Abstract
In Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism (hereafter Shin Buddhism), the looming fear of death and an uncertain rebirth is mitigated by the promise of Amida Buddha that assures rebirth in Sukhāvatī, Amida’s Pure Land, for anyone who recites his name even once. This assurance is seen not only as securing one’s future enlightenment but also transforming one’s experience of life in the world now. In Lutheran Christianity, baptism into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ assures the believer of eternal life with God in heaven after death and also is meant to facilitate a new life in which the believer is continually conformed to Christ. In this chapter, I compare the concepts of heaven in Lutheran Christianity and Sukhāvatī in Shin Buddhism, focusing specifically on the following concepts: how these concepts are experienced in the present life; how these ideas shape thinking around the experience of death; and the physical description of each “place” and what that signifies.
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