Judaism Views Other Religions

Aviezer Ravitzky

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper proceeds along two lines : conceptual and existential. Conceptually, Judaism looks at other religions from the viewpoint of three foundational concepts: creation, covenant and redemption. Other religions are also evaluated according to ontological, epistemological and ethical criteria. The question of good (the image of humanity promoted by that religion) was asked as well as the question of truth (the other religion's image of God).On the existential side, religions theologically closest to Judaism (Christianity and Islam) were perceived, historically, as actual rivals and an existential threat, whereas the more remote religions were seen as the ultimate other and therefore as less of an existential threat. Religious pluralism is almost self-evident: any revelation and any religious tradition is partial and finite . Empirically speaking, however, the different religions do not complement one another but compete for the same theoretical and historical terrain. Consequently, the alien religion cannot be viewed as one totality, and distinctions must be drawn among its various aspects: experience, faith, ethics, doctrine, and the status of the human being. The foregoing distinctions are well illustrated in Maimonides, showing that he used an array of categories and criteria to assess and judge Christianity and Islam and that the different criteria often led to different conclusions as to which was superior.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCurrents of Encounter
PublisherBrill Academic Publishers
Pages75-107
Number of pages33
DOIs
StatePublished - 2006

Publication series

NameCurrents of Encounter
Volume25
ISSN (Print)0923-6201

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2006 Brill. All rights reserved

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