Christianity vs Hinduism

Christians teach that ultimate reality is one God who exists eternally as three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This teaching is called the Trinity. Each person is fully God, yet the three are distinct.¹ The Catholic Catechism states it plainly: We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons¹. The Reformed Westminster Confession teaches that the three persons share one substance, power, and eternity.²

Christians also hold that the Son became human as Jesus.³ The branches part on one phrase about the Holy Spirit. The Eastern Orthodox form of the creed says the Spirit proceeds from the Father, while the Latin tradition adds "and the Son," in Latin filioque.⁴¹

Vedanta schools, which interpret the Upanishads, call ultimate reality Brahman, but they differ on whether Brahman is beyond all qualities or a personal God with qualities.⁵ Advaita Vedanta, the nondualist school, teaches that Brahman alone is fully real and, in the highest sense, without qualities. Within the world of experience, Brahman appears as a personal God, Ishvara.⁶

Most Vaishnava traditions worship Vishnu with his incarnations such as Krishna and Rama, Shaiva traditions worship Shiva, and Shakta traditions center on Shakti, divine female power. Smarta worshipers choose among several deities.^78910111213 In a Pew Research Center survey of India in 2019 and 2020, 61 percent of Hindus said there is one God with many manifestations, and 7 percent said there are many gods.¹⁴

Christians hold that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his followers over forty days. At Pentecost, the Jewish festival of Shavuot, the Holy Spirit came upon them in Jerusalem, and about three thousand people were baptized that day, according to the book of Acts.¹⁵¹⁶

Historians describe Jesus as a Jew from Galilee who was put to death in about 30 CE.¹⁷¹⁸ His followers came to believe he had been raised, and they settled in Jerusalem as a movement within Judaism.¹⁹¹⁷ By 48 CE its leaders were discussing a mission to non-Jews, and Paul's letters from the 50s CE are the earliest New Testament writings.¹⁹¹⁷ Dale Martin of Yale tells students that reputable historical scholars all accept that Jesus existed.²⁰

Many Hindus hold that dharma is eternal, which is why they call their tradition Sanatana Dharma, the eternal dharma.²¹ In 1893 Swami Vivekananda (1863 to 1902) told the Parliament of Religions that Hindus hold the Vedas to be without beginning and without end.²²¹² Tradition traces the Vedas to many seers, called rishis, who heard them in a distant past, rather than to one founder.²³²⁴

Historians describe a gradual blending of many sources.¹² Michael Witzel dates the Vedas to roughly 1500 to 500 BCE, composed first in the northwest of the subcontinent, and treats "Hinduism" as a later name for many linked traditions.¹² He sees possible earlier elements in the Indus Valley civilization but writes that, without a script, we cannot be sure.¹²

The Christian Bible has two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament.²⁵ Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant churches accept the same 27 New Testament books. Their Old Testaments differ: the Catholic has 46 books, the Protestant 39, and Eastern Orthodox Bibles include the Catholic books and more. The Ethiopian Orthodox canon is larger still.^26272829 Christians hold that God inspired the Bible's human writers.³⁰²⁷

Historians study those writers. Christine Hayes of Yale describes the Hebrew Bible, the core of the Old Testament, as an anthology written and edited over a long period.³¹ Dale Martin explains that Paul's letters are the oldest New Testament writings and that many modern scholars regard the Gospels as anonymous.³² Irenaeus, an early church writer, names Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as the Gospel writers.³³ The earliest surviving list matching the 27 books comes from an Easter letter of 367 CE by the bishop of Alexandria.³⁴³²

Hindu texts fall into two classes: shruti, "what is heard," meaning the Vedas and Upanishads, and smriti, "what is remembered," including the epics and the Puranas.³⁵³⁶ The Bhagavad Gita, a section of the Mahabharata, is formally smriti but came to be accepted as revelation.³⁵ Hinduism has no single closed canon.³⁷¹² Dancing with Siva, a catechism of one Shaiva lineage,³⁸ holds that all Hindus share the Vedas and the texts called Agamas, while each lineage defines its own smriti.³⁷ Michael Witzel adds that many Tantric groups and Virashaivism reject the Veda.³⁹¹²

Schools differ on the Veda's origin. Mimamsa, the school of Vedic interpretation, holds that no one first spoke its words. Most theistic Vedanta thinkers and almost all Nyaya logicians hold that Ishvara, the Lord, is its author.⁴⁰ Alf Hiltebeitel dates the Vedic texts to about 1400 to 400 BCE.³⁶

Christians teach that sin has broken humanity's relationship with God, and that its effects reach every person and the world itself. Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformed teaching all treat the story of Adam and Eve as the account of the first sin, which Christians call the Fall.⁴¹⁴²²

