Abrahamic religion
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The Abrahamic religions are religions originating from the traditions of Iron Age proto-Judaism; the major ones are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, though there are others that are either offshoots of the main three (such as Baha'iism, Unitarianism and the Rastafari movement) or early branches that are not directly related to the modern forms of any of the main three (such as the faith of the Samaritans). Judaism and Islam are unambiguously monotheistic though Christianity is sometimes seen as polytheistic due to the three persons in the Trinity. All Abrahamic religion share in common the worship of a single God, variously named El (ancient Semitic name), YHWH/Yahweh (Jewish tradition, sometimes used in Christianity), Jehovah (taboo deformation derived from early Christianity and rabbinical Judaism), Allah (Muslim, from the Arabic form of El), and numerous others. The term "Abrahamic" derives from the status of the Biblical patriarch Abraham as the purported founder of all such related faiths. In modern times, Christianity and Islam are two of the largest and the two most widespread of the five major faiths of the world (the others being Hinduism, Buddhism and "Chinese Traditional"). [1]
The most fundamental document in the Abrahamic faiths is the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Judaism adds the Tanakh (Old Testament); Christianity adds the New Testament (and, depending on the branch, some of the Apocrypha); Islam replaces the entire thing with the Qur'an, which has some connection to the Old and New Testament.
The fundamental prophets of these three branches are, in chronological order, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed
King David is considered to be one of the prophets by muslims, which Psalms the Zabur is revealed to him from Allah[2] and would fit somewhere between Moses and Jesus. However, he does not carry the status of "Prophet" in Judaism or Christianity.
Some Christians, while denying that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism) is Christian, will nevertheless refer to them as the fourth Abrahamic religion. Unitarian Universalism, which has only existed in its present form since 1961 and is now overtly syncretic despite the Christian heritage of the denominations that formed it, might be considered a fifth - given viewpoints (mostly among Christians) may consider them part of, or wholly divorced from, Christianity, and individual members may or may not self-identify as Christian.
[edit] Taxonomy of the Abrahamic faiths
The following list is intended to be cladistic in nature, showing the relationship between religious denominations in terms of which tradition spawned which. Significant breaks (i.e. the point where a modified belief is said to be a new religion) are marked with boldface entries.By necessity, this list is highly simplified; see Talk:Abrahamic religion for further details.
- Proto-Hebrew religion (prehistorical to 1200s BCE) (may have been polytheistic, with YHWH and Asherah as heads of the pantheon; identified from disappearance of pig bones in some Canaanite trash heaps)
- Ancient Israelite religion (1200s - 900s BCE)
- First and Second Temple Judaism (950 BCE - the destruction of the Temple in 78 CE.)
- Samaritan faith
- Essene faith (Jewish monasticism)
- Rabbinical Judaism(Destruction of the Temple and the priestly class in 78 CE to modern) (derived from the Pharisee tradition and developed through writing and study of the Talmud)
- Orthodox Judaism
- Haredi Judaism
- Hasidic Judaism
- Conservative Judaism
- Reform Judaism
- Orthodox Judaism
- Early Christianity
- Pauline Christianity
- Eastern Orthodox
- Oriental Orthodox
- Coptic Christianity
- Syriac Christianity
- Roman Catholicism
- Anglicanism (includes the Episcopal Church in America)
- Methodism
- Baptist churches (widely splintered, covering fairly liberal churches to extremely conservative churches, such as Westboro Baptist Church)
- Adventism
- Lutheranism
- Calvinism
- Unitarianism
- Mormonism (status as a Christian faith is disputed due to the "vast" theological differences)
- Pentecostalism
- Anglicanism (includes the Episcopal Church in America)
- Gnosticism
- Mandaeanism
- Pauline Christianity
- Islam
- Sunni Islam
- Wahhabism (predominant variety of Sunni Islam in Saudi Arabia)
- Shi'a Islam
- Baha'i faith
- Sufism
- Kharijite
- Ibadi (The connection of modern Ibadi with the Kharijite branch is disputed)
- Sunni Islam
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html - although "Nonreligious" comes in third, it is not an organized religion in any sense.
- ↑ See wp: Zabur