[Buddha-l] Dangerous religious literature?

[Richard Hayes]

On Friday 14 September 2007 06:25, Joy Vriens wrote:

> Another way of approaching  the "problem" of approved religious litterature
> per specific religion is to focus on what those religions have in common.
> Why not teach Buddhism through texts belonging to the list of 150 Christian
> books (Is Thomas a Kempis's book on it?).

>From what I have been able to gather, Imitatio Christi is not among the 
approved books, nor are any of the desert fathers. Years ago I taught a class 
in which the Philokalia was required reading, and many of the Christian 
students found it quite off-putting. A couple even suggested I had smuggled a 
Buddhist text into the course; they were quite sure no Christian could ever 
have written texts like those in Philokalia. The same students were equally 
put off by Augustine and Aquinas. Pretty much anything before Billy Graham or 
Timothy LaHaye seemed dangerously anti-Christian to them. The state of 
Christianity in contemporary America is not a pretty sight.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico