Comparative Soteriology: Diagnosis, Path and Goal in Theravada Buddhism and Pauline Christianity

Institution: University of Divinity, Melbourne (proposing college: Yarra Theological Union)
Unit: DM2011Y A Comparative Study of Religions (Undergraduate Level 2, 18 points, blended delivery)
Study period: Semester 2, 2026
Assessment: Assessment 2, critical essay (Assessment 1 is the oral presentation)
Length: 2,500 words, with a permitted variance of ten percent
Referencing: APA 7th edition, author and date in the body, page numbers for all direct quotations
Weighting: 60 percent of the unit mark, with the oral presentation carrying the remaining 40 percent
Submission: Turnitin dropbox in the University of Divinity learning management system by 11.59 pm on the Friday of the examination week

Assessment Context

The University of Divinity publishes DM2011Y A Comparative Study of Religions as an undergraduate Level 2 unit of 18 points, taught through Yarra Theological Union in blended mode. Its stated approach runs through comparative theology and inter religious dialogue, and its published assessment structure pairs a 2,000 word oral presentation at 40 percent with a 2,500 word critical essay at 60 percent. Assessment 2 is that critical essay, and it asks for a sustained argument rather than a survey of two traditions placed side by side.

The unit’s learning outcomes set the frame. Students identify the central teachings of at least three traditions, reflect on commonalities between Islam and Christianity, and consider how prayer is practised in Christianity and in primal religions. Comparative method carries the weight across all three outcomes. Comparing two traditions therefore belongs inside the unit’s logic, and the essay question below turns that method on the question of salvation, where traditions diverge most sharply and where careless comparison does the most damage.

Read the critical essay requirement precisely. The unit record describes the task as developing a sustained argument, engaging scholarship critically, and reaching a reasoned conclusion. That wording rules out a descriptive account of what Buddhists believe and what Christians believe. The essay must show what the comparison produces that neither tradition shows on its own.

Task Description

Compare the concepts of salvation and liberation in Theravada Buddhism and in the Pauline corpus. Analyse how each tradition construes the human problem, the goal of the religious life, and the means by which that goal is reached. Then argue what the comparison establishes about the prospects for inter religious dialogue, and where the divergence remains irreconcilable.

Choose one of the following question framings and state it at the head of the essay.

1. Does the diagnosis of the human problem in Theravada Buddhism and in Paul share enough conceptual ground to make dialogue substantive, or does the shared vocabulary of suffering and release conceal incompatible accounts of the goal?
2. Assess whether the language of liberation travels usefully between Theravada Buddhism and Pauline Christianity, or whether it imports assumptions from one tradition into the other.
3. Argue whether comparative theology, as practised by Clooney and his critics, offers a method adequate to the divergence between nibbana and justification.

Approved Textual Anchors

Select at least one primary text from each column and work with it directly. Do not rely on summaries of the texts.

• Theravada: the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta on the four noble truths, the Anattalakkhana Sutta on not self, selected verses from the Dhammapada, or the standard formula of dependent arising.
• Pauline: Romans 1 to 5, Romans 6 to 8, Galatians 2 to 3, or Philippians 3.

Requirements

1. Open with the comparative problem, not with a summary of Buddhism followed by a summary of Christianity. Two summaries placed in sequence fail the first criterion.
2. State a thesis within the first 350 words. A thesis claiming that the traditions are both similar and different will not reach the upper bands.
3. Present each tradition in its own terms before introducing comparison. Use Pali terms with a gloss at first mention, and Greek terms where they matter for the argument.
4. Justify your comparanda explicitly. Say why nibbana is being compared with justification rather than with sanctification, or why dukkha is being paired with hamartia rather than with suffering in general.
5. Engage at least eight scholarly sources, five of them peer reviewed and published since 2010. At least two must be works of comparative theology or comparative religious studies rather than single tradition scholarship.
6. Quote primary texts directly, with reference to the edition used, and analyse the wording rather than paraphrasing it.
7. Name one point of divergence that no translation or analogy resolves, and argue why it resists resolution.
8. Use APA 7th edition throughout, with a reference list excluded from the word count. Wikipedia, lecture slides, and study websites are not scholarly sources.

