An Overview of Religious Traditions: Christianity, Islam & Philosophy

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Christianity and Islam, two dominant religious traditions, in relation to Greek philosophy. It highlights their distinct origins, beliefs, and practices, such as the Christian belief in Jesus as the Son of God versus Islam's strong opposition to this concept. Th...Read More

Running head: RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS 1
Religious Traditions
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RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS 2
Executive Summary
In the beginning, the faith of Abraham and the Greek philosophy were closely
intertwined. This is very true if we go back to the Greek philosophy or Islam or Christianity.
Christianity and Islam are the major dominant religions within the world. The religions started
differently. Both of them have different beliefs and teachings. For instance Christianity believes
that Jesus is the Son of God while Islam strongly opposes that. Islamic religion beliefs that their
religion started with Mohammed while Christianity on the other side believes that religion
started with Jesus Christ. Islamic religion belief that Allah is the one who gives life while the
Christians believe that God gives life.

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Table of Contents
 Introduction……………..4
 Greek philosophy in relation to Christianity and Islam……..4-5
 Christianity as a religion………..5
 Islamic religion………..6-7
 Conclusion………….7
 References…………8

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Introduction
Religious tradition is the structure of symbols that acts to create powerful motivations
within human beings through the formulation of conceptions that are for general order of the
existence plus clothing (Kadar, Scott, Hipp, Belavich, Butfer, Rye, Zinnbauer, 2015). The
conceptions are of factuality in such a way that the moods plus the motivations seem to uniquely
realistic. Religion is also categorized as something that anthropological in nature. Most of the
religions have the narratives, traditions and the sacred histories which tend to give the meaning
of life. They also tend to spring religious laws and morality from their own ideas towards the
human nature (Steadman, Palmer, 2015). It is estimated that there are around 4,200 religions
within the whole world. There are four main religious traditions within the world. The traditions
are; Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism. Religion has different appeals (Johnstone,
2015). For instance it uses revelation instead of the reason as the source for evidence. It also
focuses on sacred distinction that is worldly in nature. Religion also appeals to the emotional
feelings. This is achieved through the reenactment of ritual. Another point is that, it is seen to be
more of community emphasize rather than the individual thought. Therefore an exploration will
be done showing the two major religious traditions within the world and their unique features
and how they are different from each other in relation to the philosophical tradition for the
Greeks.
Greek Philosophy in relation to Christianity and Islam
Since the time when religion started, Abrahamic faith and the Greek philosophy have
always closely intertwined. This is very true even if we refer back to the Greek philosophy,
Christianity or Islam. Therefore, the Greek philosophy gives proceeds that are lengthy towards
religion. The purpose of the proceedings is to claim how religion and faith cannot be separated.

RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS 5
Therefore, the Greek philosophies came up with different teachings and beliefs that are used in
both Islam and Christian religion today.
Christian Religion
Christianity bases its teachings on Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This is the most dominant
religion the world. The religion strongly believes that Jesus is the real Son of God. They also
believe he is a savior for humanity whose revelation was on the Messianic coming. This believe
is seen in the version of Old Testament Bible (Sanneh, 2015). Christianity started as the Judaic
sect through the apostles of Jesus Christ. The apostles spread all over the world as commissioned
by the Holy Spirit so as to spread the gospel (Johnson, P. 2012). Christianity holds different
beliefs and revelations towards the Bible. This is why within Christianity we have different sub-
religions. The sub-religions consists of Orthodox, Catholics and the Protestants. Christians have
a strong belief in God as the father. They also belief in the Holy Spirit. The Christians also have
a strong believe that there is life after death. This is because Jesus died and resurrected within
three days. Therefore, they strongly believe that after the return of Jesus Christ, everybody will
resurrect from the death. They also believe in Church plus communion of the saints. They also
see the second coming of Jesus Christ will be the day of Judgement. The Bible is their center of
guidance. After the death of Jesus Christ, Apostle Paul developed the scriptures known as New
Testament. This was accepted by a Roman Empire. It incorporated the Jewish elements with the
elements of ritual celebration for the death of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Christians mostly refer
everything to these teachings. These leads to having different characteristics of other religion as
its going to be explained below.

