Meeting Zen Buddhism

While visiting the Buddhist temple in Kamakura, I came to one gate beyond which an exquisite garden beckoned to me. It seemed to exude the peace for which one can grow starved while living in Tokyo. Unfortunately, on that day I could do no more than snap a slide while standing beneath the gate, for a sign forbade entrance.

The critical discussion between religions has fallen on hard times. Due in large measure to what Francis Schaeffer calls “escape from reason,” men are coming to view religion as an exclusively non-cognitive activity, the doing of one’s “thing” which somehow infuses human life with transcendental significance.

Webster says religious syncretism is the "combination of or reconciliation of differing beliefs in religions." Scholars say syncretism shows a religion is weakening.