The branches describe the results differently. Catholic teaching holds that every person inherits original sin, except Mary, who was preserved from it; it is a state that wounds human nature without wholly corrupting it.⁴¹ The Westminster Confession holds that the guilt of the first sin is counted to all descendants, who inherit a nature wholly inclined to all evil².² Orthodox teaching, as the Orthodox Church in America presents it, links sin to death: everyone bears the consequences of the first sin, but only Adam and Eve are guilty of it.⁴²⁴³⁴⁴

Hindu teachers hold that beings are caught in samsara, the beginningless round of birth, death, and rebirth, driven by karma, the results of deeds. Each school names the root in its own way.⁴⁵

Advaita names the root as avidya, ignorance, which hides Brahman.⁶ Ramanuja (1017 to 1137 CE by tradition, 1077 to 1157 in recent scholarship) taught in the Sri Vaishnava community. For him, beginningless past karma hides the soul's true nature as a knower who depends on Brahman.⁴⁶ In Shaiva Siddhanta, a Shaiva school of South India, three fetters bind the soul: ignorance, karma, and maya, or changing reality.⁹ The Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which includes ISKCON, the Hare Krishna movement, teaches that a soul is reborn until, by divine mercy, it realizes its nature as Krishna's servant.⁴⁷⁴⁸

Christians teach that salvation comes from God through Jesus, who died and rose again to reconcile people to God.³⁴⁹⁵⁰ The branches differ on how it is received. Catholic teaching holds that justification, being made right with God, is given in baptism and joins God's grace with human freedom.⁵¹

Lutheran teaching holds that people are justified freely, through faith, and that good works must follow but do not earn it.⁴⁹ Reformed teaching calls faith the alone instrument of justification². Orthodox teaching describes the purpose of life as theosis, sharing in God's own life, and says people are to become by divine grace what God is by nature.⁵²⁵³ In 1999 the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation declared agreement on the basic truths of justification.⁵⁴

The goal is moksha, release from the round of death and rebirth, and the schools differ on whether knowledge, devotion, or God's grace brings it.⁵⁵⁶⁵ Shankara (788 to 820 CE by the Sringeri monastery's account, about 700 to 750 in David Lorenzen's dating) taught that knowledge of Brahman alone brings liberation, with good works only purifying the mind.⁵⁶⁵⁷⁶

Ramanuja taught bhakti, loving devotion; the two Sri Vaishnava schools that follow him tie God's grace to the devotee's surrender, though some scholars doubt he taught it himself.⁴⁶ For Dvaita, the school that holds God and souls to be different, Vishnu's grace is the soul's only hope.⁵ Shaiva Siddhanta teaches service, worship, and meditation, which prepare the soul to receive divine knowledge from Shiva as a free gift.⁹

Christians teach that every person will face God's judgment, and that at the end of time the dead will rise in body to everlasting life or condemnation.⁴⁴⁹² Catholic teaching holds that each soul is judged at death and enters heaven, at once or after purification in purgatory, or is condemned.⁵⁸⁵⁹⁶⁰ Hell, in the Catechism's words, is a state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed⁶¹.

Reformed teaching acknowledges only two places for souls after death, heaven and hell.² Orthodox teaching, as the Orthodox Church in America presents it, holds that God's presence will fill all things. For those who love God it will be paradise, and for those who hate him, hell.⁶²⁶³

Hindu teaching holds that, until liberation, the self takes a new body shaped by its karma. The Bhagavad Gita compares this to a person changing old clothes for new.⁶⁴ The scholar Brian K. Smith lists where the self may be reborn: in a heaven, as a human or animal, or in a hell, depending on its karma. Many Hindus, he adds, seek a better birth rather than release itself.⁴⁵

The schools picture liberation differently. Advaita teaches that knowing Brahman ends rebirth.⁶ For Ramanuja, liberated souls keep their identity.⁵ Shaiva Siddhanta's classical teachers say souls keep their character in union with Shiva, while Dancing with Siva teaches that the soul merges with Shiva like water returning to the sea.⁹⁶⁵

Christians hold that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, who became human, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and rose from the dead on the third day.⁶⁶ Early figures include Peter, an original disciple; James, called the brother of Jesus, who seems to have led the Jerusalem community; and Paul, a missionary whose letters are part of the New Testament.¹⁹¹⁷⁶⁷

Catholic and Orthodox Christians also hold Mary, Jesus's mother, in special honor, and Orthodox Christians call her the Theotokos, or Birthgiver of God.⁶⁸⁶⁹ They ask Mary and the saints to pray for them, while the Westminster Confession directs prayer to God alone, through Christ as the only mediator.⁷⁰⁷¹⁷²

