theology of Religions. On this pluralist basis, Schmidt-Leukel has developed the vision of a theology beyond boundaries, which takes the form of interreligious discourse and draws on the rich resources and insights of the global history of religions.

The Celestial Web: Buddhism and Christianity - A Different Comparison

webThe Celestial Web: Buddhism and Christianity - A Different Comparison

Perry Schmidt-Leukel

In his ground-breaking Gifford Lectures, published as Religious Pluralism & Interreligious Dialogue, Perry Schmidt-Leukel introduced his “fractal” theory of religions, challenging the tendency to distinguish religious traditions as discrete entities without acknowledging the wide variety within them, varieties essentially reproduced in different religious traditions.

After offering an introduction to this new methodology to comparative religion, Schmidt-Leukel, in The Celestial Web, applies this method to a comparison between Buddhism and Christianity. Some of the points of comparison include their respective approaches to the world, ultimate reality, the “dark side” of human existence, and salvation/liberation in terms of the figures mediating it.

Stereotypical approaches often treat these traditions as opposites, for instance, positing that Buddhism embraces an impersonal absolute, whereas Christianity affirms the primacy of one’s relationship with a personal God. Yet the fractal approach, which examines “intra-religious” varieties within the two traditions, reveals surprising points of congruence.

Euro-Buddhism and the Role of Christianity

EuroEuro-Buddhism and the Role of Christianity

Papers from the 13th Conference of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies

Kurt Gakuro Krammer (ed.)  John O'Grady (ed.) Martin Rötting (ed.)

In the late nineteenth century Buddhism began to be practised in Europe and was often presented by its European followers as a persuasive alternative to Christianity. Buddhism in Europe was less a result of missionary activities from Asian countries than the consequence of propagation by Europeans, who studied Buddhism through various literary sources. However, these European Buddhists sought connections to Asian countries from a comparatively early stage onwards, and organizations such as the Mahābodhi Society came to play an important role in the early days. In the twenty-first century, new configurations of the dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity are being formed, always in relation to developments within the larger faith-traditions out of which individual Buddhist and Christian denominational forms have come.

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In memory of Abbot Notker Wolf OSB

NotkerVery unexpectedly, Abbot Notker Wolf OSb of St. Ottilien died on April 2nd 2024. He was a pioneer in the dailogue of religions. As a young archabbot of St. Ottilien in 1979 he had invited a large group of buddhist monks and shintoist priests. This turned out to be a beginning of a long friendship between various Buddhist groups from East Asia and Ottilien, which continues til today. He also had generiously supported the work of the European Network of Buddhist Christian Studies. See also the obituary and more information at https://erzabtei.de/abt_notker_wolf

dialogue

Völlig unerwartet verstarb Abt Notker Wolf am 2. April 2024. Er war ein Pionier des Dialogs der Religionen. Im Jahr 1979 hatte er als junger Erzabt von St. Ottilien eine große Gruppe buddhistischer Mönche und shintoistischer Geistlicher aus Japan nach St. Ottilien eingeladen. Es war der Beginn einer langjährigen Freundschaft zwischen verschiedenen buddhistlschen Gruppierungen in Ostasien, die bis heute Bestand hat. Auch die Arbeit des Europäischen Netzwerkes für buddhistisch-christlichen Dialog hat er immer großzügig unterstützt.

Siehe auch hier

Da! - Gedichte

BuchDA! - Gedichte

Sybille Fritsch

Sybille Frisch ist vielen Leserinnen und Lesern als Lyrikerin, Philosophin und Religions- und Kulturwissenschaftlerin bestens bekannt. In Lyriksammlungen und mit Einzelveröffentlichungen ist sie seit 1980 im literarischen Bereich vertreten.

