WORLD RELIGION

World Religion

World Religion

The similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam

While new Islamic-related movements still appear, as in the heretical movement of the prophet Maitatsine that has clashed violently with the government of Nigeria since the late 1970s, their paucity as compared with those related to Christianity requires some explanation. Since Islam lacks the distinction between Church and state, or religion and politics, there was more control of religious developments in Muslim areas. At the same time individuals had more freedom to achieve religious status or leadership than within the tighter organization of Christian missions and churches with demanding requirements for ordination, and strong moral discipline. It is also possible to become a Muslim through easier stages than with Christian conversion and baptism.

Nevertheless, there are many similarities between the movements these two faiths have engendered. Both have notable examples of new holy cities, often with the tomb of the founder, and serving as places of major festivals and of pilgrimage. Both have contributed to tribal revival and renewal: the Mourides for the Wolof, Limamu for the Lebu and Shembe's Nazarite Church among the Zulu. There is a tendency in both towards regarding the founder as a Messiah or Mahdi, but this usually fades with time, as it did with Limamu and with Shembe and Kimbangu. The passing of leadership by lineage descent is common in both, likewise disputes over the leadership and over property and money. In ritual and ethical matters there is much in common: the removal of footwear for worship, the emphasis upon prayer, the use of water for purification, the importance of dreams and visions, discipline through fasting and food and other taboos and the acceptance of polygamy.

Early Christianity's Struggle to Explain Jesus to a Non-Jewish World

As Christianity gained ascendancy so did its war of words against Judaism. At first, Jewish leaders were not convinced of the threat of the new religion, but as Christianity's power and attacks grew, Jewish writers responded in kind to the assault of their Christian counterparts. During the first thousand years of Christianity, Christians burgeoned in numbers and political power while Jewish populations and political influence declined, although physical attacks o the Jews remained the exception rather than the rule (Smith, 1991).

Confucianism as a religion

The teaching of Confucius did not stop with his death. Many of his students took it as their mission-like responsibility to transmit the knowledge they had learned from their master and to put into practice the visionary grand scheme Confucius had laid down. The various themes examined by Confucius and his disciples, and the issues discussed in their conversations, also opened a way for their followers to develop different understandings and interpretations. Emerging from this, eight different transmission lines became distinguished during the time of the Warring States period (475-221 BCE). Of these lines, one was supposed to be under the leadership of the grandson of Confucius, Zi Si (483-402 BCE), and Mencius (371-289 BCE), and another was headed by Xunzi (310-211 ...