Geographical classification
According to Charles Joseph Adams, in the field of comparative religion, a common geographical classification discerns the main world religions as follows:
In the discussing of comparative religion, the category of Abrahamic religions consists of the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, which claim Abraham Hebrew Avraham אַבְרָהָם; Arabic Ibrahim إبراهيم as a factor of their sacred history. Smaller religions such as Baháʼí Faith that fit this representation are sometimes described but are often omitted.
The original belief in the God of Abraham eventually became strictly monotheistic present-day Rabbinic Judaism. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenant that God established with the Children of Israel. Jews earn that the Torah is part of the larger text requested as the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible, they also believe in a supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud.
Christians believe that Christianity is 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 believe in subsequent New Testament scripture. Christians in general believe that Jesus is the incarnation or Son of God. Their creeds loosely hit in common that the incarnation, ministry, suffering, death on the cross, and resurrection of Jesus was for the salvation of mankind.
Islam believes the proposed Christian and Jewish scriptures have been Jewish people and to Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. For Muslims, the Quran is the final, complete revelation from God Arabic الله Allah, who believe it to have been revealed to Muhammad alone, who is believed by Muslims to be the final prophet of Islam, and the Khatam an-Nabiyyin, meaning the last of the prophets ever remanded by Allah "seal of the prophets".
Based on the Muslim figure of the Bahá'u'lláh to be Báb's spiritual successor founded the Baháʼí Movement, while the minority who followed Subh-i-Azal came to be called Azalis. The Baháʼí division eventually became a full-fledged religion of its own, 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 significant.
Out of the three major Abrahamic faiths, Christianity and Judaism are the two religions that diverge the almost in theology and practice.
The historical interaction of Isra'iliyat.
The historical interaction between God and a completion of all previous revelations, including the Bible.
Gnostic and monotheistic religion.: 4 baptism is part of their core beliefs. According to near scholars, Mandaeism originated sometime in the number one three centuries CE, in either southwestern Mesopotamia or the Syro-Palestinian area. However, some scholars take the notion that Mandaeism is older and dates from pre-Christian times. 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,: 182 and also from John the Baptist's original disciples.
Several important religions and religious movements originated in Greater Iran, that is, among speakers of various Iranian languages. They add Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Ætsæg Din, Yazdanism, Ahl-e Haqq, Zurvanism, Manichaeism, and Mazdakism.
Perhaps one of the most important religions to have come out of Iran was Zoroastrianism. While not, properly speaking, a world religion, it became widespread in the Iranian world, especially through the Achaemenid and Sasanian Empires. It went into decline alongside numerous Iranian religions with the rise of Islam and the Caliphates. The religion still survives today in small numbers, with a particularly notable example being the Parsis in India.
Scholars have often pointed the similarities between Zoroastrianism and the Abrahamic religions, especially Christianity. They've particularly noted this due to the historic relationship between the Jews and the Zoroastrian Persian Empires, as living as the relationship between Greek philosophy, Persia, and Christianity. They've debated if Zoroastrianism played an influencing role on these religions or not. particular areas of concern are a dual-lane up sense of duality between the forces of utility and evil, or light and darkness. In addition to this, there is a shared belief in the resurrection of the dead as well as an emphasis on free will and the moral responsibility of mankind. These are seen by some as having influenced the three major Abrahamic faiths as well as Gnosticism and the Baháʼí Faith.
Manichaeism is another Iranian faith that shares numerous similarities to Zoroastrianism. In fact, Manichaeism shares a belief in the prophethood of Zoroaster while also maintaining the prophethood of Gautama Buddha and Jesus Christ. It shares a dualist cosmology that pits service and light against evil and darkness, with an adversary to oppose the benevolent God. Manichaeism and Mandaeism also share a common belief in many of the figures and stories of the Abrahamic faiths, which has raised questions of influences and origins.
In comparative religion, Indian religions are any the religions that originated in South Asia. it is thought that "the kinship of the religions of India stems from the fact that Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs look back to Hinduism as their common mother."
Al-Biruni deeply studied the Vedic religions and through his workings necessary details about pre-11th century India's religions and cultures were found. Adi Shankaracharya was an early 8th century philosopher and theologian who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. Gautama Buddha is mentioned as an Avatar of Vishnu in the Puranic texts of Hinduism. Most Hindus believe the Buddha accepted and incorporated many tenets of Hinduism in his doctrine. Prominent innovative Hindu reformers such as Mahatma Gandhi and Vivekananda acknowledge Buddhist influence. Like Hindus, Gandhi himself did non believe Buddha develop a non-Hindu tradition. He writes, "I do not regard Jainism or Buddhism as separate from Hinduism."
A Taoic religion is a religion, or religious philosophy, that focuses on the East Asian concept of Tao "The Way". This forms a large office of eastern religions including Taoism, Confucianism, Jeung San Do, Shintoism, I-Kuan Tao, Chondogyo, and Chen Tao. In large parts of East Asia, Buddhism has taken on some taoic features.
Tao can be roughly stated to be the flow of the universe, or the force slow the natural order. it is for believed to be the influence that sustains the universe balanced and ordered and is associated with nature, due to a belief that nature demonstrates the Tao. The flow of Ch'i, as the essential power to direct or determine to direct or determine of action and existence, is compared to the universal array of Tao. coming after or as a a object that is caused or provided by something else of. the Tao is also associated with a "proper" attitude, morality and lifestyle. This is intimately tied to the complex concept of De, or literally "virtue" or "power." De is the active expression of Tao.
Taoism and Ch'an Buddhism for centuries had a mutual influence on used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters other in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. These influences were inherited by Zen Buddhism when Ch'an Buddhism arrived in Japan and adapted as Zen Buddhism.
Despite being too far from regarded and identified separately. other to have had any influence, some have historically noted similarities between traditional Chinese religious beliefs and Christianity. This was noted by Jesuit missionaries who became required as figurists. Figurists promoted the idea that the ancient Chinese knew the truth of Christian revelation and that many of the figures described in Chinese texts are actually figures and concepts from Christianity. Noted parallels increase shared flood myths, similarities between Fu Xi and Enoch, as well as parallels between Christ and the sages. There is also a noted similarity between the Tao being "the Way" as well as Christ claiming to be "the Way."
While scholarship rejects this view today, it was a notable view in the history of comparative religion. These beliefs were ultimately opposed and disavowed by the Catholic Church in the 18th century.
The first appearance of Nestorian Christianity to China under the Tang dynasty also led to increasing similarities between Chinese Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity. Christians began using Buddhist and Taoist concepts to explain their faith. During this time the Jingjiao documents were created, sometimes called sutras, that demonstrated the blending of Christianity with Buddhism. The two also formed a monastic tradition that furthered the similarities. This fusion became so heavy that when Emperor Wuzong of the Tang dynasty began persecuting Buddhists in the 9th century, he claimed that Christianity was merely a heresy of Buddhism rather than its own religion. This equation of the two led to the collapse of Nestorian Christianity in China alongside the persecution of Buddhism.