A New Hope for Understanding: Adapting the Buddhist Paradigm of Merit Transference to Explain the Substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ by Dahlfred, Karl

This paper aims to examine the implications, benefits, and challenges of using the Buddhist concept of merit transference to explain the redemptive work of Christ to those with a karmic worldview, with particular attention to the Theravada Buddhist context. The first part of the paper will examine the nature of karma, merit, and merit transference as they exist in the minds of Buddhists, particularly Theravada Buddhists. The second part of the paper will deal with adapting the merit transference paradigm to explain the cross of Christ, followed by an analysis of the potentially positive and negative consequences of presenting the Gospel in this way.