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Islamic Religion
Islam is the other religion which is very unique in nature. The religion was started by the
Arab merchant who was called Muhammad. Muhammed had the belief that he was the fulfilment
of the tradition that ranged from that of Abraham through that of Moses and finally that of Jesus
Christ. He believed that he represented the relationship that is between the community and the
main God, Allah (Aslan, 2011). The teachings of Islam are recorded in a special document
known as the Qur’an. The religion is widely spread in Middle East, Europe and Africa. The word
Islam has the meaning of “surrender, submission, commitment and peace.” Therefore, the
Muslims believe that through their religion, one can be able to attain the complete peace that will
occur through the voluntary submission towards the divine will. The Muslims have six main
beliefs. They have a strong believe in Allah. They believe that Allah gives life. They also believe
in the Angels. They see the Angels as the helpers of Allah. The Muslims belief in holy books.
These holy books were sent to the prophets. This included Torah which is believed to be for
Prophet Moses. They have a strong believe that Torah was sent and revealed to them through
Moses. According to them, the Bible was revealed through Prophet Jesus. On the other hand,
they believe that the Koran was revealed to them by Prophet Muhammad. The other main belief
is that there is existence of judgement day. They also say that there is life after death as the
Christians also belief. Doing of good deeds makes them come closer to their God. The Muslims
also believe in Noah, Jesus, Abraham, Moses, Ishmael, Isaac Muhammed and Jacob. However,
despite them having a belief in Jesus, they don’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God above. They
also have a belief in the divine decree whereby they see God as the powerful being hence
nothing can happen without Him knowing. Despite him being powerful, he has given freedom to
all human beings because at the end everybody will be charged according to his or her deeds on

RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS 7
earth. The Muslims have five pillars of life which guide them. This is different from Christians
because for them they lack those pillars. The first pillar is that of declaration for faith. This helps
to bear the witness that truly there is only one God, Allah. The second pillar is that of ritual
prayer. The prayers are usually offered while facing Mecca. They are done in Arabic language.
The third pillar is that of alms tax. The pillar specifies that 2.5% of the wealth for everyone
should be channeled to the poor plus the needy. The fourth one is that of fasting. This is done
within the ninth month of Islamic lunar calendar. The period is known as Ramadhan. This period
is for one to know his or her goodness and helping of the poor. This time also is dedicated for
self-discipline. The last pillar is that of pilgrimage. This is done through making the pilgrimage
for Mecca once in life. Mecca is the sacred place for the Muslims (Black, 2011).
In order to justify how religion came up and spread into the whole world, some questions
came up. The questions are as follows;
1. Who began the teachings of dynamic leader? This was done by Moses who came up with
Judaism, Siddartha who came up with Buddhism, Jesus who came up with Christianity
and Muhammad who came up with Islam as discussed above in length.
2. Which religion includes a single personal deity? This is Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Buddhism does not include the personal deity due to the personal terms.
3. Which religion has strict dietary laws? This is Judaism and Islam due to the presence of
limiting factors towards food.
4. Which religion emphasizes on the non-attachment which is of sensual desire. This is
Buddhism because of them having crucial escape towards suffering.
5. Which religion came up before Common Era? This is Judaism and Buddhism because
both of them started 1300 BCE and 500 BCE respectively.

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6. Which religion encourages prayer and meditation? This is both the four religions. They
emphasize strongly on the prayers to God and Jesus Christ.
7. Which religion prohibits the usage of images and representations? Both four religions do
not allow that because this is a sign of worshipping idols.
8. Which religion traces back to Abraham? Judaism, Islam and Christianity are all traced
back to Abraham.
9. Which religion finds the expression in collection of the sacred texts? Despite all the
religion beginning with the oral traditions, they eventually came up with the scriptures
that could guide them on their day to day activities.
10. Which religion puts more emphasize on resurrection after dieng? Christianity and Islam
emphasize on this because Jesus died and resurrected at the end.
Conclusion
It is clear that there is a difference between Christianity and Islamic religion. The
religions also have things which are similar. One of the common characteristic is that they
worship one God. Through religion, one is able to live a religious life and dedicate his or her life
to God. Therefore, religion has played a great role towards sharpening the lives of human beings
(Koopmans, 2015).

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References
Aslan, R. (2011). No god but God: The origins, evolution, and future of Islam. Random House.
Black, A. (2011). History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present: From
the Prophet to the Present. Edinburgh University Press.
Kadar, J. L., Scott, A. B., Hipp, K., Belavich, T. G., Butfer, E. M., Rye, M. S., ... & Zinnbauer,
B. J. (2015). Religion and spirituality: Unfuzzying the fuzzy. In Sociology of
Religion (pp. 29-34). Routledge.
Johnstone, R. L. (2015). Religion in society: A sociology of religion. Routledge.
Johnson, P. (2012). History of Christianity. Simon and Schuster.
Koopmans, R. (2015). Religious fundamentalism and hostility against out-groups: A comparison
of Muslims and Christians in Western Europe. Journal of Ethnic and Migration
Studies, 41(1), 33-57.
Steadman, L. B., & Palmer, C. T. (2015). Supernatural and natural selection: religion and
evolutionary success. Routledge.
Sanneh, L. (2015). West African christianity: the religious impact. Orbis Books.