Religious Rivalry in the Seventeenth Century: A Buddhist–Christian Case in China
To shed new light on the place of Christianity in seventeenth-century Chinese society and the debates and conflicts between Christians and Buddhists, this paper reflects on Christians' critiques of Buddhist dogma and praxis as well as rejoinders from the Buddhists. It will focus on the sustaine...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Edinburgh Univ. Press
2021
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| In: |
Studies in world christianity
Year: 2021, Volume: 27, Issue: 2, Pages: 102-123 |
| RelBib Classification: | AX Inter-religious relations BL Buddhism CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
Buddhist–Christian conflicts
B Interreligious relationship B Interconnectedness B mimetic rivalry B Internal conflicts |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | To shed new light on the place of Christianity in seventeenth-century Chinese society and the debates and conflicts between Christians and Buddhists, this paper reflects on Christians' critiques of Buddhist dogma and praxis as well as rejoinders from the Buddhists. It will focus on the sustained debates, roughly between 1590 and 1690, with regard to the relative ‘merits and defects’ as represented in polemical texts. Several treatises serve as the essential link of the continuous debates, eliciting back-and-forth elaboration and rebuttals from both sides. Through an analysis of the polemical discourse, I argue that the Buddhist–Christian case offers an instance of what René Girard termed ‘mimetic rivalry’. The conflict entails internal rivalry resulting not only from different religious perspectives but also from social, cultural and economic ones. Seeking interconnectedness between traditions by creative imagination and analogy may offer a way out of ignorance and enmity in dealing with interreligious relationship.1 |
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| ISSN: | 1750-0230 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studies in world christianity
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3366/swc.2021.0338 |