The Attractiveness of Jodo Shinshu
shriven leper
personal nature, I'm not a scholar, philosopher, or theologian. A
contrast between Christian and Shin soteriology.
Problem: Human depravity - "sin"; "fallen nature" - which sullies
even good acts and intentions.
Answer: In Amida's Eternal Life and Unimpeded Light, the Vow
unfolds as Buddha within us; even our trust in the Vow, which
otherwise would be sullied with negative ego, is supplied by Amida.
Problem: Luther's problem of "justification": how can salvation be
achieved by anything I do, if providential Grace is a free,
all-sufficing gift? Luther's solution: faith, not works. But if
salvation depends on _anything_ I do, even if it is merely my act of
faith, then the act of faith itself becomes a "works-religion"- an act
of self-salvation. The theology of Grace is compromised.
Answer: Not faith, but trust in the Vow. The Vow is made by
Amitabha; Amitabha inspires and causes our trust. I.e., our trust in
Amida is already Amida's act of salvation toward us. Grace is intact.
Problem: Salvation consequential to believing in Jesus' sacrifice
on the cross; cross-sacrifice dependent on believing in the
historical Jesus executed by the historical Pilate. Redemption
dependent on historical acts of "who did what, when".
Answer: Salvation proposed and disposed entirely by Amida, whose
Vow is primordial. Granted, eons ago a king is said to have become a
wandering monk who took the name Dharmakara, and entered into
Buddhahood - "history" in that sense. But since the Vow was
ultimately made by a boddhisatva outside of historical spacetime, the
Vow itself is not dependent on an historical act in the material
universe, or on a purported fulfilment of prophecy, or on a bloody
sacrifice in appeasement of a "just" deity or to ransom souls from the
thralldom of "Satan". Jesus' crucifixion in Judea in 30 C.E. as
redemptive pivot is not equivalent to Amida's outside-of-history-Vow.
Problem: Salvation depends on the historical Jesus's historical
acts, teachings, exorcisms, healings, parables, life, and death. If
the historical Jesus never existed, Christianity is baseless (this
applies to orthodox Christianity, not to its Gnostic forms which were
only too happy to have a purely "docetic" Christ unattached to the
material world and the historical Jewish milieu).
Answer: Salvation depends on Amida's life-supporting Vow. As a
"heavenly", non-historical factor, Amida's Vow is not dependent on
material acts and events. Unlike so many Christians, Shin people do
not find themselves caught up in argumentation over "the search for
the historical Amitabha", and do not need to dissect and analyze their
religious texts for traces of this Being who, while "in" the world, is
not "of" the world.
Problem: Jesus' posthumous character as an angelic bearer of the
Divine Name and future judge of the world depends on the "magic" of
his resurrection. His body had to die, and then his essential
identity had to be re-established (whether through a
"resurrection-body" or through some other more "spiritual"
manifestation").
Answer: Amida is Buddha unfolding in the world, without the need of
having "died for our sins", being raised by God "to His right hand".
Nor is Amida a stern judge who will separate the sheep from the goats
on an apocalyptic "Last Day". He can be "in" all bodies and all
things without having died and risen again. (Again, the Gnostic
"Jesus Patabilis" is in all things: "Lift a stone, I am there; cleave
wood and I am there", but this type of panentheism is not orthodox
Christianity).
Problem: Orthodox Christianity sees Jesus as the "only-begotten"
Son of God, an exclusivist position derived from Judaic monotheism -
one God, one Son.
Answer: Jodo Shinshu allows for everything and everyone to be an
expression of Amida. Thus, while Christianity by definition rejects
all other saviors than Jesus, Shin by definition is (at least
potentially, with sound judgment) able to accept them: for Shin, Jesus
may be seen as an expression of Amitabha, as a bodhisattva-figure.
Christianity cannot return the favor for Amitabha or for any other
salvation-figure.
= = =
For all of these reasons and more, I personally find Jodo Shinshu's
salvation-theory more attractive, sensible, inclusive, and effective
than mainstream Christianity's.
Thanks for listening.
- sl -