Comparing Women's Roles in Christianity and Islam Christianity
Concept of God:
Christians believe the image of God to be three Gods merged into one. The Trinity’s components are the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and they are all equal. Each form of God has the same attributes of all-powerful, all-knowing, always present, unchanging, and everlasting. (Dew)
Concept of Prayer:
For Christians, prayer is the foundation of their religion, but is less strict than Islam. Christian believers create and sustain a relationship with God through direct two-way communication in prayer.
The Book of Prayer and its Origins:
The Bible is composed of both the book of Judaism and the story of Jesus’ life. Various authors wrote the 66 separate books containing the word of God. These circulated independently until the Council of Hippo compiled chosen books into the one volume Bible that is used by Christians.
Date of the Book:
The dates of the books of the Bible are only approximated. The Old Testament was written from around 1250B.C. to 100B.C. and the New Testament from 40A.D. to 70A.D. The 66 books were compiled together in 390 A.D. at the Council of Hippo. ...
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Responsibilities Toward Children:
Fathers have the responsibility of ensuring the survival of the children. Mothers are responsible for the moral and social education of the children.
Concept of Sin and Repentance:
In Islam, there is no belief in original sin. All of humanity is destined for heaven unless they refuse Allah. A Muslim only has to repent and ask forgiveness to be saved by God.
The Priests/ Jurists and their Roles:
Since there is no institution like the Church in Islam, there is no official authority. So, there is no hierarchy of spiritual leaders such as priests, but each believer controls their own spirituality.
Both Christianity and Islam mirror Judaism. From Judaism, Christianity and Islam derived the doctrines of monotheism, prophecy, resurrection, and a belief in the existence of heaven and hell. Both Islam and Christianity have a holy book. Christians consider the Bible the inspired word of God, however Muslims believe that the Koran is the literal word of God. Mohammed was merely transcribing the words of Allah, much as a court reporter does. Muslims therefore attribute greater spiritual
The Christian Scriptures is the entire Christian Bible. It is composed of both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Testament. The Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is composed of several books all containing stories about Jesus, and the Christian Testament (New Testament) which contains the stories of Jesus and the earliest Christian Communities. Although these stories cannot confidently prove to us that they are true there are several distinct similarities, which are contained in nearly all of the books. These similarities are so frequent that their constant occurrence seems more than coincidence. Although these similarities occur often in the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, there are four short books included in the Christian Testament, which we must rely on to understand Jesus’ ministry and life.
The next book of the Gospels is the book of Mark. The book is believed to have been written somewhere around AD 50. The Book of Mark emphasizes
Christianity is the most widespread religion in the world with two billion followers. Many aspects of Christianity are based on Judaism (Tiemann 526). Christianity is based on the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s message to everyone is personal salvation and also promises faith and love triumphs over sin and death. The origins of Christianity are based on the book that Christians read, the Holy Bible. Christians believe the Bible is God’s word. In the Bible, God talks about The Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are agreements between God and his chosen people. Christianity is an example of monotheism. What makes up the God that Christians believe is God the Father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. The three of these makes up the Trinity of Christianity (Brown 76). Some of the Christian practices are gathering at churches for worship, fellowship and engage in the world through evangelism. One of the beliefs that Christians have is Jesus will come back to earth and take those who believe in Him back to Heaven.
“The practice of baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the second century propelled the development of the trinitarian theology” (LaDue 48). According to Collins, the trinity can be defined by three statements “1. There is only one true God. 2. This one true God exists as three distinct persons. 3. Each person is fully divine” (Collins 29-31). The three people that make up the trinity are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. First there is the Father. There are many Bible passages where God is referred to as the Father, this can be concluded because He alone created all things and His first human creation, Adam, was called the son of God. Jesus is God’s son and he was sent by his father, the Father, to offer humanity salvation from their sins. The “God of the Israelites reveals himself as a distinct, unique, superior deity who is always there. God’s being there is what defines him” (LaDue 14). The Israelites sometimes see the God Yahweh as an imitation of the trinity in the old testament, but they do not have distinct leveled personalities. Although God is distinct and unique, the idea that He is superior can be a false assumption as all the persons of the trinity have equal power and divinity. Another person of the trinity is the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit is a person. This is a common misconception of the
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
In Christianity one of their primary beliefs is the idea of a Triune God, which means the belief of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one entity not three separate beings. This would result in God being indivisible and could not be divided into three different parts for an ...
