Buddhist-Christian Dual Belonging

A growing number of people describe themselves as both Buddhist and Christian; but does such a self-description really make sense? Exploring the growing phenomenon of Buddhist-Christian dual belonging, a wide variety of authors including focus on three key questions: Can Christian and Buddhist accounts and practices of salvation be reconciled? Are Christian theism and Buddhist non-theism compatible? And does dual belonging inevitably distort the essence of these faiths, or merely change its cultural expression? Clarifying different ways of justifying dual belonging, contributors offer criticisms of dual belonging from different religious perspectives and from alternative methodological approaches.

Introduction. Part I: Affirmations Chapter 1: Chasing Two Rabbits? Dual Belonging and the Question of Salvation/Liberation. Chapter 2: The Question of Salvation/Liberation: A Double-Belonger's Perspective.Chapter 3: Creation, Dependent Arising and Dual Belonging.Part II: Challenges Chapter 4: 'There Can Only Be One:' The Impossibility and Idolatry of 'Dual Belonging'.Chapter 5: The Ultimate Buddhist Religious Goal, Nirvana and its Implications for Buddhist-Christian Dual Belonging.Chapter 6: A Roman Catholic approach to Buddhist-Catholic 'dual-belonging'. Chapter 7: Dual Belonging, Ritual and the Spiritual Revolution. Chapter 8: Strategies of Negotiation in Buddhist-Christian Dual Belonging. Part III: Explorations Chapter 9: An alternative concetion of multiple religious belonging: A Buddhist-Catholic perspective. Chapter 10: The Buddhist Faith of Non-Buddhists: from dual belonging to dual attachment. Chapter 11: Dual-belonging and Pure Land Buddhism. Chapter 12: Going Beyond the Creator God: an Apophatic approach to Buddhist-Christian Dual Religious Belonging.Conclusion.