I'm a master's student in theology. AMA.

[Mopsus]

How much crossover is there between theology and secular philosophy?

[Mopsus]

What are the irreconcilable differences between Buddhism and Christianity?

Do any of those differences make one religion better than the other (in your opinion)?

[Mopsus]

How closely does the Fallen World (as described in the Bible) resemble Samsara (as described in Buddhism)? Just in Genesis 3, we have men being chained to the earth, which absorbs their life force and spits it back out at them; women being chained to childbirth, by which they continue the existence of the human race only at the expense of their own well being; and both their descendants being cursed to bruise the head of the serpent which bites at their heels, which is almost an image of the ouroboros.

Of course, if you go back far enough, you have a world created, not out of nothing, but out of watery chaos, which could even imply previous cosmic incarnations.

Sorry if this isn't the sort of post you wanted in this thread, I've just been thinking about this a lot recently.

[Mopsus]

The Fall as creating a samsara-like condition is a really interesting idea; my only objection to it would be that most forms of Buddhism don't posit an original pre-samsaric state.

IIRC, both Hinduism and Jainism posit an evolutionary model of the cosmos, with some epochs more enlightened than others. Is there no similar concept in Buddhism? Or am I misunderstanding things.

[Mopsus]

Is it still common for theology students to learn Latin/Greek?

[Mopsus]

I don't expect you to have an answer to this question, but it's worth asking anyway... do you know any good introductory books on haiku?

Also, do you have any thoughts on the Kyoto School? Keiji Nish**tani in particular?