Peace in Both Christianity and Islam Essays

Religion is a universal term that is widely used for a human’s belief system. The views on how religions compare to one another can be defined differently. One view explains religions using a united belief system by their common goals. Another view explains that different religions are just a shared essence and have vast differences between their specific traditions and customs. This shared essence, but vastly different theory, is explained by Stephen Prothero, using the term “pretend pluralism”. There are many major and minor religions that have guided people in their morals and beliefs. Religions, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. All five of these current, major religions have vast differences, but may have common goals in their morals, traditions, etc. Two of the most practiced religions, of these five, are Christianity and Islam. These two religions are constantly at battle with one another, but what many people don’t see is that there are just as many similarities between these two religions as there are differences. Through this paper we will discover the underlying similarities and differences between these two religions and, hopefully, conclude that supports either the common goal theory or the “pretend pluralism” theory.

The Islamic religion is a Middle Eastern, Arabic Peninsula, based religion that originated right around the 7th c. and is based on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. The definition of the word Islam means "submission" in Arabic, and connotes the notion of a total surrender of oneself to God, Allah in the Arabic language. Individuals who practice Islam are known as Muslims, which, again in Arabic, means "one who submits to God"

The word Islam means "surrender" or "submission," submission to the will of Allah, the one God. Muslims are those who have submitted themselves. The basic creed of Islam is brief: There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Prophet of Allah. Islam teaches

by one spirit of peace for everyone is a worthy servant of Christ. On the other

When you are born into a world in which the two biggest religions on the globe are fighting the same battle they have been fighting for a thousand years you start to question the belifs of these two religions. If they both preach peace, why do we get war? I wonder what Jesus or Muhammad would say if they were alive today. Christanity, Islam, and Judaism are three of the most closely related religions in the world because they all see Abraham and other patriarcal figures in the bible as their spirtual ansestors. However, their points of similarity are no guarentee the followers will get along. In fact, most of the religiously motivated conflicts are between Muslims and Christans. All religions have

Analyse using sacred scripture and a variety of sources the principle teachings about peace in Judaism and Christianity and how these teachings impact on the life of each adherent’s tradition, as a means of achieving inner peace.

Some Christians believe achieving peace means rejecting the use of violence. Christians who hold this reject this view focus on Jesus teaching on ’love thy neighbor’, even when Jesus faced his own enemies (the Romans) Jesus gave himself up to death. Also, when Jesus own follower slices off an ear of a servants, Jesus heals the ear of a servant and criticizes his follower for using violence to interfere with God’s plan. This shows that Jesus used pacifism instead of violence and that means all Christians should be

The bible, Quran and Hadith are respected texts and are regarded as the books of truth. Believers take these sacred texts as the revealed message from God – the truth. As such, they are used as a guide to life in the pursuit of peace between people and also between people and God. Jesus and Muhammad had a role in spreading the teaching of peace. To understand how the Muslims and Christians view peace it is imperative to first understand what peace means. Most people would refer to peace as freedom of war, disagreements, conflict and calmness of mind. To understand the roles of Christianity and Islam in the teaching of peace the concepts of inner peace, world and society peace has to be addressed, for both Christians and Muslims, inner peace refers to the state of calmness and tranquility experienced by the individual. It is often understood to be associated with the spiritual peace with God/Jesus for Christians and spiritual peace with Allah who desires peace for Muslims. Muslims believe that it is through complete submission to Allah also called the Greater Jihad that an individual may achieve inner peace. The Quran states clearly that in order to achieve world peace, all people must submit to Allah as they believe all people of the Muslim community around the world are one community. They believe that there can be no world/universal peace or the lesser Jihad without the greater Jihad which is misunderstood by many Islamic and non-Islamic people.

Conflict Resolution is an essential element of life but a task filled with so many diverse issues that not many can engage it without feeling a bit unprepared.  Through the grace of God we have been given a wonderful ministry of reconciliation and direct commands to live at peace with others. The core outcome of this project is to allow you to practice the principles of conflict resolution laid forth in the Peacemaker text.

Peace is shown as a sense of unity, it also has a sense of prosperity with it as well. Edward Hick’s “The Peaceable Kingdom” depicted the biblical passage “Isaiah 11” is shows a utopian new world it gives a feeling of purity and peace.

Islam means submission; it is the one who has submitted himself to Allah. Islamic is a religion that was proclaimed by the prophet Muhammad around 570 and 632. Also the Quran remains the divine book of Islam.

Dawson’s article, A Christian Proposal to Peacemaking in a New Country, focuses on the different types of faith based efforts that Christians all over the world are currently involved in that focus on both forgiveness and reconciliation and ways to bridge the gap between victim and offender. He begins his thoughts by reminding the reader that everyone has sinned, but that God responds with forgiveness, and has given us an opportunity to start anew through the death and resurrection of Christ, thus reconciling us to God. Here is where the reconciliation process begins. He also briefly brushes upon that it is man’s inability to resist emotions like envy, fear, and contention, that results in hatred for another person or group of people, which is why there is a continuous flow of conflict in the world. This is why we as Christians should understand and embrace the power of the cross. Throughout the article Dawson continuously, encourages and challenges all Christians to join the ministry of reconciliation movement and become reconcilers stating, “our goal, of course, has always been to see people reconcile to God through the Gospel” (Dawson, 2001, p.234). He maps out a model for reconciliation that defining the following:

Islam is an Arabic word meaning submission and therefore Islam religion is believed to be an Abrahamic religion which believes in submission to the almighty God Allah and Muhammad as the prophet. Quran is the holy book believed to be the guideline of the Muslims who are the followers of the Islamic religion. It is believed that Allah repeatedly revealed to Muhammad verbally through angel Gabriel and recited in the Quran (Hadith of Revelation, Volume 1, Book 1, Number 3). Over time particular aspects arose from the Quranic teachings and Muslims began to have questions about the teachings and translation of The Quran, thus, narrations were developed in Hadiths.

The Qur'an is the fundamental text for all Muslims as it is believed to contain the revelation of Allah, complete and unaltered as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. The secondary sacred text is the Hadith which refers to the collection of traditions, words and deeds of the prophet Muhammad who lived in accordance to the beliefs of Islam in the way which Allah intended. The Qur'an refers to Islam as 'the path of peace' and it is due to this importance placed upon peace that the Qur’an also declares that there be no aggressive war permitted in Islam. Peace is achieved through submission to Allah and this is reinforced through daily prayer (salat).

This can be very confusing for a westerner at first. Instead of being just part of life, as many people view religion in the west, Islamic followers believe it is everything to them. Based on its linguistic origin, the Arabic word 'Islam' means to achieve peace--peace with God, peace within oneself, and peace with the creations of God through submission to God and commitment to His guidance.