A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
Catholic theologian Paul Knitter explains why sustained engagement with Buddhist thought and practice became necessary to his Christian faith. He reconsiders God, Jesus, prayer, salvation, suffering, and life after death through Buddhist accounts of interdependence, emptiness, mindfulness, and nonattachment, arguing for a form of religious double belonging rather than occasional borrowing.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
It gives travelers a full example of comparative theology changing the theologian, not merely collecting agreeable insights. The book can help those who remain Christian while Buddhist practice has altered their experience and categories. Its value lies in the seriousness of the experiment and the questions it opens, not in proving that Christian and Buddhist claims finally say the same thing.
Good starting place if…
You welcome substantial theological revision and want to see how long engagement with Buddhism can reshape a Christian account from within.
Know before you begin…
Knitter argues for double belonging and revises classical theism, exclusive Christology, prayer, and afterlife belief. Christian and Buddhist readers dispute whether the comparison is symmetrical or faithful to each tradition, and his synthesis should not be treated as consensus in either. Practice and vocabulary that appear compatible may rest on different accounts of self, reality, and liberation.