In his ground-breaking Gifford Lectures, published as Religious Pluralism & Interreligious Dialogue, Perry Schmidt-Leukel introduced his "fractal" theory of religions, challenging the tendency to distinguish religious traditions as discrete entities without acknowledging the wide variety within them, varieties essentially reproduced in different religious traditions.

After offering an introduction to this new methodology to comparative religion, Schmidt-Leukel, in The Celestial Web, applies this method to a comparison between Buddhism and Christianity. Some of the points of comparison include their respective approaches to the world, ultimate reality, the "dark side" of human existence, and salvation/liberation in terms of the figures mediating it.

Stereotypical approaches often treat these traditions as opposites, for instance, positing that Buddhism embraces an impersonal absolute, whereas Christianity affirms the primacy of one's relationship with a personal God. Yet the fractal approach, which examines "intra-religious" varieties within the two traditions, reveals surprising points of congruence.

Celestial Web: Buddhism and Christianity - A Different Comparison, Perry Schmidt-Leukel, Orbis Books, Paperback, 304 pages, $55.00

Perry Schmidt-Leukel is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology, and Senior Professor in the Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics." University of Munster. He is the author of a dozen books in German and English, including his Gifford Lectures (Orbis): Religious Pluralism & Interreligious Dialogue.