Stoicism heavily influenced early Christianity, along with Neo-Platonism; both provided the language and philosophical categories to give to their thinking, because on its own Christianity is a narrative, not a metaphysics . Whereas Roman Catholicism was influenced more by Aristotle and his ideas about virtue. I don't think the resemblence of Orthodoxy to eastern religion is due to direct interchange with Buddhism; it is more likely due to a a focus on human spiritual experience more than speculation, which both religions share in common, as well as the fact that both originated in eastern cultural mindsets. Orthodox, like Buddhists, have an apophatic approach to questions of absolute truth, at least in theory. And Neo-Platonism in some ways is more mystical than Aristotilian Scholasticism, which focuses alot on understanding reality through appearances of material things, whereas Neo-Platonism, like Buddhism, believes that detachment from the material world leads to knowledge of the absolute. Orthodoxy describes the senses, faculties, and mind of humanity as darkened by the Fall, so it distrusts the world of appearances. Indeed, its not totally unknown for an Orthodox saint or writer to describe the mundane world as illusory, with things like icons giving insight into the true reality of the world (despite looking surreal) or Christ being the true reality.mdsimpson92 wrote:[
The similarity to Buddhism actually makes sense because I remember reading in one of my textbooks that Mahayana Buddhism was heavily influenced by Nestorian Christianity (and probably vice versa). I wonder if the apatheia was something picked up from the stoics. Anyways thank you for the info.
From what I read, most scholars believe that Mahayana Buddhism emerged as a lay-focused reform movement desiring to embody the Buddha's teachings expediently in a devotional religious guise; an appeal to the heart more than the headiness and life-negating qualities of much of the Buddhist schools that would later become Theravada. It didn't begin due to Christian influence. If anything it may have been influenced by Zoroastrianism. It is disputed whether Theravada Buddhism is closer to the original Buddha's teachings, some critical scholars deny the Theravadan claims. Many early Buddhist schools died before any canons were ever written down. It is possible that the female image of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (who was previously male), was adopted from an image of the Virgin Mary due to interaction with eastern, non-Chalcedonian Christians; on the other hand the Lotus Sutra mentions Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin in Chinese) appearing in whatever guise is expedient, so it may be totally unrelated (Mahasthamaprapta or Ta Shih Chi, embodying the wisdom and strength of the Buddha, is also female in east Asian Buddhism).
