Buddhism and Christianity Diffusions

Paulina Oswald

AP World History

 Per.3

Buddhism and Christianity both originated in the same time period, have similar founders and early struggles of diffusion. They differ in their reasons for becoming popular universalizing religions.

Both Christianity and Buddhism were founded at around the same time with founders who were very much alike. Although Jesus was poor and Buddha was rich they both devoted their lives to their religion, Buddha in the process throwing away his wealth for intense self-effort to end suffering. Jesus spoke primarily on the behalf of the poor and oppressed, but Buddha’s path was more about deep inner reflection. Both founders came to be considered as gods after their death, but while Jesus claimed to be the son of God, Buddha denied any such assertions, saying that he was a teacher, not a god. However, once Buddhism split into two branches, Theravada and Mahayana, the Mahayana branch viewed Buddha as a god. Both religions were founded from previous religions, with Buddhism coming from Hinduism and Christianity coming from Judaism.

Christianity and Buddhism both had difficulties as new religions, though Buddhism was popular at in its beginnings and then lost popularity later in both of its countries—India and China. In the case of Christianity, the Romans outlawed it because it was a monotheistic religion and at the time Rome still had polytheism as a state religion. Both Christianity and Buddhism appealed to lower classes including women, although later Christianity became more patriarchal as time went on. Both religions split into different branches with Buddhism splitting into Mahayana and Theravada and Christianity splitting into Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Roman Catholicism split into even more branches after some of its followers emigrated from Europe to the Americas.

While Christianity remained popular in its place of origin, Jerusalem, Buddhism almost completely died out in India, where it was founded. At first it was promoted by the emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire and it was popular for a time in India among the lower classes because it did not have social hierarchy. Then Buddhism spread to China by the Silk Roads during the Han Dynasty and was one of the only outside influences that China absorbed. Later it died in India because of a resurgence of Hinduism and the rise of Islam. It was popular in China until the Tang Dynasty where it suffered the losses of followers due to anti-foreign religion decrees (foreign religions were thought of as a threat to the state) and later many temples were burned down, monks were slaughtered and important scrolls were lost. Now it has claimed global popularity, though it is not as popular as Christianity.