The Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

The Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam PDF Author: John Pickard
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1399006770
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 702

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Book Description
There has never been a more important time for a study of the social, economic and political origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, three important world religions which share a common root. This book takes as its starting point the idea that gods, angels, miracles and other supernatural phenomena do not exist in the real world and therefore cannot explain the origins of these faiths. It looks instead at the material conditions at appropriate periods in antiquity and the social and economic forces at work, and it examines the historicity of key figures like Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. This is a unique book which draws on the research, knowledge and expertise of hundreds of historians, archaeologists and scholars, to create a synthesis that is completely coherent and at the same time is based on real-world social conditions. It is a book by a non-believer for other non-believers, and it will be a revelatory read, even to those already of an atheist, agnostic or secularist persuasion.

The Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

The Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam PDF Author: John Pickard
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
ISBN: 1399006770
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 702

Get Book Here

Book Description
There has never been a more important time for a study of the social, economic and political origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, three important world religions which share a common root. This book takes as its starting point the idea that gods, angels, miracles and other supernatural phenomena do not exist in the real world and therefore cannot explain the origins of these faiths. It looks instead at the material conditions at appropriate periods in antiquity and the social and economic forces at work, and it examines the historicity of key figures like Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. This is a unique book which draws on the research, knowledge and expertise of hundreds of historians, archaeologists and scholars, to create a synthesis that is completely coherent and at the same time is based on real-world social conditions. It is a book by a non-believer for other non-believers, and it will be a revelatory read, even to those already of an atheist, agnostic or secularist persuasion.

Behind the Myths

Behind the Myths PDF Author: John Pickard
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1481783637
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 493

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Book Description
There has never been a more important time for a study of the social, economic, and political origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the three important world religions that share a common root. This book adopts a Marxist, that is a materialist, view of human development, so it takes as its starting point the idea that gods, angels, miracles, and other supernatural phenomena do not exist in the real world and therefore cannot be taken as explanations for the origin and rise of these faiths. It looks instead at the material conditions at appropriate periods in antiquity and the social and economic forces that were at work, to outline the real foundations of these three doctrines. In doing so, it challenges the historicity of key figures like Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. This is a unique book that draws on the research, knowledge, and expertise of hundreds of historians, archaeologists, and scholars to create a new synthesis that is both coherent and completely based on a materialist world outlook. It is a book written by an unbeliever for other unbelievers as a contribution to a discussion among atheists and secularists as to the real origins of the so-called Abramic faiths. It will be a revelatory read, even to those already firmly of an atheist or secularist persuasion, underpinning their nonreligious views, and it will provide a valuable resource for all those who might be coming to question the hold that organized religion has had on human society.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam PDF Author: Sander L. Gilman
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888208276
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
Islam, Christianity, and Judaism share several common features, including their historical origins in the prophet Abraham, their belief in a single divine being, and their modern global expanse. Yet it is the seeming closeness of these “Abrahamic” religions that draws attention to the real or imagined differences between them. This volume examines Abrahamic cultures as minority groups in societies which may be majority Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, or self-consciously secular. The focus is on the relationships between these religious identities in global Diaspora, where all of them are confronted with claims about national and individual difference. The case studies range from colonial Hong Kong and Victorian London to today’s San Francisco and rural India. Each study shows how complex such relationships can be and how important it is to situate them in the cultural, ethnic, and historical context of their world. The chapters explore ritual practice, conversion, colonization, immigration, and cultural representations of the differences between the Abrahamic religions. An important theme is how the complex patterns of interaction among these religions embrace collaboration as well as conflict—even in the modern Middle East. This work by authors from several academic disciplines on a topic of crucial importance will be of interest to scholars of history, theology, sociology, and cultural studies, as well as to the general reader interested in how minority groups have interacted and coexisted. “This is a groundbreaking collection of original, learned, and cutting-edge essays on various aspects of the three major monotheistic religions in modern times. The subjects of the essays range across the globe, from Hong Kong and South Asia to Victorian Britain and Weimar Germany, and teach us to see each tradition, and all three traditions together, in new and original ways. A distinctive contribution.” —Steven T. Katz, Boston University “Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is remarkable for bringing together accessible scholarly essays, each with keen insight, exploring the diverse ‘Abrahamic’ cultures and their complex interactions. As the human landscape of Europe continues to evolve, this superb series of engagements with the past and present is an indispensable guide.” —Michael Berkowitz, University College London “Gilman remains an unparalleled expert at identifying cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research. The essays in this superb volume provide urgently needed comparative and theoretical examinations of the constructed natures of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and the complex and challenging relationships they engender.” —Lisa Silverman, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East

A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East PDF Author: Heather J. Sharkey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052176937X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
This book traces the history of conflict and contact between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Ottoman Middle East prior to 1914.

The Liberation of Women

The Liberation of Women PDF Author: قاسم أمين،
Publisher: American Univ in Cairo Press
ISBN: 9789774245671
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Qasim Amin (1863-1908), an Egyptian lawyer, is best known for his advocacy of women's emancipation in Egypt, through a number of works including The Liberation of Women and The New Woman. In the first of these important books in 1899, he started from the premise that the liberation of women was an essential prerequisite for the liberation of Egyptian society from foreign domination, and used arguments based on Islam to call for an improvement in the status of women. In doing so, he promoted the debate on women in Egypt from a side issue to a major national concern, but he also subjected himself to severe criticism from the khedival palace, as well as from religious leaders, journalists, and writers. In response he wrote The New Woman, published in 1900, in which he defended his position and took some of his ideas further. In The New Woman, Amin relies less on arguments based on the Quran and Sayings of the Prophet, and more openly espouses a Western model of development. Although published a century ago, these two books continue to be a source of controversy and debate in the Arab world and remain key works for understanding the Arab feminist movement. The Liberation of Women and The New Woman appear here in English translation for the first time in one volume.

Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Sacrifice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam PDF Author: David L. Weddle
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814762816
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
An examination of the practice and philosophy of sacrifice in three religious traditions In the book of Genesis, God tests the faith of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham by demanding that he sacrifice the life of his beloved son, Isaac. Bound by common admiration for Abraham, the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also promote the practice of giving up human and natural goods to attain religious ideals. Each tradition negotiates the moral dilemmas posed by Abraham’s story in different ways, while retaining the willingness to perform sacrifice as an identifying mark of religious commitment. This book considers the way in which Jews, Christians, and Muslims refer to “sacrifice”—not only as ritual offerings, but also as the donation of goods, discipline, suffering, and martyrdom. Weddle highlights objections to sacrifice within these traditions as well, presenting voices of dissent and protest in the name of ethical duty. Sacrifice forfeits concrete goods for abstract benefits, a utopian vision of human community, thereby sparking conflict with those who do not share the same ideals. Weddle places sacrifice in the larger context of the worldviews of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, using this nearly universal religious act as a means of examining similarities of practice and differences of meaning among these important world religions. This book takes the concept of sacrifice across these three religions, and offers a cross-cultural approach to understanding its place in history and deep-rooted traditions.

Neighboring Faiths

Neighboring Faiths PDF Author: David Nirenberg
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022616893X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
This book represents the culmination of David Nirenberg s ongoing project; namely, how Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived with and thought about each other in the Middle Ages, and what the medieval past can tell us about how they do so today. There have been scripture based studies of the three religions of the book that claim descent from Abraham, but Nirenberg goes beyond those to pay close attention to how the three religious neighbors loved, tolerated, massacred, and expelled each otherall in the name of Godin periods and places both long ago and far away. Whether Christian Crusaders and settlers in Islamic-ruled lands, or Jewish-Muslim relations in Christian-controlled Iberia, for Nirenberg, the three religions need to be studied in terms of how each affected the development of the other over time, their proximity of religious and philosophical thought as well as their overlapping geographies, and how the three neighbors define (and continue to define) themselves and their place in the here-and-nowand the here-afterin terms of one another. Arguing against exemplary histories, static models of tolerance versus prosecution, or so-called Golden Ages and Black Legends, Nirenberg offers here instead a story that is more dynamic and interdependent, one where Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities have re-imagined themselves, not only as abstractions of categories in each other s theologies and ideologies, but by living with each other every day as neighbors jostling each other on the street. From dangerous attractions leading to interfaith marriage, to interreligious conflicts leading to segregation, violence, and sometimes extermination, to strategies of bridging the interfaith gap through language, vocabulary, and poetryNirenberg aims to understand the intertwined past of the three faiths as a way for their heirs to coproduce the future."

The Abrahamic Religions

The Abrahamic Religions PDF Author: Charles L. Cohen
Publisher:
ISBN: 0190654341
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Connected by their veneration of the One God proclaimed by Abraham, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share much beyond their origins in the ancient Israel of the Old Testament. This Very Short Introduction explores the intertwined histories of these monotheistic religions, from the emergence of Christianity and Islam to the violence of the Crusades and the cultural exchanges of al-Andalus.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam PDF Author: Fritz Wenisch
Publisher: Cognella Academic Pub
ISBN: 9781609270339
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This text seeks to provide a guided examination of what unites and divides the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic communities. With over twenty-five years of experience teaching in the subject area, Dr. Fritz Wenisch begins to unravel this complex and often contentious topic by first discussing the legal injunctions applying to religious studies courses at secular U.S. universities. He investigates the type of monotheism each religion shares before providing an in-depth overview of each religion one by one. An emphasis is placed on the specific teachings of each religion, with consideration given to their practices and their historical development. "Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Differences, Commonalities, and Community" argues that the hostility between the three religions is misplaced. The argument is grounded on the existence of a shared belief in the same one and only God and reverently looking back to Abraham, as well as the fact that disagreements do not result from ill will, but from alternative convictions held in good faith. Readers will learn that tolerance, while a start, does not suffice; rather, that shared basic beliefs should give rise to mutual appreciation, leading to genuine friendship. Fritz Wenisch received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1968 from the University of Salzburg in Austria. He has been a member of the philosophy department at the University of Rhode Island since 1971 and has also taught at the University of Dallas and at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. Dr. Wenisch s teaching focuses primarily on philosophy and religious studies. He has published two books, one book-length monograph, and numerous articles, as well as being a regular newspaper contributor, having written over twenty articles for the "Rhode Island Catholic" and more than a hundred for the religion page of the "Providence Journal."

A History of God

A History of God PDF Author: Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Gramercy
ISBN: 9780517223123
Category : God
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A study of the deity of the world's three dominant monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a dynamic interplay between religion and society's ever-changing beliefs, values, and traditions, human beings' ideas about God have been transformed. Ideas about God have been molded to apply to the spiritual needs of the people who worship him in a particular place and time. The author explores and analyzes the development and progression of the various perceptions of God from the days of Abraham to present times--Adapted from book jacket.