Critical Reflection Of Western Religions

Going into this course I was fairly confident in my Anabaptist Christian beliefs. My motivation for taking this course was to be able to understand and sympathize with the other major, monotheistic Western religions, Judaism and Islam, and see how they were connected to Christianity. 

I wanted to rid myself of any stereotypes or preconceived notions about what these traditions are about and gain a fuller understanding about why people of these faiths believe what they believe and live the way they live.

As the term went on though I realized that even if I didn’t see eye-to-eye with the beliefs and practices of the other religions, because Judaism and Islam were also monotheistic, were centred on divine revelation, authoritated by Scripture, and shared many of the same ancestors and prophets, the general belief systems or hermeneutical frameworks for these traditions are ones that I could easily fall into and ones that myself and many other Christians have definitely fallen into even if it doesn’t manifest as Judaism or Islam.

To me it seems many Christian churches actually go by the way of Judaism, as defined in this course as “the Way of Torah”. 

For example, any church that focuses its preaching on telling people they will go to hell for certain behaviours or living a certain way, or that some people are lesser than others, or that they are required to make sacrifices such as indulgences or confessions to make up for sins, to me seem to be advocating for people to believe in law (whether it be from Moses or elsewhere in the Bible) as the solution to a problem of sin and see sin in the Jewish way of simply being evil inclination that leads to evil consequences from God. 

Through taking this course I’ve realized I’ve also had a Jewish mindset at times. I have often believed that there are specific things I need to do and follow to be “a good Christian” or to not disappoint God thus imposing law on myself (and sometimes others). 

Learning about the Muslim tradition, “the Way of Submission”, made me realize ways I’ve often drifted toward this general framework as well despite calling myself Christian. Through essays and such I had written in the past, I had come to the conclusion that the purpose of life is to align our will with God’s will, or in other words to submit ourselves to God. 

At times I reasoned that if only I could live exactly how God wants me to live, if only I could train myself to always make decisions that are in line with God’s will, then I would gain God’s approval and I would live a happy life because I wouldn’t do things that would be harmful to myself or others. This is basically the concept of Jihad in Islam, the Jihad that refers to the internal struggle to live out the Muslim faith as well as possible which means disciplining oneself in order to not drift into a careless, sinful way of living that causes one to forget the significance of and their reliance on Allah which is done by following the five pillars, and abiding by shari’ah law, most importantly the halal and haram parts of it.

The Christianity unit of this course helped to refresh my memory on concepts I have previously learned and gave me new perspectives and knowledge on Christian theology and history. It reminded and reinforced my belief that love is central to who God is and how we’re supposed to live which is why I believe so strongly in Christianity. 

As we went over, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and love your neighbour as yourself. Jesus not only taught this but lived it in his life and through giving up his own human body and life with all the potential it had by allowing himself to be hung on a cross.

Through this course I’ve come to fully understand that believing in “the Way of the Cross” means not worrying about not following law like in Judaism because sinful acts and ways of living can be forgiven by both God and fellow human beings, and the Holy Spirit can guide us to live in a way aligned with God’s will despite the ontological separation that exists between us and God during our time on Earth.

Unlike in Islam where the belief is that one has to submit and do the right things to live according to God’s will, in the Christian perspective God’s will is love and all one has to do is declare faith in the grace and love of God to recieve the Holy Spirit and live out this love. Love is only truly love if it is of free will. 

Without threat of punishment for sin, or being bound by law or religious expectations, and with the promise of being fully reunited, restored, and completed by God through Jesus after death, Christians have complete freedom to love God and others out of their own hearts and can live life with the purpose of building of a kingdom of love, the kingdom of God on Earth as it is in heaven. 

All of this is made possible and justified by God coming to Earth, living a human life as Jesus, fulfilling the laws given in Torah by demonstrating the true, right way to live, dying on the cross, resurrecting from death, and ascending to heaven leaving the Spirit with whoever believes in and tries to follow him.

So although I’ve gained a lot of knowledge and facts about the history, beliefs, and traditions of the three religions of the West which will be useful in future interactions and relationships with people who come from these different traditions, this isn’t the main takeaway from the course for me. 

For me, learning the general frameworks of these religious traditions and how they are interconnected was most important for me because it helped me come to a greater awareness and understanding of my own way of thinking and beliefs.