Required Structure

Section 1: Comparative Problem and Thesis

Approximately 400 words. Define the terms under comparison, justify the pairing, and state the thesis.

Section 2: Diagnosing the Human Predicament

Approximately 600 words. Compare dukkha and its causation with Pauline hamartia and its consequences. Attend to what each diagnosis treats as the root of the problem.

Section 3: The Goal Under Comparison

Approximately 600 words. Compare nibbana with justification and reconciliation. Note what each conception of the goal assumes about personhood, agency, and continuity.

Section 4: Path, Practice and Agency

Approximately 500 words. Analyse the eightfold path and its cultivation of insight alongside Pauline participation, faithfulness, and grace. Say who is understood to act.

Section 5: What Dialogue Can and Cannot Reach

Approximately 400 words. Assess the prospects for dialogue, identify the irreducible divergence, and state the limits of your own argument. Reference lists follow on a separate page.

Companion Assessment: Oral Presentation

The presentation delivered earlier in the semester carries 40 percent of the unit mark and runs to 2,000 words of spoken content, delivered online or in class with discussion. Present one aspect of comparative religion and take questions. Marks rest on the clarity of the comparison, the quality of the discussion you sustain, and your handling of questions that press on the weak point of your case. The essay may develop the same topic, provided it advances beyond the presentation rather than restating it.

Marking Criteria

Feedback and Marking Process

Marking is anonymous through Turnitin. Feedback returns within fifteen working days as a completed rubric plus prose comment, and the comment will always name one line of argument worth developing further. Grades follow the University of Divinity’s published schedule for undergraduate units, mapped to the Australian Qualifications Framework Level 7 descriptors. Students who want an explanation of a mark request it at the scheduled feedback session rather than by email.

Academic Integrity

Submit original work. Unattributed paraphrase counts as plagiarism in the same way as unattributed quotation. Turnitin reports are read for text matching and for patterns consistent with generated prose. Reuse of material already submitted for the oral presentation is permitted only where the essay extends it, and wholesale reuse falls under the University’s academic integrity procedure.

Learning Materials and References

Akay Dag, E. (2022). Problematising the Islamic theology of religions: Debates on Muslims’ views of others. Religions, 13(3), Article 223. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13030223

Analayo, B. (2021). Dependent arising and interdependence. Mindfulness, 12, 1094-1102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01544-x

Clooney, F. X. (2018). Reading religiously across religious borders: A method for comparative study. Religions, 9(2), Article 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9020042

Oropeza, B. J. (2021). Justification by faith in Christ or faithfulness of Christ? Updating the pistis Christou debate in light of Paul’s use of Scripture. Journal of Theological Studies, 72(1), 102-124. https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flab038

Wang, S., & Wang, F. (2025). Buddhist and Christian views of self: A comparative analysis. Religions, 16(3), Article 291. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16030291

Verification note. The unit code, title, level, points, delivery mode, learning outcomes and the 40 and 60 percent split between oral presentation and critical essay are recorded in the University of Divinity unit record for DM2011Y, which was last updated in October 2026; the 2,500 word length and APA requirement follow the coursework conventions of the proposing college, so confirm the style against the current college style sheet before submission.

Model Essay Extract: Framing the Comparison

Comparing salvation across traditions fails most often at the point where the comparanda are chosen, not at the point where conclusions are drawn. Reading the two traditions for what they say about the self shows why the choice matters, since Shipeng Wang and Feifan Wang argue that Buddhism does not simply negate the self but stratifies it, dispelling a false self in order to establish a true self, and that Christian traditions stratify the self in a comparable way, with both traditions using meditation to manifest what the practitioner takes to be genuine Buddhist and Christian views of self: a comparative analysis (Wang & Wang, 2025, p. 2). That finding does real work for a soteriological essay, because it locates the divergence somewhere other than a crude contrast between no self and immortal soul. Both accounts treat the ordinary self as the site of the problem. Both hold that the problem is corrected through disciplined practice rather than through information alone. An essay that starts from those two observations can then press the harder question, which concerns what the corrected condition consists in. Theravada analysis treats the goal as the cessation of a process, described through the imagery of unbinding rather than through the acquisition of a standing. Pauline argument treats the goal as a standing granted from outside the agent, a rectification received rather than achieved. An essay built on that contrast will argue something contestable, and it will also satisfy the requirement to justify the pairing of terms rather than assuming them equivalent.

