Immanent and Transcendent
Immanent and Transcendent Religions – Christianity & Buddhism
Christianity is a Transcendent religion as it holds it beliefs in a divine power beyond the human dimension. The followers of Christianity believe in one god who exists beyond the human world but guides humanity throughout existence.
Buddhism is an immanent religion as they believe in a divine being or powers within an individual. They do not believe in a god like being, however they believe in ultimate goals and principle as they live a sense of ultimate meaning.
Similarities
• The life history of the founder
• Ethics
• Church or tradition history
The biographies of Buddha and Christ show many similar features;
Both were born in a miraculous way, both astonish their teachers through the knowledge they possess, though still in their early childhood, both are tempted by the devil, both walk over the water, both feed a large amount of people, the parables they taught were very similar. Both religions teach the ultimate rule, do unto others what you wished to be done to you. Both religions also started from a country of origin and slowly spread onto other countries all over the world. These similarities exists because religions need to have a basis and set of beliefs to live by and ultimately all religions’ goals are peace and harmony.
Differences
• A transcendent God.
• The Original Sin shared by all present-day humans, derived from Adam and Eve.
• The need for a personal savior whose death enabled individual salvation.
• The power of prayer.
• Eternal life spent in either a heaven or hell after death.
• Return of the savior to earth at some time in the future.
• An end of the world as we know it in the near future.
Buddhists do not worship or believe in any divine being nor do they believe that everybody is born with sin; they sin because of person reasons and opinions. Saviour for a Buddhist is all mental and can be achieved through meditation whereas Christianity
Christianity is a Transcendent religion as it holds it beliefs in a divine power beyond the human dimension. The followers of Christianity believe in one god who exists beyond the human world but guides humanity throughout existence.
Buddhism is an immanent religion as they believe in a divine being or powers within an individual. They do not believe in a god like being, however they believe in ultimate goals and principle as they live a sense of ultimate meaning.
Similarities
• The life history of the founder
• Ethics
• Church or tradition history
The biographies of Buddha and Christ show many similar features;
Both were born in a miraculous way, both astonish their teachers through the knowledge they possess, though still in their early childhood, both are tempted by the devil, both walk over the water, both feed a large amount of people, the parables they taught were very similar. Both religions teach the ultimate rule, do unto others what you wished to be done to you. Both religions also started from a country of origin and slowly spread onto other countries all over the world. These similarities exists because religions need to have a basis and set of beliefs to live by and ultimately all religions’ goals are peace and harmony.
Differences
• A transcendent God.
• The Original Sin shared by all present-day humans, derived from Adam and Eve.
• The need for a personal savior whose death enabled individual salvation.
• The power of prayer.
• Eternal life spent in either a heaven or hell after death.
• Return of the savior to earth at some time in the future.
• An end of the world as we know it in the near future.
Buddhists do not worship or believe in any divine being nor do they believe that everybody is born with sin; they sin because of person reasons and opinions. Saviour for a Buddhist is all mental and can be achieved through meditation whereas Christianity
Bibliography: http://biblia.com/theology/buddhism7.htm#Similarities Living religion Text book