"Our author has unquestionably the story-teller's gift."--_St. James Gazette._ * * * * * THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY by ARTHUR LILLIE Author of "Buddhism in Christendom," etc. [Illustration: Shield supported by two Unicorns] London Swan Sonnenschein & Co. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1893 * * * * * _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_, The "Philosophy at Home" Series. 1 to 5. SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER--Translated from the German by T. BAILEY SAUNDERS, M.A. (Oxon), viz.:-- 1. THE WISDOM OF LIFE, 4th Edition. 2. COUNSELS AND MAXIMS, 3rd Edition. 3. RELIGION, A DIALOGUE, and other Essays, 3rd Edition. 4. THE ART OF LITERATURE, 2nd Edition. 5. STUDIES IN PESSIMISM, 3rd Edition. 6. OUTLINES OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, by HERMANN LOTZE. Edited, with an Introduction, by F. C. CONYBEARE, M.A. (Oxon). 7. THE PROBLEM OF REALITY, by E. BELFORT BAX. 8. THE INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM ON PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY, by ARTHUR LILLIE. * * * * * PREFACE. A volume that proves that much of the New Testament is parable rather than history will shock many readers, but from the days of Origen and Clement of Alexandria to the days of Swedenborg the same thing has been affirmed. The proof that this parabolic writing has been derived from a previous religion will shock many more. The biographer of Christ has one sole duty, namely, to produce the actual historical Jesus. In the New Testament there are two Christs, an Essene and an anti-Essene Christ, and all modern biographers who have sought to combine the two have failed necessarily. It is the contention of this work that Christ was an Essene monk; that Christianity was Essenism; and that Essenism was due, as Dean Mansel contended, to the Buddhist missionaries "who visited Egypt within two generations of the time of Alexander the Great." ("Gnostic Heresies," p. 31.) The Reformation, in the view of Macaulay, was the struggle of layman _versus_ monk. In consequence, many good Protestants are shocked to hear such a term applied to the founder of their creed. But here I must point out one fact. In the Essene monasteries, as in the Buddhist, there was no life vow. This made the monastery less a career than a school for spiritual initiation. In modern monasteries St. John of the Cross can dream sweet dreams of God in one cell, and his neighbour may be Friar Tuck, but to both the monastery is a prison. This alters the complexion of the celibacy question, and so does the fact that the Christians were fighting a mighty battle with the priesthoods.