Pauline scholarship makes the second half of the argument sharper, because the vocabulary that students translate as faith carries a live dispute inside it. B. J. Oropeza works through Paul’s use of Psalms and Habakkuk in Romans 1, 3 and 4 and concludes that the objective genitive makes better sense of the evidence, while also proposing a trajectory from the faithfulness of Christ, to faith in the gospel about Christ, to confession of Christ at baptism in Justification by faith in Christ or faithfulness of Christ? (Oropeza, 2021, p. 102). The dispute matters for a comparison with Buddhism because the two readings locate agency differently. An objective genitive locates the saving act in the divine initiative and the human response in trust. A subjective genitive locates it in Christ’s own fidelity and treats the believer as caught up in it. Choose one, say why, and the comparison with a tradition that places cultivation squarely on the practitioner becomes an argument about where agency sits rather than a vague remark about grace and effort. That is the kind of move the marking criteria reward under both the accuracy and the divergence criteria.

Conditionality Against Acquired Standing

Bhikkhu Analayo’s treatment of dependent arising gives the essay its most precise point of contrast, and it repays close attention. He distinguishes the twelve links of dependent arising, which explain how samsaric experience arises and how it ceases with the practice of the path, from a looser reading of dependent arising as universal interdependence, and he notes that the second reading depends on a tendentious hermeneutic of the early teachings Dependent arising and interdependence (Analayo, 2021, p. 1094). The distinction guards against the most common student error in this topic, which reads Buddhist liberation as a merger with a cosmic whole. Nibbana, on the careful reading, is the cessation of a causally structured process, not union with being itself. Set that against Pauline justification, which names a new standing before God that the agent does not produce, and the divergence becomes structural rather than verbal. One tradition describes release from a causal mechanism that the practitioner dismantles through insight; the other describes a verdict that reframes a person who remains an agent within a relationship. Analayo’s caution also gives the essay a methodological point to make, since loose talk of interdependence is exactly the kind of decontextualised comparison that critics of comparative method warn against.

Method, Hospitality and Its Limits

Students ask often whether comparative work of this kind amounts to smuggling one tradition’s categories into another, and the literature answers that question directly. Francis Clooney describes his own practice as reading one text after another, back and forth, with method treated as provisional and governed by close reading rather than by theory, and he sets theology’s role as marking boundaries for a comparison rather than terminating inquiry Reading religiously across religious borders: a method for comparative study (Clooney, 2018, p. 3). His four practical habits, believing, praying, seeking and reading, describe how a comparativist stays grounded in a home tradition while learning from another. Three points follow for the submitted essay:

1. Say which tradition you write from, and what that position allows you to see and what it may hide.
2. Choose comparison at a specific level, a text, a practice, a doctrine, rather than comparing two religions as wholes.
3. Report what the comparison changed in your reading of your own tradition, since Clooney treats that change as the point of the exercise.

Esra Akay Dag adds a caution that applies beyond her own subject matter, showing that the standard threefold typology of exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism was built from Christian soteriological concerns and does not transfer cleanly to Islamic theology of religions, where supersessionism does work the typology cannot capture Problematising the Islamic theology of religions (Akay Dag, 2022, p. 223). Apply that lesson to Buddhism and Christianity and the essay gains a defensive advantage. A comparison that reaches for inclusivism as a verdict on the other tradition will founder on exactly the problem she identifies. Better to state the divergence plainly and argue what dialogue can accomplish when neither party concedes the other’s account of the goal.

Reading Primary Texts Without Flattening Them

Marks slip in this essay for reasons that have little to do with prose quality, and four of them recur every semester:

1. Quoting the four noble truths from a website rather than from a scholarly translation, which fails the source criterion before the argument is assessed.
2. Treating justification as a synonym for forgiveness, which erases the forensic content that Paul’s arguments turn on.
3. Comparing institutions or ethics when the question asks about soteriology, which shifts the topic and wastes the strongest evidence.
4. Resolving the divergence with a claim that both traditions point to the same ultimate reality, which is a theological position that needs defence, not a conclusion that ends inquiry.

