In Search of the Christian Buddha: How an Asian Sage Became a Medieval Saint

by Donald S. Lopez Jr., Peggy McCracken

The fascinating account of how the story of the Buddha was transformed into the legend of a Christian saint.

The story of Saint Josaphat, a prince who gave up his wealth and kingdom to follow Jesus, was one of the most popular Christian tales of the Middle Ages, translated into a dozen languages, and cited by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice. Yet Josaphat is only remembered today because of the similarities of his life to that of the Buddha.

In Search of the Christian Buddha is set against the backdrop of the trade along the Silk Road, the Christian settlement of Palestine, the spread of Islam, and the Crusades. It traces the path of the Buddha’s tale from India and shows how it evolved, adopting details from each culture during its sojourn. These early instances of globalization allowed not only goods but also knowledge to flow between different cultures and around much of the world.

Eminent scholars Donald S. Lopez Jr. and Peggy McCracken reveal how religions born thousands of miles apart shared ideas throughout the centuries. They uncover surprising convergences and divergences between these faiths on subjects including the meaning of death, the problem of desire, and their view of women. Demonstrating the incredible power of this tale, they ask not how stories circulate among religions but how religions circulate among stories.

Genres: Buddhism, Religion, History, Nonfiction, Christianity, Spirituality

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 7, 2014

About the author

Donald Sewell Lopez, Jr. (born 1952) is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures.

Son of the deputy director of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Donald S. Lopez.

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, thoughtful, and interesting, this book traces the story of the life of the Sakyamuni Buddha from its original form in India through a series of transformations: into an Islamic tale of ascetic renunciation, to a Georgian Christian story, to a Western Christian story, to an entry in the Golden Legend, well-known and popular across Western Europe in the Middle Ages. The changes in the story illustrate the contrasting values of the various cultures (renunciation; piety; chastity). Written for an interested lay audience, the book summarizes the clues scholars have used to reconstruct the story's path and relate various manuscript versions to one another. However, even spared the full details of textual and linguistic analysis, the reader still has to wade through multiple recountings of the story - that's kind of the book's point. So, while interesting, it isn't gripping, and there's virtually no suspense. Ultimately, it's a fairly narrow but well done read, worthwhile for folks interested in Buddhism, Christianity, and a case study of how one specific story evolved across cultural boundaries. You'll note, to spare you yet another version, I haven't recounted the story itself here...

[Amos Dowber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening (wink wink) investigation into how the narrative of the Buddha’s life was translated and received into different cultures as it migrated west. First in realm of Islam, then into Christian Europe. In it the author shows how the Buddha acted almost like a canvas for the cultural values of a particular society, however like some art – it was not painted onto a wholly blank canvas. The parts that do get passed on get thoroughly integrated into a new narrative whole.

The book shows that there is a universal relevance to the core themes of asceticism, pursuit of a higher good over fleeting lower/worldly goods, and the pursuit of enlightenment, that were core to the life of the Buddha, even if these themes are chased out in different metaphysical schemes, with beliefs about grace and nature that differ radically from the Buddhist tradition.

This book is more of a popular history so it only gets 4/5 stars simply because at times I found it repetitive and not very intellectually engaging on account of its target audience

[RYAN PHAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got it. The original Buddha became the Catholic Saint Josaphat of India

[Lyman Maddox · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good story about the history and travels of a great story!

Lopez and McCracken present common versions of the story of the Buddha's life, and then describe how parts of that story were adapted by different religious traditions.

To me, this book is not about the power or truths of Buddhist, Islamic, or Christian theology or practices. It is about how a compelling story is adopted and passed on by people.

To me, In Search of the Christian Buddha is not a detective story in the same vein as The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr. Harr's book explores the people and events involved in solving a mystery.

[Craig Bergland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat redundant tale of the retelling of the story of the Buddha's early years in several religious traditions, culminating in the appearance of one-time Saints Barlaam and Josaphat. Of course, the retelling of a story in different traditions is bound to be redundant, but I am commenting more on the author's repeated references to comments already made. I found myself thinking, "yes, I do recall you mentioned that in a previous chapter" far too often. Overall, worth reading for the content, but be prepared for the possibility of some frustration.

[Marietje · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a concise history of how a story evolved through time and four different religions (Buddhism, Manicheism, Islam and Christianity). Even though the language is easy to follow, there are so many sources and threads that it gets confusing. Most of the time different versions of the story a paraphrased, which sometimes contributes to the confusion. I would have preferred more literal tranlations of the version the are talking about.

[Jon Blomquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book free as part of the Goodreads Firsts program. Book was a redundant telling of the origin story for Buddha from multiple historical and religious viewpoints which I found to be redundant and uninteresting.

[elbren · Rating 3 out of 5]

an engaging tale of reception history, it would've been strengthened by acknowlegement of the existence of the malankara church, and maybe a paragraph or two regarding the omission of the story from the tradition in the church of the east.