Stories and Spirituality: How the God Engages Human Evil

A one page chart comparing views of God and human evil. God could role model inner peace, or change human nature as one of us, or give us better laws. The chart compares how the deity in each category interacts with concepts of good and evil, whether the deity can touch humanity, how the deity helps us deal with human evil, and whether the deity will heal the world.

Stories and Social Consequences: Jesus’ Resurrection and Comparison with Atheism and Hinduism

A one page chart comparing stories. Classical Indian and Greek stories reflect a circular, reincarnation paradigm. Christianity tells a story of a good God who heals human evil by becoming one of us, then one with us. Atheism tells a story using the Second Law of Thermodynamics where the universe will eventually become cold and dead.

Is There Meaning in Suffering? A Comparison of Karmic, Christian, and Atheist Views

A short comparison of how suffering is interpreted in the Karmic view (caused by individual, redemption by individual), Christian view (caused by humanity, divine-human partnership in redemption), and Atheist view (caused by nature, redemption is questionable).

The Jesus Story vs. Other Messianic Stories: Circular, Christian, Western, Muslim, Secular, Individual

Text of a message which delves into the biblical story as the original happy ending story, and other happy ending stories as parodies that change the plot arc, villain, and hero.  The message is accompanied by this chart. Another message like this is The Happy Ending — Will It Happen to Me? To Us? This message focuses on our experience of happy ending vs. non happy ending stories, and not on other religious traditions per se. This video clip highlights the importance of story and the question of the integrity of stories.

Beauty's Transformation of the Ugly in Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Moses

An essay for Dr. Maximos Constas and Dr. Evie Holmberg, for their respective classes at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary, Fall 2018; examines Gregory's work (c.390 AD) as a critical engagement with the Platonic tradition, especially Origen and Plotinus, who have elements of reincarnation in their thought.  Gregory's work serves as an example of engagement with and differentiation from a Platonic cyclical cosmology which, in this case, can serve as a proxy for Hinduism.  For reference, see David Bentley Hart, Mind Over Matter: 'The Enneads' (Commonweal, Jan 16, 2019)

Wikipedia, The Problem of Evil in Hinduism (wikipedia)

Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata. This late second and early third century Christian teacher in Alexandria, Egypt is the first Western source to mention Buddha and Buddhism. Note the qualified positive regard he has for “philosophy,” including Indian, and specifically Buddhist, philosophy.

"Before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness. And now it becomes conducive to piety; being a kind of preparatory training to those who attain to faith. . . For God is the cause of all good things, but of some primarily, as of the Old and New Testaments; and of others by consequence, as philosophy. Perchance, too, philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily. . . For [philosophy] was a schoolmaster to bring ‘the Hellenic mind. . . to Christ.’ Philosophy, therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in Christ." (Bk 1, Ch 5) "Philosophy, a thing of the highest utility, flourished in antiquity among the barbarians, shedding its light over the nations. And afterwards it came to Greece. First in its ranks were the prophets of the Egyptians; and the Chaldeans among the Assyrians; and the Druids among the Gauls; and the Samanæans among the Bactrians; and the philosophers of the Celts; and the Magi of the Persians, who foretold the Saviour's birth, and came into the land of Judæa guided by a star. The Indian gymnosophists are also in the number, and the other barbarian philosophers. And of these there are two classes, some of them called Sarmanæ, and others Brahmins. . . Some, too, of the Indians obey the precepts of Buddha; whom, on account of his extraordinary sanctity, they have raised to divine honours." (Bk 1, Ch 15)

Sexwork Cyber Center, The Influence on Thai Buddhism on Prostitution. Sexwork Cyber Center, 1999.

Hieromonk Damascene, Christ the Eternal Tao. St. Herman of Alaska Press | Amazon page, 2004.

Vinod Shah, What Motivated the Early Christian Health Missions? Anatomy of Transformation in India. presentation, May 29, 2005.

Keith E. McNeal, Trance and Modernity in the Southern Caribbean: African and Hindu Popular Religions in Trinidad and Tobago. University Press of Florida | Amazon page, 2005.

Dionysios Farasiotis, The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios. St. Herman of Alaska Press | Amazon page, 2008.

Christopher Hitchens, The Real Mahatma Gandhi. The Atlantic, Jul/Aug 2011.

Letitia Barbier, Morbid Monday: The Buddhist Hell Gardens of Thailand. Atlas Obscura, Jun 3, 2013.  raises intriguing questions about Theravada vs. Mahayana Buddhism, as well as understandings of karmic-retributive justice.

David B. Marshall, Hindu Texts on Women: The Rig Veda. Christ the Tao blog, Nov 23, 2013.

I.A. Murzaku, Monastic Tradition in Eastern Christianity and the Outside World: A Call for Dialogue. Peeters Publishers | Amazon page, Dec 31, 2013.

Bono, The Difference Between Grace and Karma. Resistance and Renewal blog, Jan 26, 2014.

John Polkinghorne interview. note 28:20min mark about comparative belief systems.

Deacon Giorgi Maximov, St. Nicholas of Japan on Buddhism. Pravoslavie, Aug 15, 2014.

Meg Wagner, Caitlin Nolan, Nicole Lyn Pesce, Microsoft CEO apologizes after telling women not to ask for raises, trust 'good karma' will lead to better pay. Daily News, Oct 10, 2014.

Still Drops, The Man Who Spit in Buddha's Face: A Fable of Fury. Still Drops blog, Oct 19, 2014.

Virginia Heffernan, The Muddied Meaning of ‘Mindfulness’. New York Times Magazine, Apr 14, 2015.

Paul Chiariello, Why the Buddha is a Better Modern Role Model Than Jesus. Applied Sentience, Apr 17, 2015.