Another question surfaces each year, and it concerns whether the essay may argue that one tradition is correct. It may, provided the argument carries evidence and survives an honest statement of the strongest objection. The unit assesses the quality of comparative reasoning rather than the religious position reached, so a well defended exclusivist conclusion can score in the highest band while an unargued pluralism scores in the middle. What fails is a conclusion that the traditions are different yet equally valid with no account of what validity means in this context. Keep the closing section honest about that, and the criterion on divergence becomes straightforward to satisfy.

Conclusion

Pick the pairing of terms before reading anything else, because the pairing decides what the essay can argue. Start with the two primary texts rather than with introductions to Buddhism and to Paul, since the introductions will smooth over the awkward passages that make a comparison worth writing. Read Analayo on dependent arising before drafting the section on the goal, as the section collapses without that distinction. Keep Clooney open while writing the method paragraph, because the unit assesses comparative reasoning and not only content knowledge. Draft the divergence section early and let it discipline the thesis, which is where most essays in this unit go wrong. Check the APA page numbers on direct quotations twice, then submit with enough time to read the similarity report.

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Comparative Soteriology: Diagnosis, Path and Goal in Theravada Buddhism and Pauline Christianity

Research Question: Does the diagnosis of the human problem in Theravada Buddhism and in Paul share enough conceptual ground to make dialogue substantive, or does the shared vocabulary of suffering and release conceal incompatible accounts of the goal?

1. Comparative Problem and Thesis

Comparing salvation in Theravada Buddhism and Pauline Christianity raises a fundamental question about what human beings need to be delivered from and what their ultimate freedom should look like. Both traditions regard ordinary human existence as marked by a condition that people cannot overcome through ordinary desires or worldly achievements. However, their explanations of that condition differ. Theravada Buddhism locates the problem in dukkha (suffering or pervasive unsatisfactoriness), which arises through craving and ignorance, whereas Paul identifies hamartia (sin) as a power that disrupts humanity’s relationship with God and subjects people to death. Although both traditions propose release from a destructive human condition, they do not describe the same problem or promise the same destination.

The comparison therefore requires careful selection of its central concepts. Nibbana is compared with Pauline justification because both describe a decisive change in the human condition, rather than simply an improvement in moral behaviour. Justification, however, does not encompass the whole Pauline understanding of salvation; reconciliation and participation in Christ also contribute to Paul’s account. Similarly, nibbana cannot be reduced to forgiveness or a new moral standing. The comparison examines their shared soteriological function while preserving their different theological meanings.

The central argument is that Theravada Buddhism and Pauline Christianity provide sufficient common ground for substantive interreligious dialogue because both identify ordinary human existence as requiring fundamental release from destructive conditions. Nevertheless, their final goals remain incompatible at the level of religious conviction: Theravada liberation involves the cessation of craving and the cycle of rebirth without an eternal personal self, whereas Pauline salvation involves reconciliation with God, participation in Christ and the resurrection of persons. Dialogue can deepen understanding of these different accounts, but it cannot remove their disagreement about personal identity, divine agency and humanity’s ultimate destiny.

2. Diagnosing the Human Predicament

The four noble truths provide the foundation for the Theravada understanding of the human predicament. In the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the Buddha identifies suffering, its origin, its cessation and the path leading to its cessation (Buddha, trans. Bodhi, 2000). The first truth describes dukkha, which includes birth, ageing, illness, death, separation from what is loved and association with what is unwanted. The concept extends beyond physical pain to the instability of experiences that people mistakenly expect to provide lasting satisfaction. Even pleasant experiences remain subject to change, making attachment to them a source of dissatisfaction.

Craving, or tanha, explains the origin of this condition. People desire pleasure, continued existence and freedom from unpleasant experiences, but these desires encourage attachment to things that cannot remain permanent. Ignorance (avijja) reinforces the problem because individuals misunderstand the changing nature of existence and regard the five aggregates as a permanent self. Anālayo (2021) explains that dependent arising identifies the conditions through which the human predicament develops and the processes through which those conditions can cease. Consequently, Buddhist liberation requires the removal of the causes of suffering rather than the restoration of a relationship with a creator. The problem is fundamentally conditional and experiential.

