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The many apparent similarities between Buddhism and Christianity offer useful points of departure for conversations that reflect genuine respect but also move towards greater clarity. Though they do not have to make unnecessary concessions to Buddhism in the process, Christians may move from these points of contact to a presentation of their faith that answers the longings, and even some of the God-given insights, of their Buddhist friends.
With the influence of Confucius and Confucianism once again rising in China, Christians must find effective avenues of approach to deal with this pervasive cultural force. As with other elements of any culture, Christians can take several possible stances: They can utterly ignore Confucianism; totally reject it; assimilate it into Christianity with little critique; or affirm certain aspects of it while challenging, correcting, and even replacing others with biblical truth.
Students of anthropology are fond of drawing a distinction between “guilt” cultures and “shame” cultures. In the former, you feel bad when you have violated an objective moral standard, while in the latter you are ashamed when you fail to measure up to some norm of family or society. An oversimplified distinction would be that shame results from “failure” while guilt comes from “sin.” Western society is – or used to be – an example of a “guilt” culture, and China is a prime exhibit for the “shame” cultures.
