A Christian Response

Abstract

Criticism of ourselves and criticism of others have always been difficult interpersonal dynamics. When the academic study of religion and Christian and Buddhist confessionalisms are thrown in the mix, it becomes even more complicated. I deeply appreciate these thoughtful and insightful statements from my Buddhist colleagues. The issues they raise and the insights they offer could, for the most part, be raised in a very similar way by Christian participants in dialogue. In my response, however, I will emphasize those often minor and peripheral points on which I see matters a bit differently. To advance Buddhist-Christian dialogue, I will present these differences as reflective of the difference between Christian and Buddhist perspectives, although some of them may in fact be more individual. Michiko Yusa's personal experience is not in any way to be gainsaid. She finds that her students are hypersensitive to any impression that she is affirming the superiority of Japanese to American culture, or Zen Buddhism to Christianity. She generalizes this point in cultural terms. People identify with their cultures and nations in such a way that, although they are free to engage in self-criticism, they resent the criticism of outsiders. I believe she is correct. I believe also that the point can be generalized further to individual relationships. I can take a little criticism, but I need at least ten strokes for every jab if I am to avoid becoming defensive! As a Christian I understand this situation theologically in terms of sin. The ideal would be that we would seek to learn the truth about ourselves and our communities from any source at any time. But the reality falls far short of the ideal. The other is a threat to us on both an individual and a group basis. This is because we base our self-acceptance on our own virtue, and on that of the groups of which we are a part, rather than on God's acceptance of us even in our sinfulness. By grace we can partially transcend this situation. There is no fixed limit to this partially, but it is better to recognize that even when we suppose . Panik ar now prefe s to call himse f Raimon, a Catal nian counterpart for RaiBuddhist-Christian Studies 18 (1998). ? by University of Hawai'i Press. All rights reserved. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.186 on Tue, 11 Oct 2016 06:09:14 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms