A Tentative Comparative Study Of Fundamental Doctrines Of Christianity & Islam

Religious issues are equally important to stability and development both for any country and for the whole world. But unfortunately numerous people have various misunderstandings of some religions. Christianity and Islam, as two greatest religions in the world, are two of representative examples. So this thesis is intended to study comparatively fundamental doctrines between Christianity and Islam and thus draw a conclusion that in current situation, on the one hand, it is worthwhile to pay enough attention to religion at home and abroad to improve understanding and guarantee stability, and that, on the other hand, religion must be adapted and contribute to the country's construction.In order that we can make a comparison between Christianity and Islam from an impartial point of view, two issues about Islam must be clarified first — woman's status and violence in Islam, both of which many people feel very interested in. The role of women in Islam has been misunderstood by most people, even including some Moslems. And what's more, many individuals regard violence as one of characteristics of Islam. All these are because of general ignorance of the Islamic system and way of life as a whole.Christianity and Islam have many fundamental differences in their basic doctrines. All their doctrines are mainly from their respective Scriptures — namely, the Holy Bible and the Noble Koran. According to the Holy Bible, the basic doctrines of Christianity are (1) the Trinity, (2) the Divinity of Jesus Christ,(3) the Divine Sonship of Jesus, (4) the Original Sin, and (5) the Atonement. Accordingly, from the Noble Koran come the essential doctrines of Islam: (1) the Unity of God, (2) the belief both in the Prophets, including Jesus, raised by God among all the nations of the world and in the Revelations sent down by God to the Prophets to guide human beings to truth and righteousness, (3) the sinlessness of man at birth and his capacity for unlimited moral and spiritual progress (through belief in God and faithful adherence to the inspired teachings of the Prophets), and(4) personal accountability for one's actions.It seems to people that Christianity and Islam have little in common. They find many contradictions existing between the two religions. Actually, there are more similarities between them than most people think. The most important similarity between them is their concept of God. The most obvious commonness is the legends in the Holy Bible and the Noble Koran. The last but not the least, there are many positive social and religious regulations and prohibitions in the Noble Koran, for example, ban of lechery, of greed, of dirty foods, and encouragement of charity, which can be found similar to the lections in the Holy Bible.Since our country has provided religion with such a relatively tolerant environment, religion should be suited to socialist economic construction and suited to socialist culture. So whether the purse is to promote the progress of society or to promote the cultural development, religion is one of the fields that deserve study most. It may be used as a tool to spread superstition, to instigate disruption and sequentially to jeopardize social stabilization and it can contribute to publicizing and exchanging cultures of nationalities, to promoting the unity of nationalities and thus to easing social conflicts. Therefore, what is important now is neither to create conditions for religion development nor to take measures to restrain and eradicate religion. What must be done now is, instead, to reinforce management and lead religion properly to reasonable development so that it can adapt itself to social development.