Impossible Syncretization: Confucianism and Judaism - Essay Example

Full Impossible Syncretization Judaism is a religion that is composed of many disciplines. These disciplines start whilea person is still in his early learning stages; it should be mentioned that practice of discipline is implemented on a person, especially the males, while they are not yet able to understand what could happen to them. At the age of eight days, a son is circumcised in adherence to the Abrahamic practice passed on for generations among the Jews to identify them from other people who are not chosen by God.

A child is taught the practices of Judaism at an early age so that by the time he is able to understand and decide about other religions, his beliefs are already unshakeable. This is the reason why, when Confucianism was to syncretize Judaism, it would not be as easy compared to syncretizing other religions. Judaism believes that there is only one God, the creator of all things, humans and animals and that He is above all his creations, able to deicide on what to do with them according to his personality, that is, Provider, Healer, Righteous Judge, Sanctuary and many more.

They strongly believe in a God who is able to do impossible things like the seemingly mythological events in the Jewish Bible. They recognize their being chosen as a people to enjoy the protection and power of God. They believe that the patriarch Abraham was appointed to sire a son who would become a great nation, Israel. During his old age, the promised son, Isaac was born but God gave him a great test that endangered the life of his son. Nevertheless, Abraham obeyed God by faith and he was rewarded with the life of Isaac being spared.

Israelites admire and look up to Abraham for the example of faith that he has shown, but they do not worship him because they understand that Abraham is but a man like them. On the other hand, Confucianism worships Confucius, the founder of the religion, a mere man like his followers, a despicable act in the eyes of Judaism. One of the strong characteristics of Judaism is monotheism. They worship only one God, the Creator of heaven and earth not like other religions which believe in a higher power but still worship men who walked this earth.

Such strong belief is strengthened by the face to face interaction of the Jewish forefather, Moses who brought the Israelites out of bondage from Egypt to the wilderness where they stayed for forty years before going to the Promised Land, Israel. God gave his commandments to the Israelites through Moses and on top of the list is the avoidance of worshipping other gods like the sun, moon, animals or other people, and this distinguishes Judaism from other religions like Confucianism. Syncretizing Judaism with Confucianism would be like asking a Jew to worship one of God’s creations who had great ideas that influenced the thinking of other people and became popular until today.

A Jew might not comprehend it as mentioned earlier. What could probably make it more difficult to syncretize Judaism is the fact that they do not just stick to the cultures, traditions and beliefs passed on to them from their forefathers; they pass their religion to their children at a very young age, making them strong in such beliefs that allowing other religions to penetrate their system would be impossible.