基督教與佛教生命觀之比較研究

The Comparative Studies on the Attitudes towards Life between Christianity and Buddhism

宗教致力於探究神聖境界，以與世俗世界加以區分。然而，探討「神觀」之餘，各宗教也對「人」的本質，以及生命有著特定的看法。基督教強調宇宙萬物皆為上帝創造，生命乃是神的旨意，因而個人乃是為了榮耀上帝而存在。佛教則側重於生命之依因待緣而生，並順著一切存在變化無常的緣起觀進而強調無恆常不變的自我；佛教探索生命的真諦，並藉由修證以了悟生死，因此，了生脫死可說是佛教生命觀的主要取向。本文希望針對基督教與佛教對於人的本質以及生命的看法，進行比較研究，透過不同之生命觀的對照以進一步認識兩大主要宗教的基本教義與各自之特質。

All religions make differences between the sacred and the profane, and look into the divine world. Seeking the image of God, however, all religions constitute the attitude towards human life at the same time. Christianity puts emphasis on the creation of God, and regards human life as only the divine decree for glorifying God’s Will. Buddhism focuses on the combination of principal and subsidiary causes, proposing that the existence of human life is nothing but changes due to cause and effect, having no essence of its own. The author in this paper tries to do comparative studies on the attitudes towards life between Christianity and Buddhism in order to figure out the fundamental differences between these two most important world religions.