Hinduism and Buddhism

What does the Church say about Hindus and Buddhists?

That the Church “rejects nothing that is true and holy” in them, and still proclaims Christ to them. In Hinduism, the Second Vatican Council says, “men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry”; Buddhism “realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world”. Their teachings differ from the Church’s in many ways, yet “often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men”. Nostra Aetate 2

Benedict XVI named shared values: in Buddhism “respect for life, contemplation, silence, simplicity”; in Hinduism “the sense of the sacred, sacrifice and fasting”. Verbum Domini 119 The Catechism counts what is good and true in other religions “a preparation for the Gospel”, and also sees in religious behavior “the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God”. CCC 843; CCC 844

Respect does not make the religions equal. John Paul II wrote that the Church “gladly acknowledges whatever is true and holy in the religious traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam”, and that this “does not lessen her duty and resolve to proclaim without fail Jesus Christ”. Their followers “can receive God’s grace and be saved by Christ apart from the ordinary means which he has established”, but that “does not thereby cancel the call to faith and baptism which God wills for all people”. Redemptoris Missio 55 It would be “contrary to the faith” to count other religions as ways of salvation alongside the Church. Dominus Iesus 21

After death, the Catechism says, “we shall not return to other earthly lives”: “There is no ‘reincarnation’ after death.” CCC 1013 In prayer, the Holy See warned in 1989 against placing “that absolute without image or concepts, which is proper to Buddhist theory, on the same level as the majesty of God revealed in Christ”, Orationis Formas 12 though of the ways of prayer other religions teach it allowed that “one can take from them what is useful”. Orationis Formas 16

Asia’s religious traditions, John Paul II wrote, have the Church’s “deepest respect”, and “the religious values they teach await their fulfilment in Jesus Christ”. Ecclesia In Asia 6 Dialogue is “part of the Church’s evangelizing mission”, with “no abandonment of principles”, and Christians come to it “never proud, never condescending”. Ecclesia In Asia 31

842

The Church's bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place the common origin and end of the human race: All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs extend to all against the day when the elect are gathered together in the holy city. . . NA 1.

843

The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life." LG 16; cf. NA 2; EN 53.

844

In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:

Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair. LG 16; cf. Rom 1:21, 25.

1013

Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When "the single course of our earthly life" is completed, LG 48 # 3. we shall not return to other earthly lives: "It is appointed for men to die once." Heb 9:27. There is no "reincarnation" after death.

Verbum Domini Sep 30, 2010
Dominus Iesus Aug 6, 2000
Ecclesia In Asia Nov 6, 1999
Redemptoris Missio Dec 7, 1990
Orationis Formas Oct 15, 1989
Nostra Aetate Oct 28, 1965

From the Catechism

From the Magisterium

In the Glossary