Paul’s diagnosis in Romans 1–5 approaches human suffering from a different theological position. The term hamartia describes sin, but Paul presents it as more than individual wrongdoing. Sin operates as a destructive power that affects human conduct, relationships and humanity’s standing before God. Romans 3:23–24 states that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and that people are “justified by his grace as a gift” (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, 2021, Rom. 3:23–24). The passage connects humanity’s predicament with God’s action through Christ. Human beings cannot establish righteousness through their own achievements because sin affects the whole human condition.

The distinction between the two diagnoses becomes important at this point. Buddhist dukkha arises through craving, attachment and ignorance within conditioned existence, whereas Pauline sin involves humanity’s estrangement from God and participation in a power associated with death. The terms should not be treated as direct equivalents simply because both traditions address human suffering. Gathercole (2020) explains that justification in Paul belongs to a wider group of ideas involving reconciliation, deliverance and participation in Christ. Such language shows that Paul’s diagnosis carries relational and theological implications that the Buddhist account does not share. Nevertheless, both traditions challenge the assumption that ordinary human intentions and achievements can independently overcome the fundamental human predicament.

3. The Goal Under Comparison

Nibbana represents the cessation of the conditions that sustain suffering. The third noble truth in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta describes the ending of craving and the release that follows its complete abandonment (Buddha, trans. Bodhi, 2000). Nibbana does not represent the acquisition of an eternal soul or entry into a permanent heavenly existence. Rather, it concerns freedom from ignorance, craving and the conditions that perpetuate rebirth. The doctrine of anatta, meaning not-self, reinforces this understanding because the five aggregates do not contain an independent, permanent identity. The Buddhist goal therefore involves freedom from attachment to the very conception of self that ordinary human experience tends to maintain.

Pauline justification presents a different account of the final goal. Romans 3:24 describes justification as a gift received through the redemption accomplished in Christ. The Greek term dikaiosyne refers to righteousness, while dikaioo describes the act of justifying or declaring someone righteous. Within Romans 3–5, justification establishes a new standing before God through divine grace rather than through human achievement. Romans 5:1 connects this condition with peace with God through Jesus Christ. Consequently, salvation includes the restoration of a relationship that sin has disrupted.

Comparing justification with nibbana requires an important qualification. Justification is not the complete Pauline equivalent of Buddhist liberation because Paul also discusses reconciliation, freedom from sin and participation in Christ. Gathercole (2020) places justification within this wider Pauline account of salvation. Nibbana, conversely, describes the cessation of the causes of suffering rather than a favourable judgment within a continuing relationship with a divine being. Both concepts mark a decisive change in human existence, but the nature of that change differs. The comparison therefore concerns their function within their respective soteriologies, not an assumed equivalence between their meanings.

Personhood reveals an even deeper disagreement. Theravada Buddhism rejects an independently existing and permanent self, although it recognises conventional personal identity and the continuity of karmic processes. Pauline Christianity, in contrast, places personal existence within God’s creative and redemptive purposes. Its hope includes bodily resurrection rather than the eternal continuation of an independent, unchanging soul. Romans 5 presents reconciliation through Christ, while Romans 8 develops the hope of life through the Spirit. Wang and Wang (2025) caution against reducing Buddhist and Christian accounts of selfhood to simple opposites, since both traditions contain more complex understandings of personal identity. Nevertheless, their fundamental claims about rebirth, resurrection and ultimate continuity remain distinct.

4. Path, Practice and Agency

Theravada Buddhism presents the Noble Eightfold Path as the practical means through which suffering ceases. The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta identifies right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration as the elements of the middle way (Buddha, trans. Bodhi, 2000). These practices address different dimensions of human conduct and understanding. Ethical discipline reduces harmful behaviour, meditation develops mental stability, and wisdom enables practitioners to recognise impermanence and not-self. The path therefore requires sustained cultivation rather than reliance on an external power that removes suffering on behalf of the practitioner.

Paul’s account of agency places greater emphasis on divine grace. Romans 3:24 describes justification as a gift, while Romans 4 presents Abraham as an example of faith rather than achievement through works. Faith, expressed through the Greek term pistis, involves trust and commitment to God’s action in Christ. Oropeza (2021) examines the debate over whether pistis Christou should mean faith in Christ or the faithfulness of Christ, demonstrating that the precise location of saving agency remains an important exegetical question. Regardless of the preferred interpretation, Paul’s argument places the initiative for salvation within God’s redemptive action.

