Introduction
The three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are commonly known as Abraham’s religions because of their various similarities in several dimensions. The increased development in historical research has led to more vigorous works as researchers find to unveil and gain a deep understanding of different religions (Ferrari, 2019). Sometimes the research studies have provided conflicting views with popular perceptions showing that there is a need for more comparative research on these religions. This study will research the ancient connection between Islam, Christianity and Buddith formed on holy books and Jesus’s nature. Lastly, it will evaluate the main problems that impact them and how globalization has changed their relationship.
Timeline Showing the Historical Relationship between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam’s Beginnings
The history of the three religions began in 2000 – 1700 B.C.E when Abraham, the spiritual founder of the three religions, was born in Southern Mesopotamia. God then chose him to spread the message of monotheism (Molloy, 2020). However, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, could not conceive, so he allowed her to become pregnant for Hagar, an Egyptian servant, and they named the son Ishmael (Ferrari, 2019). Later, Abraham gave birth to Sarah to a son named Isaac, who gave birth to Jacob. The Christians and Jews claim to be decent from Isaac and Jacob, while the Muslims descended from Ishmael.
In 1280 B.C.E, Moses moved the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, leading to a significant festival commemorated by the Jews. In 4 B.C.E, Jesus Christ was born and became the central figure for Christians. However, he was a Jew born in a Nazareth in Galilee (Firestone, 2019). Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Christians relate to Jesus as God’s son, while Muslims still acknowledge Jesus as a prophet. In his 20s, Jesus started spreading the kingdom of God and was crucified in Jerusalem at 32 years (Molloy, 2020). Christians believe he rose on the third day and ascended to heaven to prepare a home for them.
The Nature of Jesus
The three religions have a special connection to their God, Islam through Mohammed, Judaism through Moses, and Christians through Jesus. Traditionally, Christians used to believe in their covenant with God through covenants; however, the coming of Jesus Christ made them feel more superior to Jews (Molloy, 2020). Thus, Christians believe they have a new covenant with God through the New Testament. Islam also acknowledges the presence of Judaism and Christianity by sharing their biblical prophets, especially Mohammed. According to Islam, Mohammed was the last prophet to be sent by God and expressed Allah’s will (Vitkovic, 2018). Muslims believe that Mohammed is just a messenger of Allah and not a son of God as Christians do. In addition, Mohammed was given the Koran because he could not read and write, so he memorized and later relayed the readings to his learners. Later, they wrote down the revelations in the Koran and the main pillars of Islam when he died.
Christians believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Messiah. Although, for a long period in the past, Christians embraced Judaism views, after the death of Jesus, they started distinguishing themselves from Jews (Vitkovic, 2018). He came to spread the gospel and claimed to be the son of God. The New Testament, brought by Jesus, marked the beginning of a new covenant with the Christians. This implies that both Islam and Christianity believe in Jesus; however, they have different perceptions of his identity.
Social Justice
All three religions believe in ethical monotheism, whereby they strive to ensure that people worship the same God. In the past, before the three religions were invented, each nation had its own gods, and the rules of those gods did not apply to people from other gods (Boyd, 2019). If a person in a foreign land was from another kingdom or country, they were not necessarily expected to follow the rules of the gods in the foreign land. However, monotheism became a significant breakthrough in humankind because it impacted how they treated each other (Molloy, 2020). There were no single ethics for humankind or the whole earth.
The Hebrews introduced the concept of one God, leading to many improvements in social injustices that were happening before. Since all the three religions, Christian, Islam, and Judaism, came from the traditional Hebrew through Abraham, they advocated that there is one God who created all humans (Boyd, 2019). Thus people were expected to live in harmony, love, and show justice to one another since they were created in the image of God. The acceptance of one God guaranteed that various God-given principles were applied universally. Although the three religions supported slavery in the ancient world, later, they adopted dignity, and all agreed that humans deserve various rights and freedoms to maintain their consciousness (Oni, 2021). For instance, slavery existed in Egypt, a Muslim nation, until Moses came to deliver the people of Israel.
