Martha,
Thank you for asking an important and difficult question. I have a couple
of thoughts on this.
First, Christians make this claim because Jesus made the claim. Check the
Gospel of John chapter 14, verse 6. This was even more disturbing then,
than now. For a Jewish believer to equate himself with God was a radical
statement worthy of the death penalty. Today, the offense of that
statement is different, because the religious context is different. Then
the context was a monotheistic religion located in the eastern end of the
Roman empire challenging the notion that Caesar was god. Today, the
question is not focused upon political deities, but on very different
conceptions of what human religious experience is. For example, I would
venture the assumption that what people find in Christianity and Buddhism
are similar in that they are meeting a personal need. Religion in a
postmodern world is essentially personally focused, not nationally or
culturally mandated. People don't become Christian or Buddhist because
that is the dominant religion of the nation or culture. They choose so
out of personal considerations.
Second thought: I am not at all sure that Christians and Buddhists are
talking about the same things. This is where you could be a great help to
us who are Christians. Why are you a Buddhist? How did this come about?
For Christians, the central issue resides in the nature of God. God is a
creative personality, distinct from all that has been created. While this
God is transcendent from all creation, this God interfaces with what has
been created. This is the focus of Jesus, who is God in the flesh. I
know other religions talk about the divinization of humanity, that human
beings can become god-like through processes of learning, discipline,
service, etc. For Christians, I think that the confusion with other
religions has to do with how they define the nature of God in relationship
to humanity. From my rudimentary college religion courses, my
recollection is that eastern religions conceptions of god are so different
from Judaism, Christianity and Islam, that we referring to virtually
incompatible concepts. So I would like to know also what you concept of
God is, so that I might better understand what you mean. My sense is that
we believe different things, but our language gets in our way.
I hope that we can find a way to humbly discuss these issues. Because of
the openness of this list, religious dialogue happens frequently, and is
always interesting.
Thanks again for asking,
Peace,
--Ed Brenegar Leadership Resources brenegar@circle.net
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>