Abstract

Mahayana Buddhism has attempted to elaborate doctrines of incarnation. This paper will first examine the philosophical/doctrinal context in which such doctrines are elaborated by offering a brief overview of Buddhism’s repudiation of theism. It then discusses both denaturalized/philosophical and naturalized/narrative versions of the doctrine of incarnation as it is found in both the exoteric and the Tantric (esoteric) traditions of the Mahayana texts. It concludes with a defense of the coherence of the Docetism found in such texts. (edited)