 The aforementioned M. L. Gordon had claimed that an experiential conversion—“a deep personal loathing of sin” or awareness of “a certain and present forgiveness of sin”—is the hallmark of the genuinely religious. That conversion experience, he maintained, lends Christianity a power lacking in Japanese Buddhism, which he saw as moribund and widely discredited in modern times. Admittedly, the Christian concepts of sin and forgiveness are absent from Pure Land Buddhism. Yet, some Buddhist thinkers felt challenged to develop the practical dimension of the Pure Land tradition, even while adopting Inoue’s philosophical terminology. They accepted the Christian critique, acknowledging the Christian strength as indispensable for, in Gordon’s expression, “a living religion.”