Judaism, as the oldest of the three Abrahamic religions, shares with Christianity the first five books of the bible, called the Torah, the revelation God made to Moses. Judaism's theology relies on a monotheistic belief in a God who is moral and cares about humanity known as Yahweh. In Judaism, the human dis-ease is an exile from God/paradise caused by the willfulness or disobedience of the people. Jewish mystics debate whether this exile is existential or psychological, although personally I've always wondered if it is not both. The only way to return to God (teshuva) from exile is to follow the Mitzvot, or commandments. While certain commandments were set out by God, or at least by the people who claimed God spoke through them, Judaism would not be what it is today without Rabbinic law, called the Talmud. These are the laws set out by the rabbis who commented on, interpreted or narrowed God's often ambiguous word. There are 613 commandments in Rabbinic law. Smith uses "the four ethical precepts of the Ten Commandments" to explain why Rabbinic law is necessary. The precepts "enacted to control the four principal danger zones in human relationships, which are force, wealth, sex, and speech," include "Thou shalt not murder" and "Thou shalt not bear false witness" and have a larger reason than morality. They serve a purpose within the community. Murder is an issue, not just because of the moral implications but also because it can start "blood feuds that rip the community apart." Bearing false witness, or in the common parlance of our times, lying, is an issue because there are times, such as during a trial, when the judge or judges must know the truth to rule fairly, and lying prevents justice. Justice is a main concern within the Jewish faith. Smith finishes, "[The Ten Commandments] do not speak the final word on the topics they address. They speak the words that must be spoken if other words are to follow." The Talmud gives reason to why certain behaviors or rituals are necessary. For example, the Talmud explains that making a blessing over a meal before you eat is important because to fail to do so robs God of his property. The Talmud is second only to the Torah in importance. Smith describes Judaism in an interesting analogy. He says, "Judaism is like a circle that is whole but divisible into sections that converge in a common center. No individual section is required, but the more sections one embodies, the more Jewish one will be.
Christianity has three major divisions-Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism-with major ideological differences. While Christianity focuses on the life of Jesus, and his power as The Son of God, historical facts about Jesus are hard to come by. However, the Bible tells much about his birth and his life as an adult, though the middle years are skipped. Supposedly born of a virgin, his was a miraculous birth, something he shares in common with the Buddha and Vishnu. He spent the adult life we know of in the Bible (1 to 3 years) teaching about the love of God and healing the sick and infirm. (And occasionally the dead.) This drew the attention of the Romans (not a good thing) and the hostility of the Jewish authority. Of course the latter was exacerbated by his throwing the money changers out of the temple in what I would call a fantastic display of a kind of anarchic rage. (It's also my favorite story of Jesus. The whole last week of his life was pretty great. Jesus was kind of a Badass.) It was this kind of action that lead to his crucifixion. According to the accounts by his disciples in the Bible he was resurrected three days after death, appearing to them in a different way, to some by moving through solid substances and to others by shows of corporeality. Smith notes that "resurrection was not resuscitation." This conclusion of his life on Earth followed the supernatural quality of his birth and the teaching/healing he did during his adult life.
In the Abrahamic traditions Jesus was the first to state the Golden Rule and his main focus was Love; Love God, love thy neighbor, love thy enemy, etc. Smith notes, "Why should we love not only our friends but our enemies? Because God lets the evilhearted in on his sunshine. To us, Jesus' summons to unstinting love seems unrealistic, but he would have said that that is because we do not perceive- or better, truly experience- the constant, unstinting love that God directs toward us." In Christianity the human disease is Sin. We commit Sin because of our carnal nature. The only way to reach salvation is to accept and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. While dogma and interpretation of the Bible changes from denomination to denomination and hostility increases between some sects and decreases between others, these essential beliefs are the same.