Heather Sutfin, History's Most Blood Thirsty Cult. Sword and Scale, Aug 11, 2015.  re: the Hindu Thuggees of India, who believed they were rebalancing the world

Diane Cole, You'll Never Guess The Most Charitable Nation In The World. NPR, Nov 28, 2015.

Susmita Barua, A Buddhist and Interfaith Response to Debt Capitalism. Tikkun, Winter 2015.

Giles Fraser, What Star Wars: The Force Awakens Can Teach Us About Modern Evil. The Guardian UK, Jan 5, 2016.

Robbie Swinnerton, A Phone Booth for Contacting the Dead; Renewal After the Tsunami. The Japan Times, Mar 4, 2016.  See also Miki Meek, One Last Thing Before I Go. This American Life, Sep 23, 2016.  See also Jessica Leigh Hester, The Phone Booth for Japanese Mourners. CityLab, Jan 10, 2017.  Japanese are emotionally reserved for the sake of the dead, because in Buddhist thought, the soul still needs to traverse its path away from earthly ties.

Helen Hardacre, Political Realignment Among Japan’s Religions. Foreign Affairs, May 15, 2017.

Christine Mangala Frost, The Human Icon: A Comparative Study of Hindu and Orthodox Christian Beliefs. James Clarke & Co. | Amazon page, Jun 7, 2017.  a very intriguing exploration

BBC, ‘Racist' Gandhi Statue Removed from University of Ghana. BBC, Dec 13, 2018.  and Soutik Biswas, Was Mahatma Gandhi a Racist? BBC, Sep 17, 2015.

Hannah Beech, Buddhists Go to Battle: When Nationalism Overrides Pacifism. New York Times, Jul 8, 2019.  “A call to arms for Sri Lankan monks. Ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya in Myanmar. A Buddhist faith known for pacifism is taking its place in a new age of nationalism.”

Godfrey Kesari, How Do Hindus Understand the Atonement? Church Times, Apr 9, 2020.  That is, the penal substitutionary atonement.

Ann Gleig, Why Are White Buddhists So Angry? White Rage And Buddhist Studies Scholarship. The Shiloh Project: Rape Culture, Religion, and the Bible, May 2, 2021.  raises the question of what intellectual and spiritual-emotional resources Buddhism provides when confronting white supremacy.

Sunita Viswanath, My Fellow Hindus Sued Me for Raising Alarms About Hindu Supremacy. Religion News Service, May 20, 2021.  

Secret Journal, They Lied To You About Mahatma Gandhi & Winston Churchill (Black Culture). Secret Journal, Jun 22, 2023.

R.S. Sugirtharajah, Hindus and Their Christian Bible. T&T Clark | Amazon page, Feb 2024. 

“R.S. Sugirtharajah shows how at the height of European colonialism whilst the colonizers were studying the sacred texts of Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs and Zoroastrians, the Hindus were themselves scrutinizing the invader’s book – the Christian Bible. Sugirtharajah examines how these Hindus transformed the Bible into what they deemed fit for and suited to their contexts. The result was that the Bible acquired a totally different form and lost its authority as the Book of the Empire. Sugirtharajah shows how the resistant, subversive and at times antagonistic readings of the Hindus went beyond what the colonizer had intended. Sadly what these Hindus made of the Bible went largely unnoticed and was ignored by Western scholarship. This volume seeks to rectify this regrettable omission and to place both the Hindu reformers and nationalists attitude to the Bible in their own specific context and to allow them to speak on their own terms rather than reading them with Christian preconception. The Hindu reformers covered include figures such as Raja Rammohun Roy, Arumuga Navalar, Keshub Chunder Sen, Swami Vivekananda, Ponnambalam Ramanathan, M. K. Gandhi and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and nationalists such as Dhirendranath Chowdhary, Sita Ram Goel and Ram Swarup. The book contains the interpretative context; the textual negotiation that went on between these Hindus and the missionaries and orientalists; examples of their Hinduization of the Bible; and the hermeneutical impact on mainstream biblical interpretation.”

Religion for Breakfast, The Ancient Greeks Who Converted to Buddhism. Religion for Breakfast, May 10, 2024. “Greece is very far away from the heartland of early Buddhism in India and parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. But thanks to Alexander the Great, Hellenistic and Buddhist cultures came into contact in the 4th century BCE, creating a cultural synthesis known as Greco-Buddhism.”

Aatish Taseer, Life, Death and Rebirth in the Land of the Buddha. New York Times, May 14, 2026. A very readable and photographically stunning account. “Starting at the birthplace of Buddhism, a writer traces how its teachings spread across Asia, transforming the continent forever.”

These are the images used in artistic physical displays. They are survey questions and conversation starters that are topically and thematically organized. They demonstrate how Jesus is relevant to each topic or theme. You can also just view the images on your device. If you would like, see all our Conversation Stations; below are the ones that relate to Hinduism and Buddhism.

Whose Justice? (and instructions and Christian Restorative Justice Study Guide)

Whose Justice? for Harvard Law School

What Can We Do About Evil? (and instructions and conversation tree) and smaller version and brochure version

Is a Good Friend Hard to Find? (and instructions and conversation tree)

Que Podemos Hacer Sobre La Maldad? for the Asociacion Dominicana de Estudiantes Evangelico, 2014

What Story Do You Live In? (and associated message)

Does the Good Outweigh the Bad? (and instructions)

Race What's the Problem? (and instructions) and brochure version

Find Your Heart's Desire? (and instructions and theological essay)

How Much of an Atheist Are You? (and instructions)

How Much Truth is in Harry Potter?

God, Peace, and Violence (and instructions) 

Is God a Liberator or an Oppressor? (and instructions)