The three religions, namely Christianity, Islam and Judaism are together referred to as Abrahamic religions. These three religions are religious communities that have been semantically originated from Judaism that have been descended from the Judaism of the old Israelites who used to worship the God of Abraham. The legacy of Abraham began to spread through the religion of Christianity which was adopted in Roman Empire by Emperor Charlemagne in the 4th Century. The legacy of Abraham was further spread by Islam through the formation of the various Islamic Empires in the seventh century. The initial principles that are mutual to all forms of Abrahamic religions, spread in this world through the Judaism in the seventh century (Before Christ Era). Christianity started from 1st century BC and lastly arrived Islam in the 7th century Christian era. So far as the global statistics of 2015 is concerned, about 55% of the entire population of the world (that is about 3.6 billion of people). Out of the population following Abrahamic religion, 33% of the people follow Christianity, 21% of the people follow Islam and Judaism is followed by about 0.2% of the people.
Discussion
As per the suggestions of Eickelman (2017), the term Abrahamic religion refers that all these three religions were being derived from one unique spiritual source. Paul, the Apostle of Christian religion have stated that Abraham is the father of everyone. Again the Quranic term millat Ibrahim implies that Islam religion perceives itself as standing epitome of the customs and the religious traditions of Abraham. Lastly, the Judaists claim that one among three fathers who are Biological Patriarchs is Abraham other than Jacob as well as Isaac. All these three religions claim that they have descended from Abraham in various ways. It is stated that the Torah records the fact that Abraham is the direct ancestor of Israelites from the end of Isaac. Who was in turn born to Sarah as promoted in the Genesis. Again, the Islamise legacy believes that Muhammad who was an Arab is actually one descendent of Ishmael, who was son to Abraham. Based on the Jewish tradition, Ishmael’s decedents, the Ishmaelite are equated with the Arabians. However, Hildebrandt (2015), states that although all three religions have a basis of commonality in terms of history and theology, there are many underlying problems. On one hand where there is commonality and sameness among the three stated religions, in bigger measure, the ancestry which they share is peripheral to their own foundational beliefs and hence there are crucial differences. One example can be provided here. The common beliefs among the Christians like that of Incarnation, resurrection of Christ as well as that of Trinity are rejected by the Islamise or the Judaists. Again, Judaism as well as Islam have some primary beliefs that are similar, but on the other hand, the Christians do not share the beliefs. Those are monotheism and even the adherence to a set of divine regulations (Idel & McGinn, 2016). Moreover, there are some key beliefs shared by the Islam and Christianity like prophetic as well as Messianic position that is attributed to Jesus Christ, are not at all accepted by the Judaists.
Tanakh, the most primary text of Judaism, draws a picture of the relationship between God and the Israelites (Reeves & Reed, 2018). The religion hails Abraham as the first Hebrew, who is also the father of all Jewish people. The great-grandson of Abraham was Judah from whose name the religion derives its name from. The Christianity made its advent as a small sect from among the Judaists and began to spread with Jesus. Initially viewed as the messiah, after his death, Jesus was viewed as the “God Incarnate”. As Moritz et al. (2017), states, the Christians believes that when time ends, Jesus would return again on the Judgement day and re-establish Earth as the abode of God. After several periods of relative peace as well as alternative prosecution passed, vis-à-vis, the Roman authorities under various administrations, Christianity came to be the state church in the whole of the Roman empire in 380, however, since its beginning, Christianity have been split into different churches (Nirenberg, 2014). The Byzantine rulers made a great effort to unify the whole Christendom, although the attempt eventually failed. In the latter part of the 16th century, the rise and development of the proletariats further segregated the Christendom into many other denominations.
Lastly, talking of Islam, it is basically a philosophy that is founded under the guidelines of the Quran. Muhammad is being considered as the supreme among all the Islamic prophets, however, Islam texts reveal that every prophet preached Islam thereby framing a back story for the advent of the religion, recognizing prophets from Judaism as well as Christianity along with others. The teachings and the sayings in the Quran are reflected as the words of Allah (Norenzayan, 2016). The conception of god under Islam is unitary and this conception is called Tawhid.
