The Appeal of Buddhism in Contemporary Life

Author and business guru Peter Senge once spoke to a gathering of pastors, not his normal audience. Early in the day, he went to a bookstore and checked out the Christian spirituality section, not his normal reading. He noticed that books on Buddhism—Senge practices Zen Buddhism—outnumbered books on Christianity five to one.

That evening, when he got up to speak to the pastors, he mentioned this and asked if any of them wondered why this was so. He gave his own answer: “Because Buddhism presents itself as a way, a way of life, a journey, and Christianity has become a philosophy. An idea.”

It’s hard to follow an idea. It’s hard to walk in it. An idea you can argue and defend and slice up and promulgate (promulgate: a word so wooden anyone would only ever use it in connection with an idea). But it’s hard to embody one. You can analyze an idea, but you can’t walk in it. I think I understood that Christianity is the Way when I first came to faith.