The distinction does not mean that Paul considers human conduct irrelevant. Romans 6 explains that participation in Christ involves a changed relationship with sin and a new pattern of life. Grace therefore establishes the basis for Christian transformation, while believers respond through faith and obedience. In Theravada Buddhism, practitioners cultivate the insight and discipline required to end craving. In Pauline Christianity, believers respond to grace through participation in the life of Christ. Both traditions require religious commitment, but they assign different roles to human effort and transcendent agency.

5. What Dialogue Can and Cannot Reach

Comparative dialogue can establish meaningful connections between these traditions without requiring them to adopt the same understanding of salvation. Clooney (2018) argues that comparative theology develops through attentive reading across religious boundaries, allowing scholars to reconsider their own assumptions through engagement with another tradition. Freiberger (2019) similarly stresses the need to compare religious teachings within their historical and intellectual contexts rather than imposing universal categories upon them. Applied to Theravada Buddhism and Pauline Christianity, these approaches encourage careful examination of the human predicament, religious practice and the meaning of liberation.

The irreducible disagreement concerns the ultimate status of personal existence. Theravada Buddhism rejects the idea of an enduring, independent self, while Pauline Christianity anticipates the resurrection of persons through God’s action. No translation of anatta into Christian language or justification into Buddhist terminology can resolve this difference. The traditions do not simply describe the same destination using different words. They make different claims about what exists, what requires liberation and what follows the completion of the religious life. Wang and Wang (2025) demonstrate the value of examining similarities in the treatment of selfhood, although such similarities do not establish agreement about ultimate reality.

The comparison consequently supports dialogue grounded in intellectual honesty rather than forced agreement. Christians may learn from Buddhist analysis of attachment and the instability of ordinary desires, while Buddhist practitioners may examine the Christian emphasis on grace, reconciliation and relational responsibility. Such engagement does not require either tradition to abandon its central teachings. Its value lies in exposing assumptions, refining interpretations and improving the accuracy with which each tradition represents the other. The present comparison remains limited to selected early Buddhist teaching and Paul’s argument in Romans, rather than claiming to represent every Buddhist school or Christian theological tradition.

Conclusion

Theravada Buddhism and Pauline Christianity share sufficient conceptual ground to support substantive interreligious dialogue, although their accounts of salvation remain fundamentally different. Both identify a human predicament that ordinary achievements cannot overcome, and both propose a religious path towards freedom from that condition. However, Buddhism locates the cause of suffering in craving and ignorance, while Paul identifies sin and estrangement from God as central features of humanity’s predicament. Nibbana describes the cessation of suffering and the processes sustaining rebirth, whereas Pauline justification establishes a new relationship with God through Christ and belongs to a wider hope of resurrection. The difference between not-self and the resurrection of persons cannot be resolved through translation or analogy. Consequently, comparative theology contributes most when it allows genuine understanding without demanding theological agreement. Dialogue remains possible precisely because the traditions can learn from each other while retaining their distinctive claims about the human person and the final goal of religious life.

References

Anālayo, B. (2021). Dependent arising and interdependence. Mindfulness, 12, 1094–1102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01544-x

Buddha. (2000). Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11). In B. Bodhi (Trans.), The connected discourses of the Buddha: A translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya (pp. 1843–1847). Wisdom Publications.

Clooney, F. X. (2018). Reading religiously across religious borders: A method for comparative study. Religions, 9(2), Article 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9020042

Freiberger, O. (2019). Considering comparison: A method for religious studies. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199965007.001.0001

Gathercole, S. (2020). Justification by faith. In M. F. Bird and J. A. Linebaugh (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of Pauline studies (pp. 422–440). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199600489.013.35

National Council of Churches. (2021). The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Friendship Press.

Oropeza, B. J. (2021). Justification by faith in Christ or faithfulness of Christ? Updating the pistis Christou debate in light of Paul’s use of Scripture. The Journal of Theological Studies, 72(1), 102–124. https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flab038

Wang, S., & Wang, F. (2025). Buddhist and Christian views of self: A comparative analysis. Religions, 16(3), Article 291. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16030291