Kuenen, who has little bias in favor of Christianity, and who has made a very thorough examination of Seydel’s parallels, has completely refuted these five.[95] And speaking of the whole question he says:  “I think we may safely affirm that we must abstain from assigning to Buddhism the smallest direct influence on the origin of Christianity.”  He also says of similar theories of de Bunsen:  “A single instance is enough to teach us that inventive fancy plays the chief part in them."[96]

Rhys Davids, whom Subhadra’s “Buddhist Catechism” approves as the chief exponent of Buddhism, says on the same subject:  “I can find no evidence of any actual or direct communication of these ideas common to Buddhism and Christianity from the East to the West.”  Oldenberg denies their early date, and Beal denies them an Indian origin of any date.

Contrasts between Buddhism and Christianity.

Rhys Davids has pointed out the fact that, while Buddhism in some points is more nearly allied to Christianity than any other system, yet in others it is the farthest possible from it in its spirit and its tendency.  If we strike out those ethical principles which, to a large extent, are the common heritage of mankind, revealed in the understanding and the conscience, we shall find in what remains an almost total contrariety to the Christian faith.  To give a few examples only.

1.  Christ taught the existence and glory of God as Supreme, the Creator and Father, the righteous Judge.  His supreme mission to reconcile all men to God was the key-note of all His ministry.  By His teaching the hearts of men are lifted up above all earthly conceptions to the worship of infinite purity, and to the comforting assurance of more than a father’s care and love.  Buddhism, on the contrary, knows nothing of God, offers no heavenly incentive, no divine help.  Leading scholars are agreed that, whatever it may be now, the original orthodox Buddhism was essentially atheistic.  It despised the idea of divine help, and taught men to rely upon themselves.  While, therefore, Buddhism never rose above the level of earthly resources, and contemplated only lower orders of being, Christianity begins with God as supreme, to be worshipped and loved with all the heart, mind, and strength, while our neighbors are to be loved as ourselves.

2.  Christ represented Himself as having pre-existed from the foundation of the world, as having been equal with God in the glory of heaven, all of which He resigned that He might enter upon the humiliation of our earthly state, and raise us up to eternal life.  He distinctly claimed oneness and equality with the Father.  Buddha claimed no such antecedent glory; he spoke of himself as a man merely; the whole aim of his teaching was to show in himself what every man might accomplish.  Later legends ascribe to him a sort of pre-existence, in which five hundred and thirty successive lives were passed, sometimes as a man, sometimes as a god, many times as an animal.  But even these claims were not made by Buddha himself—­except so far as was implied by the common doctrine of transmigration.