Jesus vs. Buddha!

Jesus and Buddha were fairly similar in that they both started a missionary religion. A religion that accepted all people and wasn't set to just one race. Also, they both taught about an all-powerful force. However Buddha was more focused on the fact that the force is something behond them, while Christianity believes in the Holy Trinity; father, son, and holy spirit. Furthermore Jesus came from the middle east, while Buddha came from India. This affected the way both religions syncretised, and which cultures they were eventually accepted by. Originally Christianity was accepted at first by most of the Mediterrenean, but then gradually spread to the rest of the world. In Asia it was tolorated, but not as well accepted as it had been in the Mediterrenean region. The way Christianity got a foothold in Asia was similar to that of Buddhism, there was a group of people who actually practiced it as a religio. These people for Christianity were the Nestorians. Meanwhile, Buddhism on the other hand, barely maintained in India, it's creation land, especially after Hinduism had made its reforms. Also, when Buddhism finally did spread to eastern Asia, it is hard to deny that it took awhile for it to recieve a foothold as a religion. It eventually did get a foothold by a group called the Toba who spread it in northern Asia. Also Buddhism, unlike Christianity had another form of spreading its beliefs in Asia, and that was through another religion; Daoism! Through Daoism Buddha was worshipped as one of their dieties, till it could finally sustain as its own religion. In the end, Buddha and Jesus both started two similar religions.

Syncretism

The last quiz we had was on syncretism of Buddhism from India to Asia. I did a comparison between China and Japan. My main point was a from a religious stand point, was that Buddhism had to blend with both the national religion of Shintoism, and that they were both different in the fact that Buddhism had to furthermore blend with Daoism. My difference is definately lacking, but frankly enough no major difference religiously can be depicted between the syncretism of Buddhism religiously to both China and Japan. Their are plenty of facts to back this up; like the way Daoism was used as a bridge into China, and the way for Japan that bridge wasn't needed, because Daoism wasn't as strong in Japan.

Refelction of Theme

November 13, 2007

The theme that I chose was the development and interaction of cultures, which I believe was expressed greatly throughout this unit. Especially since this was the unit where we started to learn about religion, and how it affected people, and the development of civilizations. For example there was Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and polytheistic religions, which often related gods to nature(some of these were just philosophies, not religions). These religions provided order, explained the unexplainable, unity, and it often provided moral guidelines. For advances in technology there was the wheel, bronze, writing systems, and stone tools.