ANSWER:

Relationship between Christianity and Islam in The Middle Ages

Religion is a complex phenomenon involving an individual's beliefs, practices, and doctrinal systems that they regard as morally standard and sacred. Most importantly, religion consists of the interactivity between finite and the infinite. Historically, religion existed around the 16^th and 17^th centuries before the advent of written records.[1] The concept of religion was ambiguous, with neither the people nor the cultures having the ability to translate ancient sacred texts like the Bible and the Quran, which are fundamental in shaping ones’ view of religion.[2] However, the evolution and advancement in the human race during the middle age laid the premises on which world religions mushroomed. This was mainly through the promotion of Christianity in the western world, missions by the Buddhists to East Asia, and the spread of Islam in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, parts of Europe, and India. Predominantly, the difference of doctrinal teachings between Christians and Muslims have been outright. This paper acknowledges that amidst sharp differences, there exist similarities.

Nature of God

Christians are monotheistic and consider the nature of God as defined in their doctrines as God the Father, God the Son, and the holy spirit, which expresses oneness in trinity. They believe God is the ultimate supernatural power that created and ruled the universe. Christians have strong faith in God's existence and explain his nature through the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. They ascertain that God is omnipotent. This is evidenced by his creations and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They also believe in God's omnibenevolence, which explains the aspect of his love for humankind. The Christian belief also expresses God as just and fair in the book of psalms 25:8, Omniscient and transcendent. This explains the ability of God in knowledge and his existence beyond physical laws and human understanding.

The Islamic religion also subscribes to monotheism, which corresponds to the Christian belief in one God.[3] They refer to God as Allah and believe in Allah's oneness and unity that they refer to as Tawhid as expressed in the Shahadah. Shahadah propels the monotheistic belief there is no other God but Allah. Islamic religion also represents the inability of humans to fully comprehend Allah's nature despite having presented revelations to humans through prophets. Both Christianity and Islam are monotheistic religions and therefore believe in one God's existence.

Doctrine of Salvation

Christians believe that salvation is a gift of redemption from sin and its consequences by God’s grace through faith. Salvation in Christianity expresses God's grace and love upon humanity. It is a step towards conceiving a new relationship with God from the state of sinfulness. Preliminarily, the focus of Christianity dwells on the relationship between God to man and man to man.[4] Sin in either relationship affects the interaction between man and God. Therefore, Christians believe that salvation is a step of faith to amend the relationship between man and God contrary to the Islamic belief. Conclusively, Christians believe that God’s state of righteousness necessitates judgment for all sin and explains the purpose of Christ as an intermediary between God and man to intercede on behalf of humankind.

Islamic doctrines on salvation teach that gaining salvation is not on the premises of belief or deeds instead by the mercy of Allah, who is the standard merit of salvation. Despite that the Islamic religion is cognitive of human inclination towards sin, it states that repentance should not be used to commit further sins. Unlike Christians who seek deliverance from the state of sin itself, Muslims seek salvation from the punishment of sin.[5] They don't subscribe to the idea of restoration of the relationship between man and God since they believe the relationship was broken in its natural state. At this stage, one can only seek to get closer to Allah and attain salvation to escape judgment into paradise. Even though there are significant differences in the perception of salvation, they both believe that God is at the mercy of every human to pardon them of their wrongdoings.

The Nature of Sin

Christians consider sin as a transgression of divine laws defined in the Bible. Sin compromises the state of the relationship between God and man.[6] Consequently, this cuts off sinners from the presence of God, makes them insensitive to God's commandments, and subjects them to judgment. God is also affected by the humans' state of sinfulness, and he desires to restore the sinner. Fundamentally, Christianity views sin as a predicament of separation from God.[7]

Similarly, the Islamic religion views sin as actions against the teachings of Allah. Unlike Christianity, sin is not relational but actional.[8] Therefore, there is no grievance between Allah and man since their relationship is not mutual. This means that the sin of man only affects but not Allah. Sin only makes man liable to punishment as a consequence of not following the teachings of Allah. Despite both religions regarding sin as a transgression of respective divine laws, Christianity and Islam have different perceptions of sin. Evidently, the stature of Christianity defines the relationship of one with God. However, the Islamic religion believes that it's not by becoming the people of God that we behave in a specific way but by acting in a particular way that we become God's people.[9]

Bibliography

Ida Glaser, “The concept of Relationship as a key to the Comparative Understanding of Christianity and Islam,” Themelios 11.2 (January 1986): 57-60.

Köchler, Hans, ed. The Concept of Monotheism in Islam and Christianity. International Progress Organization, 1982.

McCall, Thomas H. Against God and Nature: The Doctrine of Sin. Crossway, 2019.

Nongbri, Brent. "2. Lost in Translation: Inserting "Religion" into Ancient Texts". Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept. Yale University Press. 

Pratt, Douglas, and Charles L. Tieszen. Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History Volume 15 Thematic Essays (600-1600). Brill, 2020.

Tonhaizer, Tibor. "Sins Causing Separation from God in the Thought of 16th-Century Hungarian Protestant Theologians." TheoRhēma 16, no. 1 (2021): 109-120.