Do people in all religions worship the same God? Many people say yes, others say no – how would we even know?
Carson T. Clark writes
“I’m distrustful of simplistic answers and am inclined to reply, “No, but they’re theological, historical, cultural, geographical, and ethnic cousins in their origins…” – Are Islam’s Allah and Christianity’s God the Same Deity?
Stephen Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University, has written “God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run The World” He writes:
“For more than a generation we have followed scholars and sages down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world where all gods are one … In fact this naive theological groupthink – call it Godthink – has made the world more dangerous by blinding us to the clash of religions that threaten us worldwide.”
Stephen Prothero argues that persistent attempts to portray all religions as different paths to the same God overlook the distinct problem that each tradition seeks to solve. For example:
Islam: the problem is pride: the solution is for all of humanity to submit to Allah through the teachings of Mohammed in the Quran ٱلۡقُرۡءَانُ .
Christianity: the problem is original sin: the solution is for all of humanity to gain salvation by accepting Jesus Christ as one’s lord and saviour.
Buddhism: the problem is that life is an endless cycle of death and rebirth (saṃsāra), with suffering, pain, ignorance, and bad karma. Thus Buddhism’s goal is to eventually separate from humanity and from one’s own self to reach nirvana, a kind of existence in which one no longer has connections to others.
Judaism: the problem is exile/separation from God, and exile from our ancestral homeland, Eretz Yisrael. The solution is to recognize that we’ve always been a part of God all along, devekut דבקות ; the solution is for our people to return to our homeland in Israel.
As Rabbi Micha Berger emphasizes about Judaism – A fundamental Jewish teaching is the Sh’ma Yisrael – “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” Why include the introduction to the entire community of Klal Yisrael? Why not just say “Believe that the Lord is god, the Lord is one”?” Judaism is not about the believer who believes alone – it is about a Jew who believes together with our kehilah.
Rabbi Professor Jacob Neusner asks us to carefully think about these questions:
The issue of verisimilitude versus authenticity need not detain us very long. Because things look alike, they are not necessarily alike and the same thing. I cannot overstress the fact: the monotheist religions concur with the principle that not all religions that declare God one are on that account the same. The task is to evaluate the differences in proportion and in context: to test the probative value of verisimilitude. We carry out the test by asking one monotheist religion its opinion of another monotheist religion: does it discern the similarities that appear obvious to us as outsiders?
Many Christians teach that we don’t all worship the same God. Rick Warren is an influential Southern Baptist evangelical Christian pastor and author. He answers –
“Of course not. Christians have a view of God that is unique. We believe Jesus is God! We believe God is a Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not 3 separate gods but one God. No other faith believes Jesus is God. My God is Jesus. The belief in God as a Trinity is the foundational difference between Christians and everyone else. There are 2.1 billion people who call themselves Christians… whether Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostal, or Evangelical… and they all have the doctrine of the Trinity in common. Hindus, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, Unitarians, and everyone else do not accept what Jesus taught about the Trinity.”
A symposium
Given that, from a theological perspective, God is central to human flourishing, what difference does the fact of religious diversity make to such a perspective? We may read the essays here at “Do we worship the same God? Yale Center for Faith and Culture”
Do we worship the same God? Yale Center for Faith and Culture
How should faiths relate to each other?
There’s no question that we all don’t believe the same thing. Monotheists believe in a god, atheists do not. Polytheists literally believe in the existence of multiple deities, while monotheists believe that no deities except but one, and so on.
There is a huge range of religious beliefs that have developed in human societies – polytheism, monotheism, atheism, and more. I was looking for an infographic that would show them in relation to each other. Since I didn’t find one, I created this infographic:
Yet even though we may disagree, that is no reason for people to have conflict. Major theologians within Judaism and all major world religions agree that no faith is an island.
