Christianity V. Islam Christianity and Thesis

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1997).

It should be clear that the basic underlying concepts of both Christianity and Islam are remarkably similar. Yet despite these similarities, different interpretations of the two religions' theologies concerning the ethos and telos have created many conflicts over the centuries. Oddly, it is similar interpretations of these theological imperatives that has led to the misunderstandings between the people of these religions. Both religions have an underlying purpose, or telos, of reuniting its adherents with God/Allah after death through service and devotion in life (Smith 1991; Ibrahim et al. 1997). This has played out in different ways throughout history in the two religions; different sects in both religions have at certain times interpreted this telos in a way that demands the unification of this world under the theology of only one belief system. Certain branches of Islamic mysticism or Sufism promote the idea that this world is a fragmentation of the oneness that is Allah, and it is the goal of Islam to affect the reunification of the apparent separateness of this world with or in Allah (Ibrahim et al. 1997). When taken to extremes, this belief has led to serious conflicts between the followers of the Islamic faith and the other faiths and cultures they have encountered.

This same telos has been of greater or lesser importance during the history and schisms of Christian theology, as well. For Christians, however, the reunification with God in the afterlife is affected through Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection (Smith 1991). There are some differences in Christians theology on this point; some beliefs maintain that Jesus' crucifixion automatically redeemed the sins of mankind, while others believe that faith in Jesus as the son of God is required (Smith 1991). Other theologians and Christian sects have also placed certain requirements of behavior and/or confession on the idea of redemption, which is incarnated in the reunification with God, but this still speaks to the same basic telos.

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Just as the ideas of arche and the cosmos are intimately tied together in these two religions, the concepts of telos and ethos are also closely related. At various points throughout the development of the Western world, the Christian and Muslim ideas of reunification taking place to only after death, but in this world as well, have led to bitter disputes, military actions, and countless deaths. This is because the shifts in the telos in this regard have had corresponding shifts in ethos; to some adherents of both religions even today it is a moral imperative to spread the word of Christianity or Islam and attempt to convert others -- in other words, to unify them in the name of their religion (Smith 1991; Ibrahim et al. 1997).

These conversions have often taken the form of military "enticement." Currently, there is no overtly fundamentalist Christian nation or group that is militaristically attempting to convert non-Christians, but there are Muslim factions that believe in such coercion, more through the destruction of non-Muslim elements of the world than through forced conversion, but the effect is largely the same. Christians are far from innocent in this regard; the Inquisition actually came directly after the reclamation of Spain from the Islamic Moors, and was one of the bloodiest events of Christian societal dominance the world has ever seen. Perhaps the clearest example of this telos and ethos in operation are the various wars known as the Crusades, in which Christian and Muslim forces fought for control of the Holy Land and the conversion of its inhabitants.

Focusing on the similarities between these two religions makes it difficult to see why such violence would be necessary......

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