Abrahamic religions
The Abrahamic religions are a set of monotheistic religions that respect or admire the religious figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, though the term also often encompasses several smaller faiths. The religions of this set share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them with Indian religions, Iranian religions, and East Asian religions. The term, introduced in the 20th century, replaced "Judeo-Christian" to include Islam as an Abrahamic religion and acknowledge differences between Judaism and Christianity. However, it has been criticized for oversimplifying cultural and doctrinal nuances.
Usage
The term Abrahamic religions is a collective religious descriptor for elements shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It features prominently in interfaith dialogue and civil discourse, as well as academic discourse. The term appears for the first time in the second half of the 20th century.Although historically the term Abrahamic religions was limited to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, restricting the category to these three religions has come under criticism. The late-19th-century Baháʼí Faith has been characterized as Abrahamic, as it is a monotheistic religion that recognizes its own descent from Abraham.
Theological discourse
The figure of Abraham is suggested as a common ground for Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and a hypothesized eschatological reconciliation of the three. Commonalities may include creation, revelation, and redemption, but such shared concepts vary significantly between and within the Abrahamic religions themselves. Proponents of the term argue that all three religions are united through the deity worshipped by Abraham.The Catholic scholar of Islam Louis Massignon argued that the phrase "Abrahamic religion" means that the religions come from one spiritual source. The modern term comes from the plural form of a Quranic reference to dīn Ibrāhīm, with "Ibrahim" being Arabic translation of "Abraham".
In Christianity, Paul the Apostle, in Romans 4:11–12, refers to Abraham as "father of all", including those "who have faith, circumcised or uncircumcised." From its founding, Islam likewise conceived of itself as the "religion of Abraham". The Bahá’í scriptures state that the religion's founder, Baháʼu'lláh, descended from Abraham through his wife Keturah's sons.
Criticism
The appropriateness of grouping Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as "Abrahamic religions" and related terms has been challenged. Adam Dodds argues that the term "Abrahamic faiths", while helpful, can be misleading, as it conveys an unspecified historical and theological commonality that is problematic on closer examination. While there is commonality among the religions, their shared ancestry is mainly peripheral to their respective foundational theological claims, practices, and cultures, concealing irreconcilable differences. Alan L. Berger, professor of Judaic studies at Florida Atlantic University, wrote in 2012 that "while Judaism birthed both Christianity and Islam, the three monotheistic faiths went their separate ways", and "each tradition views the figure differently as seen in the theological claims they make about him." Aaron W. Hughes, meanwhile, describes the term as "imprecise" and "largely a theological neologism."The common Christian doctrines of Jesus's Incarnation, the Trinity, and the resurrection of Jesus, for example, are accepted in neither Judaism nor Islam. There are fundamental beliefs in both Islam and Judaism that are likewise denied by most of Christianity, and key beliefs of Islam, Christianity, and the Baháʼí Faith not shared by Judaism (e.g., the prophetic and messianic status of Jesus.
Religions
Judaism
tradition claims that the Twelve Tribes of Israel are descended from Abraham through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, whose sons formed the nation of the Israelites in Canaan; Islamic tradition claims that twelve Arab tribes known as the Ishmaelites are descended from Abraham through his son Ishmael in the Arabian Peninsula.In its early stages, the Israelite religion shares traits with the Canaanite religions of the Bronze Age; by the Iron Age, it had become distinct from other Canaanite religions as it shed polytheism for monolatry. They understood their relationship with their god, Yahweh, as a covenant and that the deity promised Abraham a permanent homeland.
While the Book of Genesis speaks of ʾĔlōhīm, comparable to the Enūma Eliš speaking of various gods of the Canaanite pantheon to create the earth, at the time of the Babylonian captivity, Jewish theologians attributed the six-day narrative all to Yahweh, reflecting an early conception of Yahweh as a universal deity. The monolatrist nature of Yahwism was further developed in the period following the Babylonian captivity, eventually emerging as a firm religious movement of monotheism. With the Fall of Babylon, Judaism incorporated concepts such as messianism, belief in free will and judgement after death, conception of heaven and hell, angels and demons, among others, into their belief-system.