The great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel writes
Our era marks the end of complacency, the end of evasion, the end of self-reliance. Jews and Christians share the perils and the fears; we stand on the brink of the abyss together. Interdependence of political and economic conditions all over the world is a basic fact of our situation. Disorder in a small obscure country in any part of the world evokes anxiety in people all over the world.
Parochialism has become untenable. There was a time when you could not pry out of a Boston man that the Boston state house is not the hub of the solar system or that one’s own denomination has not the monopoly of the holy spirit. Today we know that even the solar system is not the hub of the universe.
The religions of the world are no more self-sufficient, no more independent, no more isolated than individuals or nations. Energies, experiences and ideas that come to life outside the boundaries of a particular religion or all religions continue to challenge and to affect every religion… … No religion is an island. We are all involved with one another. Spiritual betrayal on the part of one of us affects the faith of all of us. Views adopted in one community have an impact on other communities.
…Should religions insist upon the illusion of complete isolation ? Should we refuse to be on speaking terms with one another and hope for each others failure ? Or should we pray for each other’s health, and help one another in preserving one’s respective legacy, in preserving a common legacy ?
No religion is an island, Union Theological Seminary Quarterly Review 21:2,1, January 1966
As such we need to have respectful Interfaith relations.
Books
God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run The World, Stephen Prothero, Harper
Stephen Prothero argues that persistent attempts to portray all religions as different paths to the same God overlook the distinct problem that each tradition seeks to solve. Delving into the different problems and solutions that Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, Yoruba Religion, Daoism and Atheism strive to combat – for example:
* Islam: the problem is pride / the solution is submission
* Christianity: the problem is sin / the solution is salvation
* Buddhism: the problem is suffering / the solution is awakening
* Judaism: the problem is exile / the solution is to return to God
Do We Worship the Same God? Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Dialogue: Miroslav Volf, Editor Miroslav Volf, 2012
This volume brings Jewish, Christian, and Muslim philosophers and theologians together to answer this question, offering rare insight into how representatives of each religion view the other monotheistic faiths. Each of their contributions uniquely approaches the primary question from a philosophical perspective that is informed by the practice of worship and prayer. Concepts covered include “sameness” and “oneness,” the nature of God, epistemology, and the Trinity.
“Do Jews, Christians & Muslims Worship the Same God?” By Martin Marty, Jacob Neusner, Baruch Levine, Bruce Chilton, Vincent Cornell, Abingdon Press, 2012
With so much rancor, can there be any common ground? Do different religions even worship the same God? And can religion, which often is so divisive, be any help at all? Four internationally known scholars set out to tackle these deceptively simple questions in an accessible way. Some scholars argue that while beliefs about God may differ, the object of worship is ultimately the same. However, these authors take a more pragmatic view. While they may disagree, they nevertheless assert that whatever they answers to these questions, the three faiths must find the will (politically, socially, and personally) to tolerate differences.
Do Jews, Christians, and Muslims Worship the Same God?: Neusner, Levine, Chilton, Cornell
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Daniel Edelstein writes: When Jews worship Jesus, hell no. Muslims worshipping Allah, yes. But it is a historically revisioned version of God, so it is like acknowledging Ronald Reagan as a great president but calling him a Democrat.
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Do Jews worship the same G-d? Do I worship the same G-d as my esteemed friends in my own Synagogue? Do we not define G-d’s characteristics in our own minds, based on our own inclinations and orientations. We all have different expectations of the degree to which G-d participates and directs our lives. In a sense, each person prays to and communicates with his own version of G-d and in that way each of us has his/her own G-d. Nevertheless, G-d is who G-d is. And G-d participates in our lives the way that G-d chooses to. Whether we are aware of what G-d does or not, that G-d is the same G-d. Are any of us really aware of what G-d really does, how G-d participates in our lives. G-d is not a silent partner, but instead G-d in our lives is more like the thousands of fans at a rock concert, but we only really hear the voice of our trusted friend, sitting next to us, when he is screaming, facing us, directing his words to us and only when we are facing him and carefully listening to him – and even then we barely hear him.
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