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What Are The Issues | The Conflicts, Past and Present
Interviews and Commentaries | Noteworthy Articles
The Faiths Side-by-Side
This comparison is not meant to be an exhaustive guide but to be generally accurate to the points it addresses as it relates to comparing and contrasting members in the other faith groups and the distinguishing marks of its own. It is also not meant to even one faith out with another. Rather, it hopes to demonstrate the similarities and differences within these three faith groups as a way to inform and promote discussion.
Christianity |
Islam |
Judaism |
|
| Starting Point | Jesus, about 33 C.E. | Muhammad, about 610 C.E. | Abraham, date unclear |
| Abraham | Father of faith through Judaism | Father of faith through Ishmael | Father of faith through Isaac |
| God | Creator/Father/Triune, personal and accessible | Creator/Father/One, personal and accessible | Creator/Father/One, personal and accessible |
| Jesus | Son of God/Son of Man, died, buried, raised, at the right hand of the Father | Prophet, mentioned in the Qur’an, fully human, died | A teacher, fully human, died |
| Holy Spirit | A member of the Trinity, the Comforter after Jesus leaves | Messenger from God / Gabriel | Somehow part of God, a presence |
| Mary | Mother of God | Mother of Jesus / significant | Mother of Jesus / insignificant |
| Prayer | Commanded and practiced by Jesus, a way to communicate with God | One of the Pillars of faith, a way to communicate with God | Integral and longstanding through Psalms and other scripture, a way to communicate with God |
| Heaven | Where God dwells, the place where followers of Jesus go when they die | The home of God, the place where followers of Muhammad go when they die | Where God dwells, the place where the righteous go when they die |
| Hell | Prepared for the Devil and his angels, and after God’s judgment, non-followers go here, a place of eternal torment by fire | A place of eternal punishment and torment. Non-followers go here as well as perhaps those followers who have insufficient good deeds | Where the unrighteous go |
| Conversion | Through confession of sins and believing in Jesus. Baptism often follows | Through believing in God and his prophet Muhammad. Every person is born Muslim so conversion is considered reversion | Through instruction in Jewish laws, agreement to do the commandments, and circumcision (baptism for women) |
| Nation | The Roman Emperor Constantine adopts Christianity as the empire’s religion in about 312 C.E. | During Muhammad’s lifetime and early on spread through the Umayyad Dynasty | With Saul, in 1020 B.C.E. who was anointed the first king of Israel by Samuel |
| Holy Writings | The Bible, Old and New Testaments | The Qur’an, its 114 chapters | The Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) specifically and also the rest of the Old Testament |
| Holy Days | Depends on affiliation but all Christians celebrate the birth of Christ and his death and resurrection (Advent and Christmas, Lent and Easter). Pentecost could also be included | Two major ones: Eid ul Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan, the time of fasting, and Eid ul Adha which remembers Abraham and his sacrifice of Isaac | There are three major ones: Rosh Hashanah marks the start of the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur is the “Day of Atonement” set aside to recognize one’s sin, and Passover celebrates the deliverance from slavery in Egypt |
| Martyrdom | Central in the sense of dying with Christ. During the early days of the church physical martyrdom was more commonplace | Central because one needs to be prepared to die for the sake of the Prophet. Taken to extreme this incorporates jihad (struggle) in violent ways | A way to sanctify a name of God, often seen in history as persecution |
