THE THREE MAIN RELIGIONS.

                                     Judaism, Christianity, and Islamic are the three major religions due to their shared characteristic of belief in the existence of one God and their source of originality which is in the Arab world. They are also given the name Abrahamic religions in general and they have the highest number of followers. In chronological order, Judaism comes first followed by Christianity, which is based in the Roman Empire and lastly Islamic, which is based in the Islamic empire. Though Judaism appears to be the first in the line of origin, Christianity and Islamic are more popular hosting the highest number of believers and followers.

                      Judaism.                                   

                   The Judaism religion is associated with the Jews due to its philosophy and the way of life. Judaism central characteristic on belief in one God and Torah. The Torah which means Pentateuch is a Hebrew word representing the first five books of the bible and Jewish teachings (Kim-Prieto 2014). The five books contain the story of the creation, Israelites in the past, entry into the promise land and some sections authorizing laws and ethical concepts. The Jewish bible later includes the canonicals which when together hold the Prophetic books and books such as Ruth, Ezra, Proverbs and many others (Kim-Prieto 2014).          

                According to Kim –Prieto (2014), the text of the bible are elaborated by Judaism oral law. These oral laws were recorded in a set of treaties called Talmud and Midrash. These two are the fundamental text containing the legal and ethical. Midrash texts  were written by rabbis of the Talmud; the post-Talmud offers biblical information and explains the Jewish philosophy ritual and traditions. In Jewish practice virtues such as acknowledgment of beauty, hope, humor, spirituality, and transcendence are highly valued (Kim-Prieto 2014).

                                Judaism religion highly rejects modernism and maintains traditions such as the mode of dressing and the type of food taken others refuse to engage in secular education and use of public media such as televisions. Even though some Jews are against some of these traditions because they have educated their children ,western civilization remains the main challenge facing Judaism (Woodhead, Partridge and Kawanami 2016).

Though most Jewish women are being integrated into modernity, within their Jewish practice they are not allowed to perform rituals. Women are excluded from any public activity that involves men. In synagogues women are separated from men and in the past women roles were only supposed to be at home and educating children (Woodhead, Partridge and Kawanami 2016).

                                        Christianity.

                  Christianity is the largest religion in the world due to its high number of followers and it is found on every continent. Followers of Christianity are called Christians and are divided I three wings, Eastern Christianity, Roman Catholic Christianity and the Protestant (Russell 20110). Christian’s belief is based on the Savior who is Jesus Christ. Christianity beliefs are based on the Old and New Testament texts, even though some Christians add other books such as Judith, Tobit, and Maccabees. In Christianity religious tradition, the Eastern Christians maintain the bible and the traditions of the church; Roman Catholic teaches that the bible and the tradition of the church are equal authorities and finally the Protestants believe that the bible is the sole authority but traditional pays a secondary informative role (Russell 2010).

                   According to Russell (2010), Christianity began with the life of Jesus. Christians created statements of their beliefs called the Creed and others call it the Apostles creed. Christians are also called disciples which mean that Christians develop an ethical -based life based on their belief in Jesus Christ. Christians celebrate ceremonies in homes and on mountains. These ceremonies include baptism and communion where baptism represents the official entrance into Christianity and communion the remembrance of Christ’s death. Christians differ about the role of women where some have always ordained women -clergy others have never ordain women clergy while others used to ordained women but now they do not (Russell 2010).

                       The Christianity religion can also characterized by institutions.  In accordance with Russell (2010) information, these institutions were to success the apostles and they are today organized into three arms. Congregational government is the first arm, where each local church is independent and important decisions are made at the local level by members. The second type of institution is the connectional government. This is where local congregations make decisions for themselves, but major decisions are made by higher level bodies. The Last is the hierarchical government where bishops hold the supreme power and they are either elected by local people or appointed by those who are high in the organization. These heads of the denominations are characterized by marital status where in the Roman Catholic Church, nuns and pops do not marry but in other such as Protestants and eastern Christianity allow pastors and clergy men to marry but they first must be ordained. (Russell 2010).

                                    Islamic.

                                      Islam is the last among the Abrahamic religion where the word means submission to the Gods will as indicated by Muhammad founder of the Islamic religion. The Islamic faith is built on the foundation of the sharia laws which dictate unity among civil and moral authority as stated by Lawrence and Charlotte (2013). Like the other religions Islamic had fundamental teachings which were obtained from two sources. These sources are Quran and the Sunna. The Quran contained Muhammad’s revelation to the time he was called till his death. It serves as the document of theological doctrines. The Sunna which means hidden path acts as an explanation of the Quran containing the details of every action of the prophet (Lawrence and Charlotte 2013).

.                                         There is the existence of the Hadith which contains the creed and the pillars of the Islamic religion. The first among the five pillars is shahada: the foundation of faith in one god and Muhammad the messenger.  According to Lawrence and Charlotte (2013), the second pillar of the Islamic religion is prayers or salat and the third pillar is zakat which is the sharing of what everyone has with the less fortunate. In the fourth pillar Muslims are supposed to fast and refrain from other activities such as sexual intercourse which is done in the month of Ramadan where the end of it is marked by a festival called Id al-fitr. The last pillar is the annual pilgrimage at Mekka which is in remembrance of the sacrifice story of Abraham (Lawrence and Charlotte 2013).

                   Modernity to the Islamic religion has brought intellectual and political problems. Muslim experience the worsening of their religious life caused by long periods of stagnation of the doctrine and beliefs of the religion and from outside the influence of western leadership.  Islamic leaders introduced reforms to prevent the declination of Islamic religious life (Lawrence and Charlotte 2013).Secondly, they resisted the domination of the Muslims societies by the western powers. Though the Muslims living as minorities outside the Islamic religion face challenges of coping up or being assimilated there is an effort observed by other leaders to give these Muslims an identity (Lawrence and Charlotte 2013).  

                According to Lüsted (2011), Islamic religion considers women inferior thus they are hardly given leadership roles. Women duties are at home where they are supposed to take care of children and other house chores. As Muslim women are expected to be chaste if she marries against her family she can be killed what Muslims call honor killing and the killers are not charged. Islamic religion does not recognize women leaders except for an exclusive group or a congregation consisting of only close relatives are allowed to be imams (Lüsted 2011).

              Judaism, Christianity and Islamic religions are the three major religions in the world, despite the existence of other small independent groups such as Buddhism and Sikhism. The foundation lies on one God who is the sole creator of the universe as it were revealed to different prophets. Though these three religions are put in one general category they differ in some characteristics and development since the establishment. They have also extended to different parts of the world and gained more influence to different people.

 

 

 

 References 

Kim-Prieto, C. (2014). Religion and Spirituality Across Cultures. Retrieved from, Springer

Lawrence C.B, Charlotte, B. (2013) The Encyclopedia of Ethics. New York. Retrieved from        Routledge.

Lüsted, M. A. (2011). Women's roles in religion.  Retrieved from ABDO publishing company.

Russell, T. A. (2010). Comparative Christianity. Boca Raton: Universal-Publishers.

Woodhead, L. Partridge, C. Kawanami, H. (2016).Religions in the Modern World: New York.          Routledge.