Yeshua Buddha – An interpretation of New Testament theology as a meaningful myth

By Jay G. Williams.

134 Pages | Copyright 1978 | Softcover | Quest Books, U.S.A | ISBN: 0835605159.

If you feel Christian dogma is in need of a new spark - a charge of vitality - based upon a deeper and more significant interpretation of Biblical stories, here is a dynamically different commentary upon the New Testament. Jay G. Williams approach to the study of the life of Christ simply overflows with intuitional creativity, permitting the student to find for him or herself trans-historical, yet new and existential situations in the Biblical story.

Buddha means 'the Enlightened One' and the author uses the word in this generic sense. 'My thesis', he writes, 'is that the perennial philosophy, so well represented in Asia by Buddhism, provides a significant perspective from which to understand the life and teachings of Yeshua'. This is a radical departure book in which Yeshua Buddha and Gautama Buddha finally join hands to shed common light into the darkened cosmos.

From Chapter 7 - 'Resurrection beyond the End' (p.115):

" A disciple must take upon himself the discipline of Yeshua; yet this is no set of laws or doctrines which can be encompassed in a book. The Way has little to do with rules and dogmas. The Early Church was at least partially correct in this: it depended primarily upon a succession of apostolic teachers for the preservation of the church. Presumably such teachers did not purvey general theories but advised their disciples concerning effective ways to engage the old deluder in mortal combat. Therefore, all readers who have persevered this far are strongly urged to take what has been said with a grain of salt. The disciple must engage in battle, not just theorize about the nature of war. This book will only have performed its task if it has facilitated that first step along the Way. If it leads the reader to say, 'O now I understand', it has failed miserably. "