Islam vs. Christianity - Essay Example

Nonetheless, this essay will address the comparison between Islam and Christianity from the historical perspective, as well as how the significance of these religions in society, especially with regard to the influence these might have on rulers in society. The rise of Christianity can be traced from the early Byzantine and Justinian Empires. Emperor Justinian I championed the Christian culture, which is evident in various levels of the Byzantine culture. Justinian is heralded for shaping church policies.

He therefore, got rid of the former religious practices, including the practice of paganism. For instance, Justinian declared an expulsion for pagan teachers for the academy of Athens (The Metropolitan Museum of Art web). Overall, it is during the early Benzatium that Christianity spread, and replaced the gods of antiquity. On the other hand, the spread of Islamic religion can be traced to the Abbasid dynasty. The Abbasid dynasty is highly associated with the rise of civilization. This later spread to other parts of the empire.

In addition to various aspects of civilization in this dynasty, there was progress in science and this led to the development of Islamic sciences, which fell under the category of religious sciences. Nonetheless, this comprised branches such as Hadith, Fiqh, and Tafsir. The dominant religion in Abbasid dynasty was, therefore, Islam. However, there was religious tolerance in the dynasty. There is a relationship between religion and power, especially, when focus is on the past civilizations. The rulers in past societies drew considerably on religion to rule their subjects (Brisch Web).

An example of this is the aspect of divine kingship in Mesopotamia. Basing the notion of religion, Naram-Sin of Akkad, who was the first ruler of Mesopotamia, declared himself a divine king. This aspect is also called self-deification. Other rulers that took up self-deification include Shulgi (2095–2049 BCE) of the Third Dynasty of Urm, Rim-Sin of Larsa (1822–1763 BCE) and Hammurabi of Babylon (1792–1750 BCE) (Brisch Web). Nonetheless, in self-deification, the kings compared themselves gods, who needed to be worshipped, like the one divine God.

Nonetheless, a major reason for this was to prove that they were powerful, and to expand their area influence, as well as legitimize their powers. Rulers in some of the past civilizations also used religion to guide people. Nonetheless, the laws of some civilizations in the past were drawn from religion. However, the relationship between law and religion is changing throughout history (Barzilai Web). The use of natural law in past societies can be closely associated with religion. Nonetheless, among the Israelites, the Mosaic Law, including the Ten Commandments was used.

These were considered as laws from God himself. In the epic of Gilgamesh, the rulers had a different perception of the gods. Mainly, the rulers feared and revered the gods, as they considered the gods dangerous. Therefore, in this case, self-deification as in the case of Mesopotamia was impossible, as the gods would possibly destroy any ruler that would attempt this (Carnahan Web). In addition, the gods in the epic of Gilgamesh were considered dangerous for humans. For instance, unlike in the Mosaic Law and Abrahamic covenant, the gods in the