The purpose of this research is to compare and contrast two characteristics of Judaism and Islam. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context in which the two religions emerged and then to discuss the monotheistic orientation of each religion as well as the ethos informing the spread/expansion of the religion as a world-historical force.
Judaism and Islam all arose out of the same general geographical region and flourished there, namely, the eastern Mediterranean area and reaching eastward into Asia Minor. More will be said about that dynamic; the present point is that there were significant overlaps in geographical boundaries in what is today referred to as the Middle East. Even so the general tendency of Judaism was to concentrate in the region of the Levant and eastern Mediterranean, while Islam spread both eastward and westward from the Sinai peninsula and into Europe.
Chronologically the earlier of the two religions in the scheme of history, Judaism was referred to and to an extent absorbed by Islam when it coalesced into a religious belief system in the seventh century CE. Meanwhile, of course, Christianity had intervened and become a world-historical force on its own, but that is outside the scope of this research. What is noteworthy about all three of these religions is that they were avowedly--and uniquely, as regards long-lived belief systems in the West--monotheistic in character.
The term monotheism would seem to be self-explanatory and straightforward, but that is not necessarily so. Campbell explains that polytheism, as that term implies, is "the recognition and worship of a plurality of gods" (242). He does not, however, jump to the conclusion that monotheism is its direct opposite. Instead, he makes further distinctions. He describes monalatry as "the worship of a single god--one's own--while recognizing others," and cites the Hindu tradition of variously privileging Shiva and Vishnu or other gods...