I have been spending time with Fr. Daniel during his last visit, driving him across Java and up to Bali. Please pray for me. Click here to see all the presentations. Another wonderful conversion story! Your story is truly inspiring! And we have similar backgrounds; I was a devout Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for almost 40 years when I converted to Orthodoxy.
Bless you and I know the Holy Spirit will continue shining Radiance upon you! Your past history as a Buddhist intrigues me, and I would love to inquire of you more about Buddhism as my father is strongly contemplating being a Buddhist which in part has been influenced by his informal readings of quantum physics. My wife and children and I are all Orthodox Christians. The Chinese man, God and loneliness: My Italian heritage traditionally baptize babies within a few months of birth. And so I was baptized a Catholic, went to Catholic schools, attended special Catholic classes, but fell away from the church during my days in college.
Since then, I have spiritually been lost. My soul does long to find peace and comfort in the spiritual body of a meaningful church. I have been exploring Orthodoxy because it seems to feel natural to me, but yet I do not know the real difference between Catholic and Orthodoxy. Much of it is the same with the exception of the Pope. I would like to know the real difference between these two churches. The links below will take you to some specific articles that explain the difference in Catholic which has changed and the Orthodox which has not changed beliefs on important issues.
I frequently travel, and meet Buddhists and people of other faith everywhere. Reading this book gave me the confidence to go and talk to people and they actually identify and give their lives to Jesus! I find this book non-offensive and is well written, clear and concise. It basically answered all the questions I had that was lingering at the back of my mind. It also provided me with step by step ways on understanding Buddhism and how to relate to them. Jul 04, Thinkingofpeace rated it it was amazing.
Buddhism and Christianity
Jul 11, Wendy rated it it was amazing. I wish there are translations of this book in different languages, ESP in Chinese. It would help bring a real perspective of what practical Buddhism is about in Asia - definitely different from the concepts I was given in a western society. Feb 08, Adam Heine rated it did not like it. There are some interesting insights into Thai Buddhism here.
From The Buddha To Christ · Journey To Orthodoxy
But Cioccolanti plays so fast and loose with the Bible and with logic, for that matter , that I have to assume he does the same with Buddhism. I can't really recommend it. May 24, Athanasius rated it did not like it. This is the most poorly written, misleading book on religion I have ever read.
Its authors complete lack of knowledge of Buddhism is so profoundly obvious, that it renders the book an outright piece of Christian propaganda. Its statements and discussions vary between bewildered lack of understanding and outright lies. Please do NOT read this book if you interested in learning about Buddhism, as this author has no knowledge whatsoever and is proselytizing Christianity. If you are interested about Bu This is the most poorly written, misleading book on religion I have ever read.
View all 6 comments. Mar 25, Riglin rated it did not like it. This book is written by an Evangelical Steve C. For that reason, it's not written fairly and justly on Buddhism. It's not a book to learn about Buddhism. Two Buddhist monks had independently exposed the slander, deceits and lies on Buddhism in this book 'From Buddha to Jesus'. Those who wish to read the book review by a western monk, http: Another book review by another Buddhist monk, http: Jul 20, Adeliyn rated it it was amazing. Good way to expose oneself to Buddhism and Christianity at the same time.
It's very true that the Westerners thoughts about Buddhism is very different to real Buddhism. This book will explains things quite thoroughly and makes sound argument. Dec 04, Nick rated it it was ok Shelves: Good effort, but bad product. Essentially the theory here is that Buddha was sort of like an Old Testament prophet. He set up rules for his followers to follow which were very strict. He also allegedly pointed to the coming of Jesus. The references to reincarnation and non-biblical beliefs are mostly brushed over or excused in some sense as a cultural accident, or at worst, a mistake.
This is essentially what Muslims tried to do with other religions. To incorperate them as prede Good effort, but bad product. To incorperate them as predecessors, "people of the book". Zakir Naik tries to do this with Hinduism today. Hindus also often try to portray most other religious teachers as essentially Hindu in their message. So the book tries to portray Jesus as the resolution to Buddha's problems of suffering and negative karma. The book's biggest failure though, as in all these other attempts, is that it doesnt really take into account what even the most basic response would be to the claims made about Buddhism in the text.
