 In an article for fellow missionaries explaining Amida Buddha and the Pure Land, Gordon quotes Rhys Davids in characterizing them as “hypothetical beings, the creations of a sickly scholasticism, hollow abstractions without life or reality” (“The Legend of Amida”). In the 1880s, Christian missionaries undoubtedly felt confident that to expose Pure Land teachings as “tales” unknown to Gotama would lead to the dismantling of “the most powerful sect in Japan.” Pure Land Buddhists were keenly aware of such criticism, and it may have prompted Soga and others to ponder Christian ideas in exploring the existential, religious meaning of Pure Land teachings. While temple institutions had pursued the study of Christian theology for polemical purposes, it appears that by the turn of the twentieth century, some Buddhist philosophers had gained a new confidence of their own, allowing themselves to be stimulated by Christian theological ideas.