Barlaam and Josaphat: A Christian Tale of the Buddha

by Gui De Cambrai, Peggy McCracken (Editor), Donald S. Lopez Jr. (Introduction)

A new translation of the most popular Christian tale of the Middle Ages, which springs from the story of the Buddha.

When his astrologers foretell that his son Josaphat will convert to Christianity, the pagan King Avenir confines him to a palace, allowing him to know only the pleasures of the world, and to see no illness, death, or poverty. Despite the king's precautions, the hermit Barlaam comes to Josaphat and begins to teach the prince Christian beliefs through parables. Josaphat converts to Christianity, angering his father, who tries to win his son back to his religion before he, too, converts. After his father's death, Josaphat renounces the world and lives as a hermit in the wilderness with his teacher Barlaam. 

Long attributed to the eighth-century monk and scholar, St. John of Damascus, Barlaam and Josaphat was translated into numerous languages around the world. Philologists eventually traced the name Josaphat as a derivation from the Sanskrit bodhisattva, the Buddhist term for the future Buddha, highlighting this text as essential source reading for connections between several of the world’s most popular religions. 
 
The first version to appear in modern English, Peggy McCracken’s highly readable translation reintroduces a classic tale and makes it accessible once again.

Genres: Classics, Religion, Fiction, Buddhism, Literature, Christianity, France

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2014

Reviews

[Salter]

medieval france, land of the chuds

“This world is lost. The nobles are deaf and mute, and they condemn themselves. There are so many evils in this world that I do not know what to say about them. You cannot find a single worthy man in a thousand.”

[Carson]

Proud to say I finished this book two minutes before class. This entire book is what I imagine Sunday School to be like but without the snacks and company

[sean]

it's kinda like buddha meets sir gawain and is appendixed by a really awesome augustine-style body/soul dialogical smackdown. really cool reading it as a weird semi-conscious conversation between medieval catholic monasticism and south asian mendicancy and makes you think comparatively about those systems even though i feel that gui de cambrai (who is kinda an interrupting jerk here) probably did not know a single thing about religious hermitage in india. anyway it was short and i had some fun. three stars.

[William Long]

Had to read this book for a digital humanities class and I really despised it. I just simply could not force myself to sit through it for the life of me. When we came together to discuss this book, my professor prompted us to point to any part of it we found interesting, and no one spoke a word. I don't think any of us could read it, and this was a 400 level course of students who had all previously read long, arduous texts. At the very least it was just not for me. I cared very little about any of the parables or lessons, and though learning a little about Gui's purpose in writing it (as I suppose a critique for the Christians of his time) helped me in getting it, it did not entice me to read it. Seeing as I only got 100 pages in I cannot star it. Maybe there was just about to be a big twist though! Maybe not.

[Lina]

A very interesting translation. Highly encourage others to read this critically and with the historical knowledge that this was changed from the original to create an evangelizing narrative, and several chapters are added here by Gui that were entirely absent from earlier translations. It is also important to bear in mind that the original story was not about Josaphat's conversion to Christianity, but instead his journey to becoming the Buddha. Either way, it is an interesting story and translated into a captivating tale.

[Sarah]

The storytelling charmed me. The story itself is familiar. Very familiar. The religious fervor for martyrdom and self-denial was insane. It's set in India. The book was popular in the 1700s in Europe.

[Jack Burton]

An interesting resource for sure. I don't know how much value it would provide to those interested in Buddhism, the subtitle is misleading. The tale is decidedly Christian.

[Riley]

As a historical curiosity it is alright, as literature it is very weak.

[Aaron]

This book is an interesting curiosity because it interprets Buddhism through the lens of medieval French literary genres, but that's about all it has going for it. Its literary merit is almost nil. I only finished it because I had already started reading it.

[Brent]

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