Christianity
traces back their origin to the 1st century and refers to themselves as a continuation of Judaism initially led by Jesus. His followers viewed him as the Messiah, as in the Confession of Peter; after his crucifixion and death they came to view him as God incarnate, who was resurrected and will return at the end of time to judge the living and the dead and create an eternal Kingdom of God.In the 1st century AD, under the Apostles of Jesus of Nazareth; Christianity spread widely. Paul the Apostle interpreted the role of Abraham differently from the Jews of his time. While for the Jews, Abraham was considered a loyal monotheist in a polytheistic environment, Paul celebrates Abraham as a man who found faith in God before adhering to religious law. In contrast to Judaism, adherence to religious law becomes associated with idolatry.
While Christians fashioned their religion around Jesus of Nazareth, the siege of Jerusalem, forced Jews to reconcile their belief-system with the destruction of the Second Temple and associated rituals. At this time, both Judaism and Christianity had to systematize their scriptures and beliefs, resulting in competing theologies both claiming Abrahamic heritage. Christians could hardly dismiss the Hebrew scriptures as Jesus himself refers to them according to Christian reports, and parallels between Jesus and the Biblical stories of creation and redemption starting with Abraham in the Book of Genesis. The distant God asserted by Jesus according to the Christians, created a form of dualism between Creator and creation and the doctrine of Creatio ex nihilo, which later heavily influenced Jewish and Islamic theology. By that, Christians established their own identity, distinct from both Greeks and Jews, as those who venerate and worship the deity of Jesus.
After several periods of alternating persecution and relative peace vis-à-vis the Roman authorities under different administrations, Christianity became the state church of the Roman Empire in 380, but has been split into various churches from its beginning. An attempt was made by the Byzantine Empire to unify Christendom, but this formally failed with the East–West Schism of 1054. In the 16th century, the birth and growth of Protestantism during the Reformation further split Christianity into many denominations.
Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches, Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization.
Islam
is based on the teachings of the Quran. Although it considers Muhammad to be the Seal of the prophets, Islam teaches that every prophet preached Islam, as the word Islam means submission, the main concept preached by all prophets. Although the Quran is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God, other Islamic books considered to be revealed by God before the Quran, mentioned by name in the Quran are the Tawrat revealed to the prophets and messengers amongst the Children of Israel, the Zabur revealed to Dawud and the Injil revealed to Isa. The Quran also mentions God having revealed the Scrolls of Abraham and the Scrolls of Moses.The relationship between Islamic and Hebrew scriptures and New Testament differs significantly from the relationship between the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible. Whereas the New Testament draws heavily on the Hebrew Bible and interprets its text in light of the foundations of the new religion, the Quran only alludes to various stories of Biblical writings, but remains independent of both, focusing on establishing a monotheistic message by utilizing the stories of the prophets in a religious decentralized environment.
In the 7th century AD, Islam was founded by Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula; it spread widely through the early Muslim conquests, shortly after his death. Islam understands its form of "Abrahamic monotheism" as preceding both Judaism and Christianity, and in contrast with Arabian Henotheism.
The teachings of the Quran are believed by Muslims to be the direct and final revelation and words of God. Islam, like Christianity, is a universal religion. Like Judaism, it has a strictly unitary conception of God, called tawhid or "strict monotheism". The story of the creation of the world in the Quran is elaborated less extensively than in the Hebrew scripture, emphasizing the transcendence and universality of God, instead. According to the Quran, God says kun fa-yakūnu. The Quran describes God as the creator of "heavens and earth", to emphasize that it is a universal God and not a local Arabian deity.
Others
is considered by some fringe Jewish and Christian apologetics to be a sect which diverged from Judaism in the 6th to 3rd centuries BCE. There is growing archaeological, DNA testing, and textual evidence in modern times which has proved the status of the Israelite Samaritans as an independent Abrahamic ethnoreligion and indigenous people of the Levant in their own right. The evidence has authenticated their claim to a legal religious status.Some sources consider Mandaeism to be an Abrahamic religion – however, that classification is controversial, given that Mandaeism does not accept Abraham as a prophet, despite revering as prophets several other figures from the Jewish scriptures. On the contrary, the Mandaeans believe that Abraham was originally a priest of their religion, but became an apostate from it.
Druze is another religion which emerged from Islam in the 11th century, and hence is sometimes also considered an Abrahamic religion.
Yarsanism is a Kurdish religion which combines elements of Shi'a Islam with pre-Islamic Kurdish beliefs; it has been classified as Abrahamic by some due to its monotheism, incorporation of Islamic doctrines, and reverence for Islamic figures, especially Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph and first imam of Shia Islam.