Books

Christianity for Buddhists, by Frederick Farrar

Reviewed by Michael Daniel

Contents - Sep 2002 - Buy a copy now Editorial: AD2000's Fighting Fund launched - Michael Gilchrist Is the self-destruction of Anglicanism to continue? - Nigel Zimmerman News: The Church Around the World - AD2000 Vocations: Corpus Christi Seminary enrolments bounce back - Michael Gilchrist Promoting Catholic vocations in the Melbourne Archdiocese - Joanne Grainger CHURCH ATTENDANCE: The family, feminism and the declining role of fatherhood - Richard Egan The 1960s 'cultural revolution': from self-sacrifice to self-fulfillment - Fr Gregory Jordan The strange case of Father Damien and Robert Louis Stevenson - Fr F.E. Burns PE Australian Rosary CD wins international recognition - Colleen McGuiness-Howard John Paul II and World Youth Day in Toronto: an Anglican perspective - David Warren Letters: Church design (letter) - Greg Briscoe-Hough Letters: Renovations (letter) Letters: Abortion (letter) - Bob Denahy Letters: Seminaries (letter) - Andrew Sholl Letters: Media complaints (letter) - Michael Daniel Letters: Feminism dead? (letter) Letters: Teaching the faith (letter) - Kevin McBride Letters: Zero tolerance (letter) - J. Dekker Letters: Priestly 'uniform' (letter) - Philip Robinson Letters: Horse and cart (letter) - Arthur Negus Letters: Shakespeare (letter) - John Doherty Letters: Vatican II (letter) - Valentine Gallagher Books: Open Embrace: A Protestant Couple Rethinks Contraception - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: The Arians of the Fourth Century, by John Henry Newman - Peter Westmore (reviewer) Books: The Lost Shrine of Liskeard, by Claire Riche - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Christianity for Buddhists, by Frederick Farrar - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Think Piece: Religious, Ethical and Moral Values, by Sebastian Camilleri OFM - Mark Posa (reviewer) Marilen Studios: a Christian approach to business - Joe Padero Music: CD specials from AD Books Reflection: The Christian way to spiritual maturity - Fr Dennis W. Byrnes PP

CHRISTIANITY FOR BUDDHISTS
by Frederick Farrar

(Saint Austin Press, 2002, 76pp plus notes, appendices and bibliography, $27.40 plus $4.40 postage. Available from PO Box 180, Sumner Park Qld 4074, (07) 3279 7415)

Reviewed by Michael Daniel

The recent visit of the Dalai Lama to Australia highlighted the growing interest in Buddhism in our community. One writer remarked that whereas many commentators adopt a critical attitude towards religions, particularly Christianity, their treatment of Buddhism is invariably positive.

Author Frederick Farrar, a convert to Catholicism who was himself a Buddhist for a number of years, argues that rampant materialism, the general disillusionment in the West in the second half of the 20th century, and a general disdain for Christianity (albeit arising out of inadequate, simplistic understandings of Christianity), have led to a growth in interest in Buddhism.

Farrar explores what he perceives to be the similarities and differences between the two religions, praising Buddhism for the natural insights into spirituality it offers. He argues that the major differences between Christianity and Buddhism are that while Buddhism advocates detachment from this life - which for a Buddhist is suffering - for Christianity, creation and our humanity are integral aspects of our redemption, reflected in the person of Christ who became human and suffered an agonising death so that we may have eternal life. Interestingly, it was an image of Christ crucified that was the catalyst for Farrar's conversion to Catholicism.

Christianity for Buddhists is a timely work, although not light reading, as it presumes some knowledge of philosophy.

Michael Daniel teaches at a Melbourne independent college.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 15 No 8 (September 2002), p. 17