Arthur Lillie

Arthur Lillie was a soldier in the British Army in India. While there, he became a Buddhist.cite web | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=c04DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA223&dq=%22The+Influence+of+Buddhism+on+Primitive+Christianity%22&as_brr=0 | title=The Literary World July 15 1893 |accessdate=2008-07-05] His books on religion were poorly received by scholars. [ Quote from July 15, 1893 Literary World: " [Lillie] works his theme with more industry than convincing skill or power. A wide reader without great power of mental digestion, his results are interesting but indecisive. We imagine that at many points in the vast literature gatherin around two great heroes or religious teachers there would be found resemblances or analogies more or less striking. ... What value as science these have may be shown in one, out of scores, taken at random (page 67: "'They parted my garments.' The Abbe Huc tells us (Voyages II, page 278) that on the death of the Bokte Lama his garments are cut into little strips and prized immensely." The connection between the gambling of executioner-soldiers for the victim's garments as their perquisite and the eager quest of holy relics of a saint by devout devotees is not clear to one studying the influence of Buddhism on early Christendom. Most of the remainder of Mr. Lillie's little work of 180 pages is devoted to proving that in the New Testament there is an Essene and an anti-Essene Christ; modern biographers have failed in there attempts to combine the two." ] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=uzRXxvPsylkC "The Quest of the Historical Jesus"] By Albert Schweitzer, John Bowden, 2001, ISBN 0-8006-3288-5, p.519 "The influence of Buddhism on Primitive Christianity, London 1893, is to be numbered among the fictitious works on the life of Jesus. The fictitious element consists in Jesus being made an Essene by the author, and Essenism being equated with Buddhism." ] Lillie appears to have written the original rule book for a Scottish croquet tournament, which, if so, continues to be his best-received work. [ web cite |url=http://www.scottishcroquet.org.uk/history/EarlyHistory.htm |title=The early history of theScottish Croquet Championship|accessdate=2008-07-05]

Books

*"Buddha and early Buddhism" (1881)
*"The Popular Life of Buddha: Containing an Answer to the "Hibbert Lectures" of 1881" (1883)
*"Buddhism in Christendom, Or, Jesus, the Essene" (1887)
*"The Cobra Diamond" (1890)
*"The Influence of Buddhism on Primitive Christianity" (1893)
*"Madame Blavatsky and Her "theosophy": A Study" (1895)
*"Croquet: Its History, Rules, and Secrets." (1897)
*"Croquet Up to Date: Containing the Ideas and Teachings of the Leading Players and Champions" (1900)
*"Râma and Homer: An Argument that in the Indian Epics Homer Found the Theme of His Two Great Poems" (1912)

References