The Christ and the Bodhisattva

The volume explores Christ and the Bodhisattva as two highly influential religious images embodying ideals of compassion, liberation, self-transcendence, and service to others. Its comparative approach does not attempt to prove that the two figures are identical. Instead, the contributors investigate their distinctive histories, doctrinal contexts, spiritual meanings, and functions within Christian and Buddhist communities. The editors explicitly frame the project as a Buddhist–Christian dialogue in which Christian scholars clarify interpretations of Christ while Buddhist participants illuminate the Bodhisattva across Indian, East Asian, and Tibetan traditions. 

The editors begin by examining the historical, doctrinal, and symbolic development of the two figures. Christ is discussed through themes such as Messiah, incarnation, suffering, salvation, divine love, self-sacrifice, and liberation. The Bodhisattva is presented within the historical emergence of Mahāyāna Buddhism as one who postpones final liberation in order to work compassionately for the awakening of all beings, cultivating the perfections such as generosity, ethical conduct, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom. 

The individual essays then address methodological questions in Buddhist–Christian comparison, the Bodhisattva as a salvific figure, contemporary interpretations of Jesus, images of the Bodhisattva in East Asia, the meaning of Jesus as Christ, the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism, and the actual practices of Bodhisattvas. The closing symposium explicitly brings Christ and Bodhisattva into dialogue. 

Rather than asserting simple equivalence, the book stresses both similarities and irreducible differences, presenting dialogue as a disciplined encounter capable of deepening each tradition's understanding of itself and of the other.

Table of Contents

• Introduction

  • The Christ

  • The Bodhisattva

  • The Dialogue

• Chapter 1. Perspectives on the Buddhist-Christian Dialogue — Malcolm David Eckel

• Chapter 2. The Buddhist Messiahs: The Magnificent Deeds of the Bodhisattvas — Robert A. F. Thurman

• Chapter 3. Who is Jesus Christ for Us Today? — Brother David Steindl-Rast

• Chapter 4. The God You Touch — Ann Belford Ulanov

• Chapter 5. From the Extraordinary to the Ordinary: Images of the Bodhisattva in East Asia — Luis O. Gómez

• Chapter 6. The Meaning of Jesus the Christ — Langdon Gilkey

• Chapter 7. The Dalai Lama of Tibet — Donald S. Lopez, Jr.

• Chapter 8. The Practices of Bodhisattvas — His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama

• Chapter 9. Symposium Panel on the Christ and the Bodhisattva — Steven C. Rockefeller, Moderator