Abstract
This chapter introduces the notion of Abrahamic Religions as it applies to Islam, Christianity and Judaism. It is contended that the notion constitutes a foundational sacred Story for each of the religions that is held in common. The chapter begins exploration of the major similarities and differences between and across the three religions in their conceptions of the sacred Story, similarities that bind and differences that divide them.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The divine name Allah probably derived from the Arabic al ‘ilah (The God).
- 2.
In the Hebrew Scriptures the name for God is written only in consonants (as was mostly true for all Hebrew writing). Even when the texts were vocalised, the divine name was exempt. We can conjecture that YHWH stood for ‘Yahweh’ but this is not certain. Later, it had become customary for the divine name to be substituted in public discourse with ‘Lord’ or ‘adonai. After vocalisation, the vowels of ‘adonai were placed beneath the consonants of YHWH. This gave rise to the hybrid form of Jehovah, which never existed in antiquity. In this text we will use YHWH (and suppose its pronunciation is Yahweh).
- 3.
While the God of Israel was occasionally addressed as ‘Father’, the term was taken on by the early Christians as their particular name for their God (not seen as in any way distinct from YHWH). Possibly the original form was Aramaic ‘abba. The meaning of ‘abba can be ‘Daddy’, but there is debate as to whether this was the intention of the usage. When ‘abba was translated it became pater, which is ‘Father’. The Christian philosophical theory of the Trinity refers to the Divinity, in which the Father is one element in a later construction that was motivated by Greek philosophical analysis and rather acrimonious political debate. In what follows ‘Father’ refers to the Christian statement on YHWH.
- 4.
We acknowledge here the standard Muslim reverence shown to the Prophet in the English acronym, PBUH (Peace be upon him) whenever his name is mentioned. While it will be silent hereafter, we wish to show that we understand the respect that is attached to any utterance of his name.
- 5.
This is the politically correct way of designating time in an academic discourse, in contrast to the three separate formulas devised by the three religions. BCE stands for ‘Before the Common Era’ and corresponds to the Western BC, while CE stands for the ‘Common Era’ and is the equivalent of the Western AD. 500 BCE is equal to 500 BC and 500 CE is equal to AD 500.
- 6.
The Pope (‘Father’) was the name eventually given to the Christian Bishop of Rome. He is considered by Roman Catholic Christians to be in the line of succession from Peter, who had been nominated by Jesus, in the Christian Scriptures, as the Christian leader after Jesus’ own death.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lovat, T., Crotty, R. (2015). An Introduction to the Abrahamic Religions. In: Reconciling Islam, Christianity and Judaism. SpringerBriefs in Religious Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15548-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15548-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15547-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15548-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)