Comparative religion is the branch of religious studies that systematically compares the doctrines, practices, themes and impacts (including migration) of the world's religions. In general, the comparative study of religion yields a deeper understanding of the fundamental philosophical concerns of religion such as ethics, metaphysics and the nature and forms of salvation. It also considers and compares the origins and similarities shared between the various religions of the world. Studying such material facilitates a broadened and more sophisticated understanding of human beliefs and practices regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine."Human beings' relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, and divine" Encyclopædia Britannica (online, 2006), cited in
In the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification of the main world religions distinguishes groups such as Middle Eastern religions (including Abrahamic religions and Iranian religions), Indian religions, East Asian religions, African religions, American religions, Oceanic religions, and classical Hellenistic religions.
There also exist various sociological classifications of religious movements.
History
Al-Biruni (973 – ) and Ibn Hazm (994 – 1064), both of the Islamic Golden Age and considered the "fathers of comparative religion", compared the study of religious pluralism, and their works have been significant in the fields of theology and philosophy.Ibn Hazm. The Ring of the Dove: A Treatise on the Art and Practice of Arab Love (Preface). Trans. A. J. Arberry. Luzac Oriental, 1997 R. Arnaldez, Ibn Ḥazm . Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill Online, 2013. Reference. 9 January 2013Joseph A. Kechichian, A mind of his own . Gulf News: 21:30 20 December 2012. Al-Biruni discussed his idea of history in The Remaining Signs of Past Centuries ( AD) which was translated by Eduard Sachau in the 19th century. It is a comparative study of calendars of different cultures and civilizations, interlaced with mathematical, astronomical, and historical information, exploring the customs and religions of different peoples.M. S. Khan (1976). "al-Biruni and the Political History of India", Oriens 25, pp. 86-115.
In the seventeenth century, antiquarians such as Athanasius Kircher along with Sir Thomas Browne were pioneering scholars of comparative religion. In 1655, Dara Shikoh authored the Majma-ul-Bahrain a Sufi, text on comparative religion.
Social scientists in the 19th century took a strong interest in comparative and "primitive" religion through the work of Max Müller, Edward Burnett Tylor, William Robertson Smith, James George Frazer, Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Rudolf Otto.Hans Kippenberg, Discovering Religious History in the Modern Age (2001). Nicholas de Lange, Professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Cambridge University, says that
Examples that demonstrate this point are Buddhism and Chinese Folk Religions. These belief systems have not historically been seen as mutually exclusive and have blended over time into different beliefs such as Pure Land Buddhism. This shows a marked difference from Western conceptions of religions, which see adherence to one religion as precluding membership of another faith.Yong, A. (2016). Many tongues, many buddhisms in a pluralistic world: A christian interpretation at the interreligious crossroads. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 43(2), 357-IV.
Hinduism and Buddhism provide another insight in the form of soteriology. Comparative study of religions may approach religions with a base idea of salvation with eternal life after death, but religions like Hinduism or Buddhism don't necessarily share this view. Instead, Hinduism and Theravada Buddhism both speak of a falling back into nonexistence and escaping the cycle of reincarnation, rather than eternal life after death.Batchelor, S. (2012). A secular buddhism. Journal of Global Buddhism, 13, 87-107. Osto, D. (2018). NO-SELF IN SĀṂKHYA: A COMPARATIVE LOOK AT CLASSICAL SĀṂKHYA AND THERAVĀDA BUDDHISM. Philosophy East and West, 68(1), 201-222, III.
Geographical classification According to Charles Joseph Adams, in the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification discerns the main world religions as follows:
Middle Eastern religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and a variety of ancient belief systems; East Asian religions, the religious communities of China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, and consisting of Confucianism, Taoism, the various schools of Mahayana ("Greater Vehicle") Buddhism, and Shintō; Indian religions, including early Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and sometimes also the Theravada ("Way of the Elders") Buddhism and the Hindu- and Buddhist-inspired religions of South and Southeast Asia; African religions, the ancient belief systems of the various indigenous peoples of Africa, excluding ancient Egyptian religion, which is considered to belong to the ancient Middle East; American religions, the beliefs and practices of the various Indigenous peoples of the two American continents; Oceanic religions, the religious systems of the peoples of the Pacific islands, Australia, and New Zealand; and Religions of ancient Greece and Rome and their Hellenistic descendants.
