Arthur Lillie

The Influence of Buddhism on Primitive Christianity Arthur Lillie

Publisher Marketing: In the West, Buddhism is a religion that everyone has heard of but one that few truly understand aside from Buddhists themselves. For almost 2,500 years, Buddhism has been dominant on the Indian subcontinent, based on the traditions, beliefs, and practices that came about from the teachings of the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama), the Sansrkit word for "the awakened one." Today, three distinct branches of Buddhism have mostly fanned out across Asia, and it's believed that upwards of half a billion people practice Buddhism today, and some of the traditional practices and principles of the religion, including the concepts of karma, reincarnation and the practice of yoga are all commonplace ideas across the world. Who was the Buddha, how did Buddhism become one of the world's major religions, and what are the main concepts and teachings of the religion? This looks at the history of Buddhism and how it impacted Christianity. From the preface: "A volume that proves that much of the New Testament is parable rather than history will shock many readers, but from the days of Origen and Clement of Alexandria to the days of Swedenborg the same thing has been affirmed. The proof that this parabolic writing has been derived from a previous religion will shock many more. The biographer of Christ has one sole duty, namely, to produce the actual historical Jesus. In the New Testament there are two Christs, an Essene and an anti-Essene Christ, and all modern biographers who have sought to combine the two have failed necessarily. It is the contention of this work that Christ was an Essene monk; that Christianity was Essenism; and that Essenism was due, as Dean Mansel contended, to the Buddhist missionaries "who visited Egypt within two generations of the time of Alexander the Great." ("Gnostic Heresies,")" Contributor Bio:  Lillie, Arthur Arthur Lillie (1831-1900) was a soldier in the British Army in India. While there, he became a Buddhist. His books on religion were poorly received at the time. Arthur Lillie also took an enthusiastic interest in Gospel of the Hebrews. In Buddhism in Christendom Or Jesus the Essene he wrote At any rate the account of the last supper in the Gospel of the Hebrews was manifestly quite different from the accounts given in our present gospels. There we see nothing about James drinking out of Christ's cup, a fact which proves that the contents of the cup must have been water, for St. James was bound by the vow of the Nazarite to drink water for life."