It is an evangelism guide, not a serious engagement with the ideas. It presumes that the Buddhist who the Christian is preaching to is an average person with very little knowledge of their religion. So little in fact, that a basic understanding of folk-buddhist principles will be enough to flummox them. It pits "folk" Thai Buddhism against doctrinal high-christianity. It accurately points out that the way Buddhism is practiced in Thailand has little relationship to the type of Buddhism westerners are attracted to by reading texts.
But this is kind of a nonsense point. The way Christianity is practiced in a small village in Ukraine has little relation to the theological treatises of St. That said I am acrtually impressed with how much christians try to at least superficially understand other religions. Its probably part of the reason why Christianity is so good at replicating itself in foreign cultures without changing those cultures dramatically. If you read a bible translation in any language youll notice how much of the pre existing religious conceptual apparatus they appropriate.
They twist old concepts into new Christian meanings, and that is exactly what this book is encouraging doing. The author denies that this is syncretism somewhat disingenuously imo, because they understand that it is impossible to really extract all of the philosophical baggage from prior concepts and categories , but I think it is a soft version of syncretism. Jul 12, Andrew rated it it was amazing. I shared what I learnt about Buddhism to a Buddhist friend of mine and he walked away from the conversation thinking about his believes. I know what is shared in this book is from the experiences of real Buddhists who have lived and grown in Buddhist countries where it is a culture.
Several lives have changed simply because of the truths found in this unique book that are compelling to Buddhists and equipping for Christians. Feb 27, Meichunyu rated it it was amazing. This is the best book you can read in order to help your Buddhist friends choose life. It taught me the way Jesus evangelised. True repentance starts with recognising how sinful we are. True connection starts with finding out how similar we are.
Yes, you can kick out your conversation by telling your buddhist friends Christianity is so much similar to Buddhism, but I think this is such a good book. Read it through and it really helped me understand more about Buddhism and its concepts. I've found better techniques of evangelising to others through this book.
Everyone should read this book! Buddhist, Christian or anything it suits everyone! Since I'm living in Thailand, this book by former Buddhist, now Christian, Steve Cioccolanti, is VERY helpful by including Thai theological words which I know nothing about yet-unfortunately that can be used in conversations with Buddhists.
There are parables from the Buddha that supposedly will resonate with Buddhists I speak with. However, and maybe this is because I'm teaching World Religions, I was quite disappointed that more references were not given.
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There are almost footnotes in th Since I'm living in Thailand, this book by former Buddhist, now Christian, Steve Cioccolanti, is VERY helpful by including Thai theological words which I know nothing about yet-unfortunately that can be used in conversations with Buddhists. There are almost footnotes in this book to be exact, but many of the parables are shared as 'common knowledge,' but to someone like myself, who has been here almost 3 years, I have not heard most of these stories before.
It was really nice to have just finished reading "what the Buddha Taught" by Walpola Rahula, which was much more scholarly, even though it still could be considered an introductory text on Buddhism. I can imagine speaking to my class right now about these things and lots of them would just 'write them [parables] off' and chalk them up as superstitious beliefs. I'm teaching a Buddhism unit at the moment and if he would just quote some of the Sutras suttas , it could go a long way towards dealing with what historically has come from the Buddha at least some great conversations could emerge.
I really tracked with most of what he shared throughout his book, although there were a few issues I had more on that later. I was encouraged to see lots of the bridges the author attempted to build with his Buddhist friends and readers See the Parable of the Lotus Blossom. This, to me, was one of the best sources in the book. It said, "under the word karma or gum, we found three definitions: If this is reliable, it really impacts the way I will speak to Buddhists in the future. The author goes on to share how these definitions relate to Romans 6: On page 57 he says, "Buddhism teaches that if we were perfect, we would not be born at all.
We would cease from being reincarnated. Moreover, accumulating merit, or tam boon [which means 'sweep below,'], only lessens the sin, but never washes it away. It was interesting to read that a guy who tried to become a monk, but had a physical deformity due to polio was told he couldn't by a monk p. In chapter 11 "The Five Commandments of Buddha," or "seen ha" there are several commonalities between the 10 Commandments of the Bible.
Chapter 12 "What Would Jesus Say to Buddhists" includes "taking someone from the familiar to the unfamiliar.
