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Showing posts from September, 2008

Jesus as Unique

There's a lot of tendency among Gnostics to compare Jesus of Nazareth to the other great teachers and religious founders of history. I was listening to a lecture this morning on Early Christianity, and the lecturer brought up a good point. Lets take the 4 major religions that have identifiable founders: Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. Islam was founded by Mohammed. He had visions for 40 years, and left a fairly comprehensive social, legal, and spiritual system which was continued by his successors. It has some drift and variation in practice and interpretation, but usually most folks can say that Islam has some consistent characteristics. Islam was the beginning of a nation. Buddhism was founded by Siddhārtha Gautama, the Supreme Buddha. Estimates on the length of his ministry vary, but one number I've seen is 45 years, starting at Age 29. Again, Buddhism has a fairly internally consistent moral, spiritual, and social system, and it was continued by his succe