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Title: The Status of Logic in Christian-Zen Buddhist Dialogue
Author(s): KRAAL, Anders
Journal: Studies in Interreligious Dialogue
Volume: 18    Issue: 2   Date: 2008   
Pages: 169-183
DOI: 10.2143/SID.18.2.2033320

Abstract :
This paper argues that Zen Buddhism is incompatible with classical logic due to reasons deriving from their respective ontological presuppositions. The question is discussed if this incompatibility amounts to a theoretical opposition to Christianity, inasmuch as Christianity has often been said to countenance the laws of classical logic. In response to this question, it is first noted that the relation between Christianity and classical logic is more problematic than is often supposed to be the case, but it is then argued that ultimately the incompatibility between Zen Buddhism and classical logic does amount to a theoretical opposition between Zen Buddhism and Christianity. In the last section of the paper the implications of these claims are spelt out with regard to Zen Buddhist-Christian dialogue, and it is suggested that the most promising venue for finding grounds of commonality between the two faiths should be sought in the fields of ethics and values rather than in logical-ontological truth claims.

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