The Buddha and the Christ: Explorations in Buddhist and Christian Dialogue

The book begins by comparing the lives and teachings of Śākyamuni Buddha and Jesus Christ, focusing on such themes as awakening and revelation, temptation, suffering, liberation, compassion, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the reign of God, the Dhammapada, and the Sermon on the Mount. 

The second major section examines “classical paths of transformation.” Lefebure places Mahāyāna Buddhist traditions—particularly Zen and Pure Land Buddhism—in dialogue with Christian theological figures such as Dionysius the Areopagite and Augustine. Themes of ascent and descent, emptiness, transformation, grace, freedom, signs, and conversion provide conceptual bridges for comparative theological reflection.

The final section turns to contemporary paths of liberation, especially the engaged Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh and the liberation theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez. Here the author investigates suffering, social transformation, consciousness, interbeing, resistance, and liberation as shared ethical concerns. 

Lefebure frames interreligious dialogue as a journey requiring attentive listening rather than the immediate comparison of doctrines. In the Prologue, his experience in a Theravāda Buddhist monastery becomes a methodological lesson: dialogue involves silence, meditation, embodied practice, and receptivity as much as intellectual discussion. He cautions Christians against approaching Buddhism primarily through Western theological categories and stresses that Buddhist teachings must first be understood within their own conceptual and experiential contexts. At the same time, he does not minimize the substantial differences between Buddhist and Christian understandings of ultimate reality, God, selfhood, creation, liberation, and salvation. The guiding method of the book is therefore one of similarity and difference—seeking meaningful points of contact while avoiding the collapse of one religious tradition into the categories of the other.

Table of Contents

Part I — The Buddha and the Christ

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Life and Teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha

• Shakyamuni Buddha

• The Buddhacarita

• The Four Noble Truths

• The Eightfold Path

• Later Interpretations of the Buddha

Chapter 2. Jesus the Christ and Shakyamuni Buddha

• Journeys of Initiation

• Birth of the Messiah and the Buddha

• Temptations: The Forest and the Desert

• Illusion and Sin

• Dharma and the Reign of God

• The Dhammapada and the Sermon on the Mount

• Separation and Death

• Cosmic Buddha and Cosmic Christ 

Part II — Classical Paths of Transformation

Introduction

Chapter 3. Ascending and Descending
The Structure of Mahayana Buddhist Experience and the Zen Tradition

• Ascent and Descent

• Ascent and Descent in the Life of the Buddha

• The Bodhisattva

• Ch'an and Zen Buddhism

• Lin-chi Ch'an and Rinzai Zen

• Ts'ao-tung Ch'an and Soto Zen

Chapter 4. Dionysius the Areopagite and Mahayana Perspectives

• Ascent and Descent

• Strategies of Transformation

Chapter 5. Pure Land Buddhism

• Early Pure Land Sutras

• Themes and Practice of Pure Land Buddhism

• Shinran

Chapter 6. Augustine and Mahayana Buddhism

• The Interpretation of Signs

• The Confessions

• Grace and Freedom 

Part III — Contemporary Paths

Engaged Buddhism and Theology of Liberation

Introduction

Chapter 7. The Engaged Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh

• Life of Thich Nhat Hanh

• Stories of Suffering and Seeing

• Meditation: Breathing and Seeing Clearly

• The Wisdom of Interbeing: The Heart Sutra

• Engagement in the World

• Structuring the Life of Compassion: Fourteen Precepts

Chapter 8. Gustavo Gutiérrez and Thich Nhat Hanh
The Theology of Liberation in Relation to Engaged Buddhism

• Life of Gustavo Gutiérrez

• Transformation of Consciousness

• On Job

• Creation and Interbeing

• Strategies of Resistance

• A Flower Smiles—All Is Grace