Politics Of Christianity And Islam Essay Example

Even though Christianity and Islam sustain different doctrines, they hold some aspects in common. Both are transcendental religions that, at the beginning, needed to convert people to their religion, so that the body of faithful could be bigger and hold against the persecutions they were suffering; due to this, their doctrines held populist modifications. These religions were confronted with a population consisting mostly of polytheists, implying that a conversion would mean the renouncement of being able to worship various gods for different things; therefore, the reward offered was raised to the maximum good possible. As both catered to the less fortunate, they established consistent and thorough teachings of socioeconomic equality and welfare. Also, instead of demanding great sacrifice, becoming a person of both of these religions is very easy, and doesn’t demand much from the person, facilitating conversion.
As Christians were conquering people influenced by Aristotelian thought, their emphasis on the absolute goodness of God was reinforced. Also, the concept of “one” and “being” were reflected in the Holy Trinity, whose equivalence was only established through a polemic that divided the people. On the other hand, Islam was inserting itself into a mostly Christian following, so both similarities and differentiations had to be made in order to convert a greater number of people. For example, the establishment of their God as the same of Christianity helped the perception of continuity from one faith to the other. Meanwhile, Islam rejected Christianity’s teachings because they were too complex. This focus on simplicity further encouraged conversion, as most of the prospects were slaves with little to no education, and other such less fortunate people.
As universal religions, both Christianity and Islam intend to enforce the same on everybody; because human beings are essentially different, this automatically implies the exclusion of a part of them. This can be related to the rise of nation-states, with ever-widening policies that aimed to establish a strict norm to follow. The intolerance of differences in many aspects led to the establishment of hierarchies, which are also reflected within each church’s structure. Furthermore, religion served as an identifying and excluding aspect of life; Christians and Muslims, respectively, were part of a group that was separated from the others. The oppression that followed, both in the Roman and Ottoman Empires, was reinforced by this intolerance of differences that discriminated minorities.
The fact that both of these empires were structured around universal religions, minorities were oppressed and persecuted. While followers of both of these religions were persecuted at the beginning of the establishment of their doctrine, especially Christians, they later began to persecute those that did not conform to their own precepts. For example, almost from the very beginning of the relationship of Christianity to the state, Theodosius closed every place of worship that didn’t have a Jewish or Christian orientation. Most famously, the Inquisition looked to convert or eradicate pagans; they also conquered a vast lot of territory, where they held their rule excluding people that held other faiths. Even though non-Muslims were tolerated in caliphates, only Christians and Jews, as they were Abrahamic faiths, were permitted to practice their religion; nevertheless, they were obliged to pay higher taxes because of this difference.