The Hidden "God": Toward a Christian Theology of Buddhism by Peter Baekelmans (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Hidden "God": Toward a Christian Theology of Buddhism by Peter Baekelmans Leo D. Lefebure THE HIDDEN "GOD": TOWARD A CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY Of BUDDHISM. By Peter Baekelmans. Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press, 2022. Peter Baekelmans is a Belgian Catholic priest and theologian, a member of the missionary Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a longtime student of the Zen and Shingon traditions, a practitioner of Rinzai Zen and Shingon meditation, and a Shingon priest who has performed the esoteric fire ritual. He lived in Japan for many years and published one earlier book on Shingon Mysticism and another comparing Jesus and Kukai: A World of Non-Duality. He seeks to understand Buddhism in a way that will enhance his Catholic faith and practice by juxtaposing aspects of the Christian tradition with analogous features of Buddhist teaching and practice. For example, he compares the Apostle Paul's acknowledgment of the possibility of understanding God in creation to the Buddha's teaching of the Three Marks of Existence, and he sees an analogy between veneration of Mahavairocana Buddha and Christian worship of God. He likens Buddhist teaching on interconnection to Christian hope that God will be all in all, and he suggests a convergence between Theravada Buddhist practice in a world without god and Jesus' command to Mary Magdalene not to cling to him (Jn 20:17). Baekelmans is well aware of the profound diversity within Buddhism, the important differences between the Buddhist and Christian traditions, the long debate over the use of the word "god" with regard to Buddhism, as well as the diversity of Buddhist terms that have sometimes been translated into English as "god." He cites the work of Roger Jackson and John Makransky on Buddhist theology, and he suggests that Christians can acknowledge that Buddhists have a natural knowledge of God in the teaching of Shakyamuni and also analogies to revelation in Buddhist invocation of "other-power." Undeterred by the multiple challenges in this ambitious project, he surveys various Buddhist paths with regard to "god," with special attention to the Shingon tradition that he knows well. For newcomers to Buddhist-Christian studies, Baekelmans provides helpful summaries of many Buddhist terms, teachings, and practices, accompanied by careful Catholic reflections on points of contact and divergence. Acknowledging that Buddhist perspectives are very different from Catholic views of a Trinitarian God who creates the universe, Baekelmans employs a phenomenological method [End Page 281] to suggest that there are more similarities than one might expect, and he argues that there is an underlying analogy between the hiddenness of the Christian God and Buddhist Dharma as transcendent and immanent realities. He proposes similarities between Shakyamuni Buddha and Jesus Christ as the embodiment of the Dharma and the incarnation of God, respectively, and as healers who seek to relieve suffering. He concludes that Christianity, like Buddhism, is a non-dualistic religion, and he invites Buddhists and Christians to look beyond their differences and "recognize each other in the common experience of the great Unknown" (211). Some will object that he overemphasizes points of similarity to the point of minimizing the differences between the traditions. Despite this danger, he provides a stimulating tour of a wide range of areas that can provoke further reflection. Leo D. Lefebure Georgetown University Copyright © 2023 University of Hawai'i Press