Buddha, The Gospel – Paul Carus

BUDDHA, The Gospel
Chicago, The Open Court Publishing Company, [1894]

By “Paul Carus”

The “Gospel of Buddha” is a 19th century (1894) compilation from a variety of Buddhist texts by Paul Carus, it was modeled on the New Testament and told the story of Buddha through parables and was very widely read. It was an important tool in introducing Buddhism to the west and is used as a teaching tool by some Asian sects.

H.G. Wells in his Outline of History draws strong parallels between the essential message of both Buddha and Jesus main: love thy neighbor, and how that message was distorted by followers and the priesthood. Durant in his The Story of Philosophy suggests that Jesus-Buddha is the feminine ideology, Nietzsche the masculine and Plato-Socrates somewhere in between. It was even recommended by Ceylonese Buddhist leaders as a teaching tool for Buddhist children.

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