Engaged Christianity

Thich Nhat Hahn (1926-2022), a popular Buddhist monk, peace activist, and founder of Buddhist communities, who taught and wrote extensively about Buddhism, offered "Fourteen Precepts for Engaged Buddhism.”1 Inspired by these precepts, Brian McLaren, who has written a number of books about Christianity, adapted Nhat Hahn’s precepts and offered his own “Fourteen Precepts of Just and Generous Christianity”2

In reviewing these two lists of precepts, you will observe that Nhat Hahn’s list includes fourteen actions to refrain from doing, such as “Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, . . . . Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break,. . . . Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. . . . "Do not kill . . . .” This list is presented in language that is similar to the call to refrain from committing certain negative ("thou shall not") actions, such as we find in the Ten Commandments and elsewhere in scripture.

By comparison, McLaren’s list of precepts includes fourteen positive actions, dispositions, or character traits pertaining to humility, lifelong learning, gentleness, compassion, generosity, love, serenity, reconciliation, communication, justice, vocation, non-violence, property interests, and our body. McLaren’s list aligns more closely with the dispositions of the Holy Spirit’s gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord, and the Holy Spirit's fruits of charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity. (CCC, nos. 1830-1832; cf. Isa 11:1-2; Gal. 5:22-23 (Vulg.)).

We invite you to reflect on these lists and how these precepts may apply in your life. What precepts do you find from your experience to be true and beneficial? Which precepts do you need to develop further in order to engage more fully with others through the acts and dispositions mentioned by McLaren, through applying the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, or from refraining in performing those acts listed by Nhat Hahn?

  1. Thich Nhat Hahn, Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism, (rev. ed.) (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1993).
  2. Brian D, McLaren,The Great Spiritual Migration: How the World’s Largest Religion Is Seeking a Better Way to Be Christian (New York: Convergent, 2016), 211-213.