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Section 15

Five alternatives, briefly

Each major alternative (Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, atheism) is engaged on its strongest version.

Islam: the Quran (Surah 4:157) denies the crucifixion. The historical evidence for the crucifixion is overwhelming and ~600 years older than the Quran.

Judaism: Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, and the rabbinic Messiah ben Joseph traditions show the suffering Messiah category was already present in pre Christian Jewish thought. Pinchas Lapide accepted the resurrection without converting.

Hinduism: Advaita Vedanta vs. Christian personalism on the nature of ultimate reality. Buddhism: Christian redemption of particular goods vs. Buddhist detachment from them. Atheism: the philosophical case in section 1, plus the historical case for the resurrection.

I accept the resurrection of Easter Sunday not as an invention of the community of disciples, but as a historical event.

Pinchas Lapide (Orthodox Jewish scholar), The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective, 1979.

By the numbers

Quranic denial
Surah 4:157, 7th century AD
Crucifixion sources
4 Gospels + Tacitus + Josephus + Talmud
Christian engagement of Hinduism
Vinoth Ramachandra
Christian engagement of Buddhism
Aloysius Pieris, Paul Williams

Strongest counter position

Each tradition has its own internal coherence and strongest defenders. The site does not claim to refute them in a single section. Longer treatments live in the knowledge base.

What this does not prove

Brief comparative engagement risks caricature. The site presents the strongest version and addresses each on its own ground.

Citations

  • Quran, Surah 4:157.
  • Pinchas Lapide, 1979.
  • Vinoth Ramachandra, Faiths in Conflict?, 1999.
  • Aloysius Pieris, An Asian Theology of Liberation, 1988.
  • Paul Williams, The Unexpected Way, 2002.

Goes deeper