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- Der christlich-buddhistische Dialog steht zunächst vor dem großen Problem, dass der Buddhismus keinen Schöpfergott anerkennt, während das Christentum gerade einen solchen voraussetzt. Dennoch haben sich auf verschiedenen Ebenen fruchtbare Verbindungen von Christentum und Buddhismus ergeben.
- There is speculation concerning a possible connection between both the Buddha and the Christ, and between Buddhism and Christianity. Buddhism originated in Nepal about 500 years before the Apostolic Age and the origins of Christianity. Scholars have explored connections between Buddhism and Christianity. Some have compared the earlier infancy account of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke to that of the Buddha in the later Lalitavistara Sutra (a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE.). During the life of Jesus Christ and the period in which texts like the Gospel of Thomas were composed, Buddhist missionaries lived in Alexandria, Egypt. The Buddhist Jack McQuire believes that in the 4th century, Christian monasticism developed in Egypt, and it emerged with a corresponding structure comparable to the Buddhist monasticism of its time and place. In the 13th century, international travelers, such as Giovanni de Piano Carpini and William of Ruysbroeck, sent back reports of Buddhism as a religion whose scriptures, doctrine, saints, monastic life, meditation practices, and rituals were comparable to those of Christianity and of Nestorian Christian communities in close proximity to traditionally Buddhist communities. When European Christians made more direct contact with Buddhism in the early 16th century many Catholic missionaries sent home idyllic accounts of Buddhism. At the same time, however, Portuguese colonizers of Sri Lanka confiscated Buddhist properties across the country, with the full cooperation of the Christian missionaries. This repression of Buddhism in Sri Lanka continued during the rule of subsequently the Dutch and the English. Portuguese historian Diego de Conto reminded the Vatican that their Christian tradition of Saint Josaephat was actually the Buddha. With the arrival of Sanskrit studies in European universities in the late 18th century, and the subsequent availability of Buddhist texts, a discussion began of a proper encounter with Buddhism. The esteem for its teachings and practices grew, and at the end of the 19th century the first Westerners converted to Buddhism, and in the beginning of the 20th century the first westerners entered the Buddhist monastic life. In the 20th century Christian monastics such as Thomas Merton, Wayne Teasdale, David Steindl-Rast and the former nun Karen Armstrong, and Buddhist monastics such as Ajahn Buddhadasa, Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama have put energy into Buddhist/Christian dialogue. They each see in the otherwise disparate teachings of Jesus and the Buddha a basic commonality of insight and purpose which offers the possibility of profound remedy to an ailing world. The historian of world culture Arnold Toynbee has speculated that in centuries to come the encounter between Christianity and Buddhism may come to be seen as the momentous event of the 20th century.
- File:Christ et Buddha by Paul Ranson 1880. JPG 法國畫家Paul Ranson的「基督與佛陀」(1880) 佛教與基督教同為世上的主要宗教，釋迦牟尼在耶穌約五百年之前誕生。從孔雀王朝起，佛教開始向印度各地、中東以及中國傳播。前331年-前325年馬其頓亞歷山大大帝東征至印度河，希臘人其後更在該地區成立了多個印度-希臘王國，不單將希臘文化帶至印度，也令印度文化包括佛教傳播至中東、埃及和希臘。有學者包括普林斯頓大學宗教系教授伊莱恩·柏高絲，透過分析早期基督教和佛教經文，推測兩者有關係。在諾斯底教派的多馬福音中 ，柏高絲認為「有部份和佛教相似，這些早期的經文很可能受到當時已經發展成熟的佛教傳統影響。」 另外，艾伯特·約瑟·艾德蒙斯認為約翰福音裏含有一些佛教的概念。 其它學者亦曾比較路加福音和方廣大莊嚴經裏關於耶穌誕生和佛陀誕生相似的描述。 多馬福音成書之時，有不少佛教的傳教者居住於埃及的亞歷山大港。 歷史學家認為公元四世紀時，基督教的修道院開始在埃及建立，而當時的修道院的結構和同時期的佛教寺院有相似之處。 公元十三世紀，歐洲的旅行家如柏郎嘉宾及鲁不鲁乞在他們的旅行報告中描述了佛教的經文、戒律、寺院生活、宗教儀式和冥想修行的法門，和當時基督教聶斯脫里派（即景教）極為相似。 十六世紀早期，天主教的傳教士如聖方濟·沙勿略亦曾提及東方的佛教。 同時期的葡萄牙殖民主義者在斯里蘭卡禁制佛教，並沒收了寺廟的財產，後來斯里蘭卡的荷蘭及英國統治者亦一樣禁制佛教。 但葡萄牙的歷史學家地牙哥·康托發現原來天主教的聖約沙法就是印度的佛陀，並向羅馬教廷報告。 十八世紀歐洲的大學開始對梵文研究，引起更多人對佛經的興趣。 十九世紀開始有西方人信佛教，二十世紀初更開始有西方人在佛教寺廟成為僧侶。在二十世紀，基督教和佛教的教徒之間展開更多的交流，如天主教徒湯瑪士·梅爾頓、韋恩·提士道、大衛·史坦度-拉斯特、修女凱倫·岩士唐以及佛教徒如佛使比丘、一行禪師和第十四世达赖喇嘛·丹增嘉措都致力尋找兩個宗教的對話。 他們都認為基督和佛陀的教誨並不一定衝突，而是可以互補和對照。 世界文化歷史學者阿诺尔德·约瑟·汤因比更認為基督教和佛教的接觸會是這個世紀重要的事情。
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