Challenges That Affect How Islam, Christianity, And Judaism Relate
One of the most distinct challenges affecting how the three religions relate is their perception of their prophets. According to Judaism, there were no other prophets after Moses. They do not ascribe to the idea of Jesus and Mohammed, making them disagree with Islam and Christians. Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God and the last messenger since he was conceived of the Holy Spirit (Molloy, 2020). Christians believe in the New Testament, which Jesus and his apostles wrote, and some of the New Testament teachings rebuke the ones in the Old Testament closely followed by Jews. For example, in the New Testament, Jesus claims that the greatest commandment is love, whereas there were Ten Commandments in the Old Testament (Molloy, 2020). According to Islam, Mohammed was not the son of God but rather a prophet who was sent to spread the message of Allah (Alma’itah & Haq, 2022). Thus, the issue of Jesus was a major challenge for the three religions because it determined how they would perceive his teachings. While Islam and Christians followed his word, Jews did not acknowledge him.
The other challenge that affects their relationship is that Christians believe that the Jewish law is universal. They assume that the Jewish law is based on “love your neighbor as you love yourself” However, their relationship was bad, especially in a different part of Europe where Jews suffered violence and discrimination at the hands of the Christians. In ancient times, Christians and Jews were forcefully converting people using threats (Molloy, 2020). On the other hand, Islam sees Christianity and Judaism as earlier versions of Islam. For example, When Islam spread quickly in the Middle East, the church considered them a theological and political threat; hence, many attempts to reverse it, although they failed.
How Does Globalization Help or Hinder This Relationship
Globalization is a concept in which ideas, cultures, or goods can spread worldwide. As more anti-Jewish campaigns continued in Europe, most had to move to other places and cities in Latin America, such as Miami, California, and Toronto. Due to globalization, Jews have compromised and assimilated their culture with surrounding cultures through intermarriages resulting from globalization. Nowadays, Jews can be found in many parts of the world as they evaded the executions in Europe.
Globalization has had a positive impact on the relationship between Christians and Muslims. It has enabled them to share different aspects of their cultures by commemorating major events such as Christmas and the birth of Jesus (Oni, 2021). Through globalization, the slam and Christians have shared more details about each other’s religion, giving them more understanding of each other and enhancing peace. Nowadays, the two religions can intermarry and live peacefully with each other without any challenges. However, globalization has led to the profiling of Muslims as terrorists, especially in the U.S.A (Alma’itah & Haq, 2022). This shows that globalization has positively and negatively impacted the relationship between the three religions.
Conclusion
While the three religions come from the same origin, Abraham, they have had their differences, bringing about different aspects. Judaism does not believe in Jesus or Mohammed; Christians believe in Jesus as the son of God, while Islam believes in Mohammed as a prophet. However, the three religions share the common belief that there is one God; thus, all people originated from him, hence the need to love and be just to everyone. Major challenges between the three religions are their perceptions of prophets and the different laws, such as the Jewish law.
References
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Boyd, S. L. (2019). Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: The problem of “Abrahamic religions” and the possibilities of comparison. Religion Compass, 13(10). Web.
Ferrari, S. (2019). Comparative Religious Law: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. By Norman Doe. Journal of Church and State, 62(1), 160–162. Web.
Firestone, R. (2019). Muhammad, the Jews, and the Composition of the Qur’an: Sacred History and Counter-History. Religions, 10(1), 63. Web.
Molloy, M. (2020). Experiencing the world’s religions: Tradition, challenge, and change (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill. Course
Oni, I. A. (2021). A comparative analysis of selected fundamentals of Christianity and Islam. Www.preprints.org, 13(2). Web.
Vitkovic, S. (2018). The similarities and differences between Abrahamic religions. IJASOS- International E-Journal of Advances in Social Sciences, 4(11), 455–462. Web.