„DA!“ ist der Titel dieses neuen Bandes, der jetzt zu Beginn des Jahres im Geest- Verlag erschienen ist. Er weist auf die Auseinandersetzung der Autorin mit fernöstlichem, besonders zen-buddhistischem Gedankengut und mystischen Traditionen hin. Sie unternimmt damit eine Wanderung zwischen den Welten. Ein Innehalten. Ein Dazwischen. Das gilt für Gedanke und Tat, für Religion und Politik, für Himmel und Erde, für Ost und West: „Offene Weite – nichts von Heilig“.

Buddhistische Interpretationen Jesu

SchneiderBuddhistische Interpretationen Jesu

Mathias Schneider

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Wie wird Jesus Christus im Buddhismus wahrgenommen? Dieser in der Forschung bislang vernachlässigten Frage geht Mathias Schneider in einer umfassenden Studie nach. Er analysiert die ganze Bandbreite buddhistischer Interpretationen Jesu, die von der Dämonisierung bis zur Einordnung als Buddha reicht. Seine religionshistorische Untersuchung umfasst die globale buddhistisch-christliche Begegnungsgeschichte – vom 16. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart und von Sri Lanka über Thailand, Japan, China, Vietnam, Tibet und Deutschland bis in die USA. Im Anschluss daran untersucht der Autor die theologischen Rückwirkungen für die christliche Theologie, wenn diese sich auf buddhistische Jesusdeutungen einlässt oder sie ablehnt. Am Ende steht die Frage nach den Möglichkeiten einer interreligiösen, buddhistisch-christlichen Christologie.

15th Conference of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies

logoHuman existence is bodily existence. In their reflections on the body and in their bodily related practices, Buddhism and Christianity engage a crucial aspect of our being. In both traditions the spectrum of views is extremely broad ranging from outright condemnation of the body to its highest praise: “They have realized the deathless who have realized mindfulness directed to the body” (AN I 46), says the Pāli Canon. And in the New Testament we read “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor 6,19).

In this conference scholar practitioners from Buddhism and Christianity will be in dialogue about central facets of the body as perceived in both traditions: The body and ecology, the body’s impermanence, its role in social relations, body, gender, and sexuality, the relation between body and mind, the body in contemplation, prayer and ritual, and the embodiment of transcendence. The dialogues will not only explore spiritual wisdom connected to the body but also explore how both traditions may learn and benefit from the insights of the other.

As always, the conference will also have two open sessions for papers regarding all aspects of current research on Buddhist-Christian relations.

In memory of Marianne-Mettadevi Jacob

Marianne JacobTrauer um Marianne-Mettadevi Jacob

Dear Marianne,

describing yourself as "Cave-Buddhist", your were from the beginning a member of the Occurso institute. You were an enrichment with your intensive life of religious dialogue. You workedas  treasurer, as well as co-managing the "Being guest at ... " series from 2007 to 2012. Your numerous experiences from "being a guest", which you gathered on your various travels, but also at home in Munich, and which you reflected spiritually, helped immensely in this task. You shared your experiences in the book "Praxisbuch interreligiöser Dialog" with a very special article on "Being a guest, personal experiences of en existential attitude"

You participated on the conferences of the European Network for Buddhist-Christian Studies and lived there as well the hospitality with the members from all over the world.

Thank you for being among us.

May you be find happiness and the cause of happiness.
Free from suffering
in loving presence
in One-ness with all.

Your friends

 

International Workshop at the Cluster of Excellence

wwwŚāntideva and the Dynamics of Tradition 25 – 27 May, 2023, Lecture Hall JO 101, JO 1, 48143 Münster, Johannisstr. 4

“Śāntideva” is the name given by the Buddhist tradition to the author of two highly revered texts: the Bodhicaryāvatāra (an introduction to the way and ideal of a Bodhisattva) and the Śiks.āsamuccaya (an anthology of traditional Buddhist texts closely related to the Bodhicaryāvatāra). Śāntideva’s (c. 8 th or 7th ct.) texts reflect a particularly vibrant period of Indian Buddhism. Firmly rooted in the tradition, they simul- taneously display a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism that is at the threshold of undergoing significant transformations such as the growth of its Tantric and Pure Land variants.