A Christian Buddha

When Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916-2000) made his classic argument for viewing human religious history as a single historical story rather than a collection of many different religious stories (Towards a World Theology, 1981), one of his poster-child examples of that all-encompassing narrative was the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. This legendary tale of an Indian prince (Josaphat), his royal father (Avenir), and a Christian ascetic (Barlaam) interweaves themes of spiritual awakening, religious conversion, and theological conquest. The story was born in India, based on the life story of Gautama Buddha, and used Indian Buddhist tropes, yet its two lead characters, Barlaam and Josaphat, were included in many medieval collections of Christian saints. Smith's point: human religious experience necessarily takes many specific forms in as many different contexts, but all draw from the same spiritual well.