Jesus and Buddhism

Wow. Check out this quote, from one of the characters in "A New Kind of Christian," by Brian McLaren...

"We have to realize that Buddhism is more than a religion, more than a culte. It is also a culture. So I can't see why Jesus couldn't invade Buddhist culture, just as he invaded Jewish and Greco-Roman culture in the first millennium and European cultures in the second. If in the third millennium Christ enters Buddhist culture, he will spark an outbreak of real Christianity - just not Western European Christianity. And if Christ enters Islamic culture, he will spark an outbreak of real Christianity, but again, it won't be Western European Christianity. That to me is the missionary challenge of the third millennium: not eradicating Buddhist or Islamic or tribal cultures but blessing them with Christ - letting Christ enter them and drive the evil from them... and in that way redeem them. And my guess is that each will bring something that will enrich our Christian heritage too... And in the process, maybe we'll let Christ enter our own Western culture in a new way too. That's a nice thought!"

What an amazing vision! I love it.