Modern scholars believe that the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was composed by four or five writers between 1000 to 400 BCE based on much older traditions. The New Testament was composed by a variety of writers between 60 to 110 CE. The contents of the New Testament were formalized by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE, and finally canonized in 382 CE (Geisler and
The conception of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam is monotheism, the belief in the existence of a single indivisible God. The three of religions maintains that there is only one God, who is active in and concerned about the world. These religions are also patriarchal, male-dominated, which has resulted in God being described as “He.” However, how Christians, Judaism and Islam conceptualize God in their respective theologies is actually quite different. In Christianity, God is the supreme creator and ruler of the universe. Christians believe God is infinite, omnipotent, all-powerful, perfect, personal, eternal, unchanging, holy, all-knowing, and all-loving. Their idea of God is shown in the belief of the Trinity. God is one, but with three aspects: God is Father, the creator, ruler, and sustainer of all life, and divine judge; God is the Son, who is Jesus, God made incarnate and savior of humanity; and the Holy Spirit, who is God working in the world. Both Muslims and Christians love and respect Jesus, however, the major difference between Islam and Christianity is the Christians insistence on the supposed divinity of Christ. In Christian scriptures, God never claimed divinity while the emphasis in the Islamic theology of God is “absolute unity;” God is sublimely one. Muslims think that by believing in the Trinity, Christians believe in three Gods. For them, God is One God. Judaism views the existence of God as a necessary prerequisite for the existence of the universe, and the existence of the universe is sufficient proof of the existence of God.
The doctrine of the Trinity, as seen in the Christian bible, is primary to the Christian faith. The word “Trinity” does not actually appear in the bible; it is a theological label meant to summarize certain teachings of certain passages of scripture, and is crucial to properly understand what God is like, how He relates to us, and how we relate to Him. It may also raise many difficult questions including what does it mean that God is a Trinity? While it is difficult for us to fully understand everything about the trinity, it is quite possible to answer questions like this one and come to a solid grasp of what it means for God to be three in one.
The Old Testament is divided into six major sections. During each of these sections, elements of Old Testament history foreshadow various New Testament themes and events. Some of these various accounts recorded in the Old Testament are prophetical in nature and foretell specific details about various events that will be fulfilled in New Testament times. Each of the six major sections carries its own unique overarching theme that will in some way tie into New Testament history and theology. The six major sections of Old Testament are: creation (Genesis 1-11), covenant (Genesis 12-50), congr...
Both Christians and Islam believe in one Supreme Being but according to Christian they call Him God while Muslims call him Allah. The two religions conceptualize God in different ways. Muslims view Allah as one God, this is emphasized through the word ‘tawhid’ which in Islam means “absolute unity”. Christians on the other hand view God as three holy beings, God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit. According to theology this is known as the holy trinity. Early Christians did not understand the meaning of the word trinity which led to the thought that they worship three gods. However, through Christian teachings the meaning of trinity is brought out through the concept of love. Love cannot exist in seclusion ’God is Love’; hence God cannot exist in one form. This is considered blas...
Although Islam and Christianity differ in major ways, they also share some similarities in their belief in God. First of all, Christianity and Islam are both monotheistic religions; worshipping only one God. While both believe in the same God, he is called by two completely different names. He is referred to as "Allah" by Muslims and "God" by Christians. The basic creed of Islam is brief: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah”.
Islam and Christianity have a vast amount of similarities and differences. Islam searches for guidance from the Qur’an and Christianity depends on faith in Jesus. Islamic faith believes in the God, Allah. Above anything else, all religious Muslims obey Allah and his commandments to obtain peace. However, Christianity puts faith in Jesus who is the son of God.
The role of women in religious scripture dictates an inferior position in society. Beginning with the creation of Adam and then Eve, as his helpmate. Her purpose was that Adam would not be lonely. This origin provides the ground work for inequality of genders on the basis of religious scripture. The roles prescribed determined that women should be in a subordinate position to man. The female role and relationship with God is defined by the various books of the Old and New Testaments, the reported actions of Jesus Christ, and finally the Qur'an.