Religious perspectives on Jesus

The religious perspectives on Jesus vary among world religions.[1] Jesus' teachings and the retelling of his life story have significantly influenced the course of human history, and have directly or indirectly affected the lives of billions of people, including non-Christians.[1][2][3] He is considered by many to be one of the most influential persons to have ever lived, finding a significant place in numerous cultural contexts.[4]

In Christianity, Jesus is the Messiah (Christ) foretold in the Old Testament and the Son of God. Christians believe that through his death and resurrection, humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life.[5] These beliefs emphasize that as the willing Lamb of God, Jesus chose to suffer in Calvary as a sign of his full obedience to the will of his Father, as an "agent and servant of God".[6][7] Christians view Jesus as a role model, whose God-focused life believers are encouraged to imitate.

In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is the Messiah and one of God's highest-ranked and most-beloved prophets. Islam considers Jesus to be neither the incarnation nor the Son of God. He is referred to as the son of Mary in the Qu’ran. Islamic texts emphasize a strict affirmation of monotheism (tawhid) and forbid the association of partners with God, which would be idolatry (shirk).

In the Druze faith, Jesus is considered one of God's important prophets and the Messiah.[8][9]

The Baháʼí Faith considers Jesus to be one of many manifestations of God, who are a series of personages who reflect the attributes of the divine into the human world. Baháʼís reject the idea that divinity was contained with a single human body.

Apart from his own disciples and followers, the Jews of Jesus' day generally rejected him as the Messiah, as do the great majority of Jews today. Mainstream Jewish scholars argue that Jesus neither fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah.

Other world religions such as Buddhism have no particular view on Jesus, and have but a minor intersection with Christianity.

For non-religious perspectives on Jesus, see historical Jesus.

  1. ^ a b The Blackwell Companion to Jesus edited by Delbert Burkett 2010 ISBN 1-4051-9362-X page 1 [1]
  2. ^ The Cambridge companion to Jesus edited by Markus N. A. Bockmuehl 2001 ISBN 0-521-79678-4 pages 156-157
  3. ^ The historical Christ and the Jesus of faith by C. Stephen Evans 1996, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-826397-X page v
  4. ^ Bauckham, Richard (2011). Jesus: A Very Short Introduction. United States: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0199575275.
  5. ^ Oxford Companion to the Bible p.649
  6. ^ The Christology of Anselm of Canterbury by Dániel Deme 2004 ISBN 0-7546-3779-4 pages 199-200
  7. ^ The Christology of the New Testament by Oscar Cullmann 1959 ISBN 0-664-24351-7 page 79
  8. ^ Hitti, Philip K. (1928). The Origins of the Druze People and Religion: With Extracts from Their Sacred Writings. Library of Alexandria. p. 37. ISBN 9781465546623.
  9. ^ Dana, Nissim (2008). The Druze in the Middle East: Their Faith, Leadership, Identity and Status. Michigan University press. p. 17. ISBN 9781903900369.

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