Middle Eastern religions Abrahamic or Western Asian religions
In the study of comparative religion, the category of Abrahamic religions includes the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, which claim Abraham (Hebrew Avraham אַבְרָהָם; Arabic Ibrahim إبراهيم ) as a part of their sacred history. Smaller religions such as the Baháʼí Faith that fit this description are sometimes included but are often omitted.Why Abrahamic? Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at the University of Wisconsin
The original belief in the God of Abraham eventually became strictly monotheistic present-day Rabbinic Judaism. Religious Jews regard Judaism as the expression of the covenant that God established with the Children of Israel. Jews hold that the Torah forms part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible. They also look to a supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud.
Christians believe that Christianity represents the fulfillment and continuation of the Jewish Old Testament. Christians believe that Jesus (Hebrew Yeshua יֵשׁוּעַ) is the awaited Messiah (Christ) foretold in the Old Testament prophecies, and also honor the subsequently produced New Testament scriptures. Generally, Christians believe that Jesus is both the incarnation of God and the Son of God. Their creeds generally hold in common that the incarnation, ministry, suffering, death on the cross, and resurrection of Jesus took place for the salvation of mankind.
Islam teaches that the present Christian and Jewish scriptures have been corrupted over time and are no longer the original divine revelations as given to the Jewish people and to Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. For Muslims, the Quran is the final, complete revelation from God (Arabic الله Allah); they believe it to have been revealed to Muhammad alone, whom they characterise as the final prophet of Islam and as the Khatam an-Nabiyyin, meaning the last of the prophets ever sent by Allah ("seal of the prophets").
Based on the Muslim figure of the Mahdī, the ultimate savior of humankind and the final Imām of the Twelve Imams, Ali Muhammad Shirazi, later known as "the Báb", created the Bábí movement out of the belief that he was the gate to the Twelfth Imām. This signaled a break with Islam and started a new religious system, Bábism. However, in the 1860s a split occurred, after which the vast majority of Bábís who considered Mirza Husayn `Ali or Bahá'u'lláh to be the Báb's spiritual successor founded the Baháʼí Movement, while the minority who followed Subh-i-Azal came to be called Azalis."But the upshot of the whole matter is, that out of every hundred Bábís probably not more than three or four are Ezelís [sic], all the rest accepting Behá'u'lláh [sic] as the final and most perfect manifestation of the Truth." (Browne (1889) p. 351 ) The Baháʼí division eventually became a full-fledged religion in its own right, the Baháʼí Faith. In comparison to the other Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - the number of adherents for Baháʼí faith and other minor Abrahamic religions are not very numerous.
Out of the three major Abrahamic faiths, Christianity and Judaism are the two religions that diverge the most in theology and practice.
The historical interaction between Islam and Judaism started in the 7th century CE with the origin and spread of Islam. There are many common aspects between Islam and Judaism, and as Islam developed, it gradually became the major religion closest to Judaism. In contrast to Christianity, which originated from interaction between ancient Greek, Roman, and Hebrew cultures, Judaism is very similar to Islam in its fundamental religious outlook, structure, jurisprudence and practice.Rabbi David Rosen, Jewish-Muslim Relations, Past and Present , November 2003 There are many traditions within Islam that originate from traditions which are recorded in the Hebrew Bible or which stem from post-biblical Jewish traditions. These practices are known collectively as the Isra'iliyat.Rabbi Justin Jaron Lewis, Islam and Judaism , October 2001
The historical interaction between Christianity and Islam connects fundamental ideas in Christianity with similar ones in Islam. Islam accepts many aspects of Christianity as part of its faithwith some differences in interpretationand rejects other aspects; for example, it simplifies complex Christian Christological teaching and completely avoids the potential pitfalls of Trinitarianism. Islam holds that the Quran is the final revelation from God and a completion of all previous revelations, including the Bible.
Mandaeism, sometimes also known as Sabianism (after the mysterious Sabians mentioned in the Quran, a name historically claimed by several religious groups), p. 5. is a Gnostic and monotheistic religion. John the Baptist is their chief prophet, and frequent baptism is part of their core practices. According to most scholars, Mandaeism originated sometime in the first three centuries CE, either in southwestern Mesopotamia or in the Syro-Palestinian area. However, some scholars take the view that Mandaeism is older and dates from pre-Christian times.Etudes mithriaques 1978 p545, Jacques Duchesne-Guillemin Mandaeans assert that their religion predates Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as a monotheistic faith. Mandaeans believe that they descend directly from Shem, Noah's son,Drower, Ethel Stefana. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran. Oxford At The Clarendon Press, 1937 and also from John the Baptist's original disciples.
Iranian religions
Several important religions and religious movements originated in Greater Iran, that is, among speakers of various Iranian languages. They include Ætsæg Din, Manichaeism, Mazdakism, Mithraism, Ahl-e Haqq, Yazdanism, Zoroastrianism, and Zurvanism.