Timothy Richard's Buddhist-Christian Studies
Timothy Richard (1845-1919), one of the most well-known nineteenth-century British missionaries who worked in China,1 is still remembered today for his efforts to disseminate "Western learning" and to promote social welfare and political reform in China.2 Interestingly, although Richard's missionary, educational, and political activities undoubtedly dominated his life in China, he also found the time to translate a number of Buddhist texts from Chinese into English.3 Unlike many of his fellow Christian missionaries, who either despised or ignored Chinese Buddhism, Richard endeavored to promote a dialogue between Christianity and other religions, especially Chinese Buddhism. In fact, his translations inspired several other European missionaries and Sinologists to take a greater interest in Chinese Buddhism, particularly Richard's biographer William E. Soothill (1861-1935) and Karl Ludvig Reichelt (18771952),4 the founder of Tao Fong Shan, which continues to promote Buddhist-Christian dialogue several decades after its foundation.5 However, Richard's translations of Chinese Buddhist texts, particular his translation of The Awakening of Faith, have been largely neglected by both Buddhists and Sinologists. As a result, the significance of Richard's dialogue with Chinese Buddhism has not yet been properly evaluated. Two recent studies of Richard have focused on his translation of the Buddhist texts
Book Review: Preparation and Fulfilment: A History and Study of Fulfilment Theology in Modern British Thought in the Indian Context
A Dictionary ofAsian Christianity(DAC) is a major publication event, not only for Asian Christians but also for the whole Christian and non-Christian world. The editors, contributors, and patrons of DAC must be congratulated for undertaking such an important enterprise. This is an ecumenical venture and the first major dictionary on Asian Christianity. With 1,260 entries by nearly 500 scholars, it will be of immense help to anyone interested in Asian Christianity. Excellent articles are to be found on colonialism, contextualization, the Holy Spirit Study Centre in Hong Kong, interreligious dialogue, the padroado, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, Pentecostalism in Asia, and United Theological College in Bangalore, to name only a few. In general, the regional articles, including those on China, Japan, and the Philippines, are comprehensive and informative. The DAC is strong on biographical material. Most entries have useful bibliographic notes. As may be expected in such a large volume, covering twenty centuries of Christian history in diverse regions, religions, cultures, languages, political systems, and colonial backgrounds-and with limited archival resources-the
Spirituality and Liberation: A Buddhist-Christian Conversation. - I A Christian Introduction
In introducing the topics for our Buddhist-Christian conversation, I would like to follow the advice of my feminist theologian friends and take a personal approach. I think I can make clear why I am eager to talk with Professor Abe by first speaking about what I did in the summer of 1987 and what happened to me. First of all, I went to Japan. It was my first visit to the Orient, and I had all of six weeks. The official reason for my trip was research: I was working on a history of Zen Buddhism at Nanzan University. But the real, the impelling, reason I went to Japan was to immerse myself in the history, the spirit, the experience of Buddhism, especially of Zen. As much as possible, I wanted to practice, to sit, to follow the guide of a master, and to do all this in the land where, after its birth in China, Zen had taken on a new identity that has endured through the centuries. Especially during the days I spent in the old monastery of Hosshinji, in Obama, in the southwestern mountains of the main island, my wish was granted. I sat, and chanted, and worked, with the thirty monks and nuns who carry on the Soto Zen tradition of Hosshinji. Why did I want to do this? Why this pressing need to "pass over," as John Dunne puts it, to Buddhism? It certainly was not because of any fundamental or serious dissatisfaction with Christianity. I was not running away. On the contrary, I would say that the need to taste of Buddhism came out of my own Christian faith and experience. Here Thomas Merton helps me understand what I felt. His own life and experience illustrates that the more one enters into the fullness of the mystery of Christ, the more one is open to others and the more one can appreciate the beauty and richness of other religious ways. In his Seven Storey Mountain, Merton had little good to say about Eastern religions; in fact he gave up his explorations into Hinduism as a waste of energy; it was only after his entrance into Gethsemane, only after the years of deepening his own Christian mysticism, that he was, as it were, able to return to the East and read the Zen and Taoist classics, as well as the works of