Habilitation/Post-Doc Project

Towards an Interreligious Eschatology: Death and Afterlife in Comparative Theology

As a theological discipline dealing not only with death and afterlife, but also drawing into account larger doctrinal contexts of salvation and human nature, eschatology as a whole is concerned with the ultimate end of human existence. The meaning of human existence in the present is often established by anticipating its final goal. Reflecting on ultimate matters exclusively from a confessional perspective would not pay justice to the universal nature of its subject matter. Therefore, in the context of religious plurality, the scope of eschatology needs to be expanded globally by constructively taking into account the experiences and reflections of all religious traditions.

During the last years, scholars have become increasingly aware of the great potential of various forms of interreligious theology. This project will explore the challenges and opportunities of reflecting on an “interreligious eschatology”, that is, an eschatology transcending its confessional boundaries in dialogue and theological collaboration with members of different religious traditions.

Dissertation Project

Buddhist Interpretations of Jesus

The monograph is exploring the global spectrum of Buddhist perceptions of Jesus, ranging from his demonization as an anti-Buddhist impostor to more appreciative depictions of Jesus as a Bodhisattva or a Buddha. To construct their respective interpretation, Buddhists in Asia and in the West draw on a wide range of doctrinal resources from their own religious backgrounds, located in the Theravāda, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna strands of the Buddhist tradition, respectively. However, my thesis demonstrates that this plurality of views did not arise in a vacuum, but was rather shaped by external influences, that is, the quality of Buddhist-Christian encounter (e.g., in the context of colonialism or dialogue) and the interpreters’ own socio-cultural, political, and biographical contexts. In this way, Buddhist interpretations of Jesus also mirror the variegated history of Buddhist-Christian relations in general.

In-depth knowledge of Buddhist views on Jesus is highly relevant for contemporary Christian theology across the globe. On the one hand, many Christians in Asia are living in socio-cultural contexts shaped and informed by the Buddhist tradition. To develop contextually relevant Christologies, Asian Christians are thus always referred to dialogue with their Buddhist neighbors. On the other hand, European and American Christians are encountering Buddhist views on Jesus, too, for example the widely read Christological reflections of spiritual influencers like the 14th Dalai Lama or Thich Nhat Hanh. Furthermore, in an age of globalization, Euro-American Christians are not only encountering Buddhist migrants from Asia, but also a growing number of “Western” Buddhists, each with their own perspective on Christianity and Jesus. Therefore, both Asian and Western contexts need a continuing Buddhist-Christian dialogue on Christology. However, this dialogue will only be successful if it is based on mutual understanding, including careful awareness of how the religious Other has perceived oneself and one’s own religious tradition. Better understanding can lead to the identification and correction of stereotypes, and finally to constructive processes of interreligious learning, which I explore in the second part of my thesis.

“Buddhist Interpretations of Jesus” is also a case study in the fields of theological comparative studies and the theology of religions. Christian theologians in the East, and now in the West, become increasingly aware of the Christological challenges raised by their Buddhist neighbors. While some Christian apologists have perceived these challenges as a threat and therefore insisted on clear-cut boundaries between Buddhism and Christianity, other appreciative voices have argued that Jesus does not belong to Christians alone and that Buddhists should have a say in his interpretation. However, as I argue in my analysis, the Christian apologists’ claim on “hermeneutical ownership” of Jesus cannot stand up to critical theological scrutiny. As a consequence, I suggest to conceive Christology as a “faith seeking understanding” in collaboration with Buddhist (and also Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, …) voices, open for the constructive transformation of one’s own tradition. In this way, this study advocates the interreligious opening of systematic theology that considers dialogue as one of its core resources of insight.

Mathias Schneider: Buddhistische Interpretationen Jesu. Eine religionshistorische und theologische Studie. Beiträge zu einer Theologie der Religionen 26 (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich, 2023).
ISBN: 978-3-290-18569-5
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