Marcus J. Borg is a Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State Univ. This book uses the NRSV with Apocrypha and has 6 pp of Buddhist sources. It has an Introduction by Jack Kornfield (see book 13 by him). (For his books I've read, click on his name.)

The parallels between Jesus and Buddha are impressive mainly in their ethical teachings, but they also both began renewal movements within their inherited religious traditions. “They were both teachers of a world-subverting wisdom that undermined and challenged conventional ways of seeing and being in their time and in every time.” Their subversive wisdom was also an alternative wisdom: they taught a way or path of internal transformation whose ethical fruit is the same for both: becoming a more compassionate being. However, Jesus had a social and political passion that challenged authority. Buddha did not challenge authority and lived to teach for about 50 years. Borg briefly discusses and completely dismisses those who have said that Jesus ‘borrowed’ from the 5-century older Buddhist tradition. In this book he invites you “to ponder the parallels between these two enlightened teachers of enlightenment wisdom.”

Most of the book consists of parallel pages: a Jesus quote on the left page and a Buddha quote on the right page. The sayings are grouped into eleven chapters: Compassion, Wisdom, Materialism, Inner Life, Temptation, Salvation, The Future, Miracles, Discipleship, Attributes, and Life Stories. Each chapter begins with a page of general comments. There is no discussion of the similarities and differences between the paired sayings. Marcus J. Borg leaves this up to you. As he says at the beginning, “The purpose of this collection is to provide opportunity for reflection and meditation” since the sayings can illuminate each other. It is indeed true that many sayings do illuminate each other in a powerful way. But in many cases the differences are not insignificant; for these I wished Borg had discussed the differences and given the reasons he chose them as parallel sayings. The omission of the latter made this book a disappointment to me. I did not feel enriched by this book as I was by his books 45 and 66. Instead of book 67, for thorough discussion of Jesus and Buddha, I highly recommend book 68 “Jesus and Buddha as Brothers.”