organizational, all of which are inadequate to consider the
radical uniqueness of Christianity.
The story is told of Gautama Buddha, who lived some
four hundred years prior to the birth of Jesus Christ. He was
dying. Some of his devotees came to Buddha and asked
how they should perpetuate his memory. “How should we
share with the world the remembrance of you? How shall
we memorialize you?” Buddha responded, “Don’t bother!
It is not me that matters; it is my teaching that should be
propagated and adhered to throughout the world.”
Does that seem to be self-effacing? Does that sound
like a noble ideal that attempts to avoid egocentricity?
“Don’t focus on me, just remember my teaching.”
If Jesus had said something like that, it would certainly
legitimize much of what we observe all around us today in
the so-called “Christian religion.” The “Christian religion”
that has formed around the teaching of Christianity is
involved in the propagation of various understandings of
Jesus’ teaching as determined by various interpretations of
the Bible. Most of those who call themselves “Christians”
today seem to think that Jesus advocated the same thing
that Buddha is alleged to have uttered. “Don’t focus on me,
just remember my teaching.”
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