Monotheism is the popular belief of almost all the religions under Abrahamic religions. All the three religions that are under focus here, preaches strictly that God is unique, who rules, loves, judges as well as punishes as well as forgives. In this context, Ray et al. (2014), states that there is a slight deviation in Christianity, which although does not believe in three gods, have a strong belief in the Trinitarian principle or the position of three persons or hypostases. However, the strict and ardent followers of monotheism, that are the Jewish and the Islamise. That is why, Islam typically views Christianity to be polytheistic. The manifestation of Jesus is also different for the various religions. The followers of Islam as well as Christianity have reverence towards Jesus Christ (Isa in Arabic). The Christians have a perception that Jesus is their saviour and God Incarnate. Muslims view Isa (other name for Jesus) as one of the prophets of Islam and a messiah.
However, there is unanimity among all the three religions regarding the presence of one supreme godhead, who has created the whole universe and is the ruler of history, who is liable to send prophets as well as messengers to reveal the divine will. Another unanimous belief is that one day the intervention of God in human history would ultimately take place and that would be the time of last judgement.
The Christians, Islam as well as the Judaists vary in their rituals also. Baptism as well as the Holy Communion are the main rituals of Christianity. However, the five most important rituals namely Shahadah, Zakat, Hajj, Sawm and Salat are pillars of Islam (Papaconstantinou & Schwartz, 2016). Lastly, the Barmitzvah and the Sabbath are the most important.
The Christianity and Islam always varies on the concept of original sin. Christians believe that we human have a natively sinful nature owing to the rebellion of our common ancestor, Adam. In sharp contrast, the concept of original sin is not present in Islam (Peters, 2018). They believe that every man is born sinless. However the weakness in human nature, leads man towards sin.
Conclusion
These three religions that essentially are acknowledged as Abrahamic religion, have gone through evolution through ages. The original scriptures of all three religions have been destroyed to quite some extent many a times. However, the customary beliefs of these three religions about the role of Christ, the concept of monotheism and the acknowledgement of Abraham makes them somewhat similar in approach. However major differences still exist. Currently Globalisation have had its impact on all these religions and the stringency in the religious ethics of all religions have been slackened. The approach of religion have now become much more humane. The conception that religion is for man and that man is not for religion, have gained ground. Although, conflicts regarding supremacy of religion is the greatest form of terror, however, it is the most common scenario and the whole concept of religious war dates back from the Crusades. Nevertheless, none of the religions conspicuously despises the other religions and there is harmonious coexistence of all the three religions.
Reference List
Eickelman, D. F. (2017). Islam and the Languages of Modernity. In Multiple modernities (pp. 119-136). Routledge.
Hildebrandt, A. (2015). Christianity, Islam and modernity: Explaining prohibitions on homosexuality in UN Member States. Political Studies, 63(4), 852-869.
Idel, M., & McGinn, B. (Eds.). (2016). Mystical union in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: An ecumenical dialogue. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Moritz, S., Göritz, A. S., Kühn, S., Schneider, B. C., Krieger, E., Röhlinger, J., & Zimmerer, S. (2017). Muslims love Jesus, too? Corrective information alters prejudices against Islam. Pastoral Psychology, 66(1), 65-77.
Nirenberg, D. (2014). Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today. University of Chicago Press.
Norenzayan, A. (2016). Theodiversity. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 465-488.
Papaconstantinou, A., & Schwartz, D. L. (2016). Conversion in Late Antiquity: Christianity, Islam, and Beyond: Papers from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, University of Oxford, 2009-2010. Routledge.
Peters, F. E. (2018). The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam (Vol. 34). Princeton University Press.
Ray, D. E., Berman, S. L., Johnson-Cramer, M. E., & Van Buren III, H. J. (2014). Refining normative stakeholder theory: insights from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 11(4), 331-356.
Reeves, J., & Reed, A. Y. (2018). Enoch from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, Volume I: Sources From Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Oxford University Press.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download
