Comparative Religion For Dummies

William P. Lazarus has taught religious history courses for 14 years. Mark Sullivan is a writer and editor who has studied comparative religion and philosophy extensively.

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 Conventions Used in This Book 3 How This Book is Organized 4 Part I: History is a Happening Thing 4 Part II: The Development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 4 Part III: Shared Aspects of the Faiths 5 Part IV: Shared Ideas Among the Faiths 5 Part V: The Part of Tens 5 Part VI: Appendixes 5 Icons Used in This Book 5 Where to Go from Here 6 Part I: History is a Happening Thing 7 Chapter 1: One God, Three Faiths 9 Holy Toledo! How Many Gods are There? 9 Monotheism Develops 10 Egypt tries the one-god concept 11 Yahweh steps down from the mount 12 Following Abrahams Lead: Judaism 13 Josiah and his faith: The beginnings of Judaism 13 God becomes universal 14 God provides protection and an identity 15 Christianity: Crossing in a New Direction 16 Paul finds a way to link beliefs 16 The Christian message spreads through the empire 16 Islam: Submitting to God 17 Chapter 2: Following Abrahams Path 19 What We Do and Dont Know about the Historic Abraham 19 Taking a tour of Father Abrahams neighborhood 20 Following the laws of Abrahams time 21 Speaking Abrahams language 22 Practicing religion before Abraham came on the scene 22 Abrahams Early Years 23 The Beginnings of Judaism 24 Agreeing to the covenant 25 Isaacs close call demonstrates Abrahams love for God 25 Following the family tree 26 In Islam, Ishmael Finds a New Way 27 Jesus Joins the Genealogy 28 Three Faiths: One Founder 29 Part II: The Development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 31 Chapter 3: Judaism: Oy Vey, What a History! 33 From Abraham, Judaism Takes the Long Road 34 Like father, like son: The leaders after Abraham 35 Over the river and through the desert, to Pharaohs land we go 35 Moses, Receiver of Gods Laws 36 Relying on plagues and walls of water to escape slavery 37 Counting on the Ten Commandments 38 Joshua takes control 38 The Days of the Judges 39 The Time of Kings 39 David starts a dynasty 40 Solomon rules wisely 40 Splitting into two kingdoms 40 Getting Conquered: The Jews Find Themselves in Hot Water 41 Monotheism arrives 42 Living under foreign rule 42 Christianitys Emergence Puts the Jews on the Defensive (Yet Again) 43 How Jews Have Influenced Society 44 Emphasizing education 45 Inventing languages 46 Jewish humor: The jokes on everyone 46 Fulfilling their dreams in America 48 Dominating the silver screen 48 Flying the Blue and White Banner of Israel 49 Chapter 4: Judaism Finds God in Everything 51 A Little of This, A Little of That 52 Maintaining Daily Practice 52 Let us pray 53 Exploring the worship wardrobe 54 Keeping kosher 55 Remembering the Sabbath 57 Observing Jewish Holidays 58 High Holy Days: Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur 58 Passover: Recalling the great escape 59 Planting and harvesting holidays 61 Purim: A great reason to party 62 Hanukkah: In praise of victory and light 62 Other holidays 63 Understanding Jewish Rituals 64 Circumcision: No getting around it 64 Bar mitzvah: All grown up in Gods eyes 65 Mazel tov! Celebrating a Jewish wedding 66 Understanding Jewish Symbols .67 The menorah 67 The ark 68 The Jewish star 69 Chapter 5: Jesus and the Origins of Christianity 71 Jesuss Life and Death 71 A remarkable birth 72 The few historical records of Jesuss life 73 Preaching and teaching Gods word 74 Jesuss claims stir the pot and create controversy 75 A date with the cross 76 The First Believers 76 What the early followers believed 77 The first missionary of Jesus 78 A New Religion Grows 79 The destruction of the Temple fuels growth 79 Christians separate from Judaism 80 Christian practices: Its no mystery 80 The big time arrives: Legitimacy in the Roman Empire 81 Nicene council sets the belief 82 The Greeks split while the Romans gro