Hindu tradition honors the rishis, the ancient seers who received the Vedas.²³²⁴ Beyond them, each tradition names its own supreme figure. Most Vaishnavas honor Vishnu and his incarnations Rama and Krishna, and Gaudiya Vaishnavas hold Krishna himself supreme. Shaivas honor Shiva, and Shaktas honor the Goddess.^7347577412

Teachers and saints are honored too. They include Shankara of Advaita Vedanta, Ramanuja of the Sri Vaishnava tradition, and the Tamil poet-saints who sang to Shiva and Vishnu.⁵⁶⁷⁵⁷⁶ In the 19th century Ramakrishna, a Bengali priest of the goddess Kali, came to be regarded by many followers as an avatar, or incarnation of God. His disciple Vivekananda helped found the Ramakrishna Mission.¹³⁷⁷

Catholic, Orthodox, Presbyterian, and Southern Baptist teaching all name Sunday the Lord's Day, the main day of worship, kept because Jesus rose on that day.^78797280 Catholic and Orthodox worship centers on the Eucharist, which both hold is the body and blood of Christ.⁸¹⁸²⁷⁹ The churches count sacred rites differently: Catholic teaching has seven sacraments, and the Reformed and Anglican confessions two, baptism and the Lord's Supper.⁸³⁷²⁸⁴ Christians also pray the Lord's Prayer, which Jesus taught his followers.¹⁵

For ethics, Jesus names the two greatest commandments as love of God with all one's heart, soul, and mind, and love of one's neighbor as oneself.¹⁵

Most Hindu worship takes the form of puja, in which offerings are placed before a sacred image of a deity, at a home shrine or in a temple.⁸⁵ Worshipers also seek darshan, the auspicious seeing of the deity, and many repeat mantras.⁸⁶⁸⁷ Rites called samskaras mark life's stages, and festivals vary by region.⁸⁸⁸⁹

For ethics, Hindu teachers answer with dharma. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions distinguishes eternal dharma, which applies to everyone, from a person's own relative duty. It lists virtues of eternal dharma such as non-injury, truth, and charity.⁹⁰ The Bhagavad Gita asks a person to do their duty without craving its rewards.⁶⁴

These statements come from Catholic, Orthodox, and evangelical sources, not one church. The Catholic declaration Nostra Aetate (1965) says Hindus contemplate the divine mystery through stories and philosophical inquiry. Of Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religions, it adds that the Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions⁹¹, and it proclaims Christ as the way, the truth, and the life.⁹¹

The Eastern Orthodox statement For the Life of the World (2020) seeks dialogue out of reverent love and says irreconcilable differences remain. It holds that God's face shines forth unobscured in Jesus Christ and that the Church may learn from the great philosophies and faiths of India⁹².⁹² The Orthodox Church in America's adult teaching manual groups Hinduism with the polytheistic faiths, whose worship of many gods it says the Bible calls idolatry. It says the Church calls their followers to worship the Trinity and be baptized, and urges respect, common ground, and presenting the faith as the correction and fulfillment of truth God has already revealed to them.⁹³

The evangelical Cape Town Commitment, from the 2010 Lausanne Congress, repents of failing to seek friendships with Hindus and others, and joins confidence in the uniqueness of Christ to respectful listening.⁹⁴ Mainline Protestant statements are not represented here.

Hinduism has no common creed or central authority, so these statements come from teachers and movements.⁹⁵ In 1893 Vivekananda wished neither that Christians become Hindus nor Hindus Christians; each should keep its own law of growth.⁹⁶ He also criticized Christian missions, saying India's crying need was bread, not religion.⁹⁷

The Ramakrishna Math and Mission, which traces its origin to Ramakrishna, says he looked upon Jesus and Buddha as incarnations of God.⁷⁷⁹⁸ Its summary of his message includes this line: All religions are true in so far as they lead to the same ultimate Goal.⁹⁸ On the many gods, a Rig Veda hymn (1.164.46) says sages give many names to what is One.⁹⁹ Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896 to 1977), founder of the Hare Krishna movement, names Jesus an example for Vaishnavas.^4713100101

Dancing with Siva says Shaivas seek not to interfere with anyone's faith and see no exclusive path. It adds that religions are not the same, that Shaivas defend their faith and avoid the enchantment of other ways, and that differences should never cause tension or intolerance.¹⁰² ISKCON's education site describes Dayananda Sarasvati, who founded the Arya Samaj in 1875, as wanting to halt the Christian missionary onslaught¹⁰³, the site's words. Shakta and Smarta statements are not represented here.