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Sometimes, during conversations that includes talk about religion, if someone says, "I am Buddhist," it does not have to be a conversation stopper. Cioccolanti says, Christians could say, "That's great! Can you keep the Five Commandments, or seen ha? Same with Chapter 16 "Reincarnation. Steve also gave four reasons why he doesn't believe in reincarnation: The word 'Aryan" which Nazis used to refer to a "master race" actually comes from a Sanskrit word meaning "noble.
Nearly all Buddhists and Hindus who believe in reincarnation desire to come back in the next life with whiter skin as Aryans are at the top of the caste system I appreciate the contribution he makes at the end of chapter 20 when he addresses "Is There a God in Buddhism? There is also absolute morality and a just distribution of merits and demerits. This happens through Jesus. Chapter 24 went into the Tripitaka Tipitaka and I came across what I thought was some good material, but when I looked up the sites, they didn't work the book is from He went into some differences in translation between the Bible and Tripitaka, which were ok, but I felt some were used to make the Bible's translation history look impeccable.
I think he could have included some Bible history and more specific Buddhist history. Rather than allowing the whole nation to be enslaved, the Prince gave his life as security for the liberty of the rest of the Thai people. Pra-Naresuan then became highly trained in martial arts and military skills under his Burmese guardians, and three years after the Burmese King died, Pra-Naresuan led a victorious revolt against them.
This can obviously be used to share how Jesus' life can be used to set us free although differently The Appendix gives some interesting information about Tongsuk Siriruk see connection with Ch. Now for the parts of the book that were frustrating: He speaks of how there are "Ten ways of karma, or Ten ways of death that will cause a human to go to Hell" In Thai: But where does this teaching come from?
In other words, maybe it wasn't his teaching, it was just to "connect" to his audience before branching off and discussing other things.
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This is purely speculative, and I didn't think his reasoning was too convincing. But this seems hard to do as they are myths and not reliable as no sources are provided. It could possibly work for engaging some people, but for those I mainly speak to I just do not feel comfortable sharing them. He does specifically mention that the Bible does not teach reincarnation, but he says how much Buddhists like this text and just seems to go completely overboard in his fantasy-land 'rationalization' of how much 'debt' has been accumulated as a result of not only the reader's personal sins, but the entire world as a whole--he actually calculates specific dollar amounts.
Then he quotes his friend, a former monk, Tongsuk Siriruk, found a version of Buddhist scripture in Kampee Khom, meaning Cambodian or Khmer Canon a seemingly very meaningful text. But, again, no specific reference Jan 11, Kathy S rated it it was ok. I was very excited to start this book because -as a Christian - I wanted to learn more about Buddhism. Soon it became clear however, that the book was written from a very conservative perspective with a side kick of almost extreme evangelism at times.
Throughout the whole book, it became clear that it was written with the intention to evangelise Buddhists, which fundamen I was very excited to start this book because -as a Christian - I wanted to learn more about Buddhism. Throughout the whole book, it became clear that it was written with the intention to evangelise Buddhists, which fundamentally I think is a bad idea because how can we accept other religions and encourage more tolerance and understanding, if we start from this angle?!
May 05, Girlie Garcia rated it it was amazing. Honestly speaking, i don't have that much knowledge about Buddhism except what the western movies showed to me which i found it to be wrong after reading this book. I've learn a lot of new things that i didn't know before. My view of Buddhism was really changed. I've realized that as a christian it's not that hard to reach out to buddhist. All i need to have is to be equipped with the right and accurate information which Steve Cioccolanti provided in this book. It is not just informative but als Honestly speaking, i don't have that much knowledge about Buddhism except what the western movies showed to me which i found it to be wrong after reading this book.
It is not just informative but also very practical. May 25, Liz rated it really liked it. Steve Cioccolanti's unique bicultural identity gives him insight into both worlds. Half Thai and raised Buddhist, he converted to Christianity after exploring a few different religions. His Christian theology bends a little conservatively, but he's identified inroads for how Christianity makes sense in a Buddhist context.
Dec 02, Margaret Makewell rated it it was amazing. Steve's style is so easy to read and follow. If you're a Christian around Buddhists, you need to read this. Jan 30, Rod rated it it was ok Shelves: