ABSTRACT
Like all other human phenomena, religions constantly change over time. They change in response to new circumstances. They change as a result of new perceptions and interpretations by succeeding generations. Just as do other human phenomena, religions change particularly when they come into intimate contact with other religions. Even when the contact is contemporaneously interpreted only in terms of conflict (e.g., the Christian religious wars, and the Confucian disdain of Buddhism in China), religions—and other cultural phenomena—borrow and learn from each other.
