The Gospel of Buddha

The Gospel of Buddha is an 1894 book by Paul Carus. The work was modeled on the Christian New Testament. It was an important tool in introducing Buddhism to the West and is still used today as a teaching tool by some Asian sects.

Carus believed the modern world required a new Religion of Science. Inspired by meetings and conversations at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions held in Chicago, Carus decided Buddhism was the closest religious tradition to his ideal and he created The Gospel of Buddha to popularize the religion in the West.

The work was assembled from existing English translations of Buddhists texts. His selection of texts favored Buddhism as a philosophy without any supernatural elements.

While criticized by contemporary scholars, The Gospel of Buddha proved very popular in the West.

It went through a number of reprintings within the first few years of its publication. The work is still being printed and sold in the West.

The Gospel of Buddha also influenced the development of Buddhist modernism in East Asia, notably in a Japanese translation of the book by D. T. Suzuki.