Buddhist-Christian Dual Belonging: Affirmations, Objections, Explorations eds. by Gavin D'Costa and Ross Thompson (review)

This edited collection reads like a passionate conversation among friends; the participants don't agree on everything but nonetheless hold one another in great affection—which, in a sense, is precisely the genesis of the book. The essays emerged from a twoday symposium on dual belonging sparked in part by fecund, seminal texts published by Rose Drew, Paul Knitter, and Ross Thompson¹ since 2009. The symposium, held in June 2014 at Bristol University in the United Kingdom, brought twelve scholar-practitioners into critical conversation about the "fit" among the teleologies, world-views, and cultural accretions of various Buddhist and Christian traditions.

The book seems destined to become an essential volume in the emerging canon of Buddhist-Christian studies. Its rich contributions mark a maturation of the discipline, especially an expansion from doctrinal and systemic approaches to engaging broader questions about the nature of belief and practice in both traditions. The book also illustrates a growing consensus in the past decade about terminology and criteria for dual belonging, even if those terms and criteria are not consistently employed by contributors.

Framed as a "feasibility study" for Buddhist-Christian dual belonging, the text specifically considers whether dual belonging "makes religious sense" (p. 1). By this, the editors mean: Does "being both Buddhist and Christian makes sense in terms of both Buddhist and Christian belief?" (p. 2). The book proposes two possible answers: Either 1) dual belonging respects each tradition without compromise and can therefore make legitimate contributions to each tradition's self-understandings and growth; or 2) dual belonging compromises one or both traditions and is therefore theologically illegitimate, even if some people maintain bonds to more than one religion at the same time. In scope and purpose, then, the text stands as a "theological, philosophical and intra-religious investigation of the matter, understanding 'theological' in the broad sense that includes Buddhist as well as Christian attempts to formulate belief and practice" (p. 1).

The twelve contributors primarily represent British and Christian perspectives. One author is Asian; two, European; and three, US American. Six are from Great Britain. Three authors identify primarily or exclusively as Buddhist; three as dual belongers; five as sympathetic to dual belonging; and five as critics of the phenomenon. The chapters primarily approach dual belonging from doctrinal, historical, and textual perspectives, despite significant attention to questions of belief and practice.²

The book's structure is neatly summarized in its subtitle: "Affirmations, Objections, Explorations." The three chapters in part I affirm the ability of dual belongers to respect and engage each tradition without compromising their essentials. Rose Drew's contribution provides an overview of the current "state of the conversation" in Buddhist-Christian studies, then argues that Buddhist and Christian goals converge. As in her previous work, Drew relies on monocentric pluralism to resolve apparent contradictions between the traditions, but helpfully points to the consequences of living simultaneously with different penultimate realities. Paul Knitter's chapter moves beyond the Christian emphasis of the first edition of Without Buddha I Could not be Christian to offer a fully Buddhist-Christian stance, arguing that the traditions share a diagnosis and prescription for human suffering, differing by degree but not in substance in their emphases on compassion and social justice. Finally, Ross Thompson's chapter provides an elegant solution to the perceived dichotomy between the Christian doctrine of creation and Buddhist co-arising, arguing that each tradition can fulfill the other in subversive ways. These chapters helpfully summarize, reinterpret, and expand previous work in the discipline.

Part II breaks new ground, offering primarily confessional challenges to dual belonging from Evangelical Christian, Theravada Buddhist, and Catholic Christian perspectives. Daniel Strange argues that dual belonging, when assessed from a position of biblical authority, must be rejected by Christians as a form of idolatry. Asanga Tilakaratne privileges sacred text from the Theravada Buddhist tradition to argue that Buddhists must reject dual belonging due to Christianity's reliance on a...