Comparison chart of the Abrahamic Religions
I am presenting this assignment given the gravity of world circumstances these days, in order to foster a better understanding (as opposed to ignorance) of the role of religion in our secular Western civilization. Since these particular groups form part of the body of study in Western Civilization I thought it would be a good assignment especially for our future in a world with more than 1.5 billion Muslims.
The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) serve as a major portion of the foundation of Western societal mores and values. At times these institutions have had a partnership with the prevailing governments. They have had an impact on the development of the character and image of Western civilization today.
In recent years, destruction of Christian churches in Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Egypt, Syria and Iran took place because someone supposedly defamed a Qur'an or other questionable justifications.
A recent news item involves an Iranian, turned Christian minister, arrested, freed, and re-detained. Islamophobia is a current buzz word in the West, and the image of many people is that Muslims are violent, intolerant terrorists. Can you distinguish between Islam, and Islamism?
This assignment requires that you compare or contrast these 3 religions using 25 factors (of your choice). You may look at their beliefs, practices, religious structure, forms of and days of worship, the basis and aspects of law, gender responsibilities, music, dietary laws, clothing, the number of divisions within the specific religions.
You can look at aspects of faith that these religions profess and compare them. One good source for the project is: Lewis Hopfke's World Religions.
Format: a typed chart (you can do this by designing a chart with 4 columns, 26 rows. Use 1 column for each religion and I would put the religions in columns 2-4 according to which appeared first! Use the first column to identify the item being considered.
Use the top row as a header to repeat from page to page as necessary. The cells should expand as you type so that when reading across, the cell will be your discussion of each religion's aspect of the factor you listed in column 1).
It would be good for your descriptions in cells to be more than 1 word in length! Categories/topics should not be repetitive, and should include enough accurate detail. Do NOT USE Excel type spreadsheet format!