The Use of Narratives to Express the Religious Beliefs of People in Western Religions

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The Use of Narratives to Express the Religious Beliefs of People in Western Religions

For the layman, familiarity with the major religions stems from the stories that are associated with them. Using the narratives that are derived from the sacred texts is the most prominent way in which our society identifies the Western religions. The Jewish tradition is best correlated to stories like the Exodus and the parting of the Red Seas, for example, as are the many tales of the miracles of Jesus connected to Christianity. This essay will present narratives as an easy method of providing the basic groundwork for the Western religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam because of their simplicity and easily transmittable nature. Furthermore, narratives impart many of the rules, laws, and moral fundamentals for these faiths, and are used by religious writers as a novel method of initiating discussion or providing a parallel for other narratives.

From the beginning of the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible, it is evident that the identity of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the West hails from Biblical narratives. Genesis and its two accounts of creation are an essential starting point for Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beliefs. It provides a foundation for devotees of these religions to worship their God as the ultimate creator of the heavens and earth, day and night, sun and moon, all the animals and vegetation that inhabits the world, and human beings. For Jews and Christians, God created the world in six days, taking rest on the seventh day.

However in the Islamic tradition of creation, Allah's actions on the seventh day are quite different from the Judeo-Christian beliefs. In the Koran, it states, "In six days He c...

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...the preferred method of transmitting the religious beliefs of peoples. Furthermore, our modern Western society easily portrays the identity of Christians, Jews, and Muslims through narratives in media, such as the news, movies, comic books, and television. Because of the way in which stories help people easily grasp the lessons and morals taught by religions, narratives are at the core of the teachings of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, presenting fundamentals as well as being a resource for writing upon subject matter dealing with the those theologies.

Works Cited

Buber, Martin. Hasidism and Modern Man. New York: Horizon Press, year?

The Holy Bible. New International Version. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1995.

The Koran. Trans. N. J. Dawood. New York: Penguin Books, 1997

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam Books, 1960.

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