Islam, the youngest but arguably the most widespread of the Abrahamic religions, is also often the most violent in modern times. This violence is spurred by a few of the more extremist Muslim sects. Sadly, all of Islam is under attack by the fearful and ignorant. The word "Islam" has a dual meaning, peace but also surrender. Submission to God is of the utmost importance and they put stress on the fact that there is only the one God. 'Allah' literally translates as "The God." Muslims believe that God gave revelations to Moses, Abraham, and Jesus. When those revelations failed to some extent God sent an angel to Muhammad in the 7th century to receive his next, and his last, revelation. For the next 23 years Muhammad received the revelation and spent his life proclaiming these new words of God. Just as Jesus was met with hostility by his compatriots, so too was Muhammad. He fled from Mecca to lead a smaller city to the North called Yathrib. He was pursued by the Meccan leaders but evaded them. Yathrib soon became known as Medina, The City. Muhammad proved to be a kind, fair and unassuming Master who earned the love of the Medinese. The Meccans attacked Medina and eventually were conquered. Muhammad rededicated the cubical temple in the middle of Mecca called the Ka'ba to Allah. It became the geographical center of Islam and the city of Mecca converted. Two years later Muhammad died. His death lead to a split in Islam based on who should succeed him. While these two factions, the Shi'itte and the Sunni, disagree, the basic concept is the same. The human condition is pride or willfulness which is caused by our willful nature. The only way to reach Paradise is to surrender to the will of Allah. This means following the rules set out in the Koran. Muslim life is directed by a strict set of guidelines. The way Muslims deal with God is laid out in a set of these guidelines called The Five Pillars of Islam. The first of these pillars is Shahadah, a confession of faith that is but a single sentence: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet." The second pillar is prayer, which is done five times a day and includes prostrating oneself in a physical show of submission to Allah. Smith notes, "the prayers stress praise and gratitude while including supplication." The third pillar of Islam is charity, a standard in most religions. Two and half percent of one's annual earnings is what the Koran denotes as necessary charity. The fourth pillar of Islam is the observance of Ramadan, the holy month, during which the revelation to Muhammad began and was also (ten years later) the month of his migration to Medina. During this month any Muslim who is healthy, not involved in crises, and is able fasts from dawn to sunset. Fasting includes all forms of food, drink, smoke, and sexual activity. The fifth pillar is pilgrimage. Once during the life of any Muslim who is physically and financially able, they must go to Mecca where the revelation to Muhammad began. The other guidelines, the social teachings, are explicitly laid out in the Koran. Smith writes, "the Koran is a legal compendium. It joins faith and politics, religion and society, inseparably. Islamic law is of enormous scope." Smith goes on to summarize these teachings into four sections of life. Economics, which includes prohibiting the taking of interest, the status of women, to whom the Koran grants a share of inheritance, equality in education, suffrage, and vocation, as well as requiring the free consent of a woman before you can be married. The biggest strides the Koran made were within the bonds of marriage. Not only were wives able to instigate divorce, which the Koran does not forbid but sanctions only as a last resort, but the husbands were required to present the wife at the marriage with a sum, on which they had both agreed, of money that should they divorce the wife would keep in its entirety. There is also race relations, which the Koran stresses should focus on racial equality and lastly, the use of force, which has a slightly complicated directive. The Koran does not preach pacifism, as Christianity does, in fact it allows punishment reflecting the full force of the wrong done. Smith makes an interesting point that if you extend this principle to the collective group of people within a certain place, religion, or group you then have the idea of jihad or Holy War. Which the Koran endorses, first on an individual spiritual level. However, there are strict edicts on what constitutes punishment. Smith writes, "The Koran's definition of a Holy War is virtually identical with that of a Just War in the Canon Law of Catholicism. It must either be defensive or to right a horrendous wrong. Islam has certainly had its share of extremist zealots that make the entire religion look bad, as has Christianity. And both religions do their own share of maniacal proselytizing, but there is such beauty in both. With Islam, this beauty is promulgated in the devotion to God and the right path. It is devastating that such beauty was hijacked along with those planes on 9/11.
I have to admit that I have thought since I was a child of Christianity and Islam as mutations of the religion that proceeded them; Christianity as a mutation of Judaism and Islam as a mutation of Christianity. And, I believe, while there is some truth to that, it is not the total sum of these religions. While the Abrahamic religions share a similar foundation and ostensibly the same God, they also have vast differences which begets misunderstanding and leads to many questions. For instance; Is the God that argued with Abraham the same as the God who gave "his only begotten son" to wash away our sins in the blood of the crucifixion? And are either of those Gods the same as the God who sent an angel to Muhammad and told him to "Proclaim!" (among other things) La ilaha illa 'llah? And if they are then how do you explain the different methods with which God handles his people and the different, often contradictory, information he gives out. And if it's not the same God, which is the REAL God, or is there a God at all? There is no way to categorically answer these questions. This is where Faith comes in. Which is perhaps why these religions are unique in the savage ferocity with which they adamantly insist on the singular truth of their belief system, which often leads to massive tragic bouts of violence. The Israeli-Arab altercations have been well documented, as have the conflicts between different sects of Islam and between Islam and the Christian west, yet one never hears of Buddhists killing Taoists or Confucians bombing Hindu gatherings. So what is it about the Abrahamic religions that instigates this inexorable behavior? Is it just strength of faith? Or is there something more, something inherent in the psyche of these peoples that makes them more prone to violence?
While it is unlikely that these religions will ever share an affectionate alliance it is possible that through the study of our differences we will find similarities that can eventually lead to a peaceful association. I won't hold my breath, but I will certainly pray to whichever Deity is listening to help instill peace in the hearts of all people.
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