This research will compare and contrast what it means to have faith in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The research will set forth the historical and cultural context out of which these three monotheistic faiths emerged and will discuss both converg ences and divergences in the belief systems of each religion.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all arose out of the same geographical region, comprising the eastern Mediterranean area and reaching eastward into Asia Minor. Chronologically the first of the three religions, Judaism appears to have been distinguished chiefly by its monotheistic aspect. The monotheistic innovation may not have begun with Judaism. The Amarna period of Egypt, marked by the pharaoh Akhenaten's (also Ikhnaton and Akhenaton, reign 1353-1336 B.C.) establishment of a version of monotheism as sun worship, has been interpreted as a precursor of Jewish monotheism. One of the most famous theories comes from Sigmund Freud's Moses and Monotheism, which "speculated that Moses was actually an Egyptian who passed single-deity worship derived from Akhenaton to the Jews. (Was there not, he asked, an echo of Aton in Adonai?)" (Van Biema 85).
whatever the source of Jewish monotheism, the big picture is that Judaism was the first religion in history to make monotheism a doctrinal foundation with universalist application and to reinforce the doctrine with governing texts of faith. The evidence of Genesis is of a sometimes problematic but ultimately permanent movement away from polytheism and totemism to monotheism. The Jacob narrative is central to that movement.
It is in Jacob's story that the God of Abraham, Noah, Lot, and Isaac is formally embraced by those who will identify themselves as Jews. The story is laden with symbolism that points to a rationale for having faith in the one God and being chosen for special favors by that God. The fact that God chooses is a central theme of the Jacob story in Genesis, but it mus...