¶ … Christian Attitude to Other World Religions -- a Five-Paragraph Essay of the Paradoxes of Tolerance and Intolerance
Christianity is, in many ways, a peculiar religion. Its early history is a series of paradoxes and its attitude towards other religions of the world continues to be paradoxical to this day. Christianity began as a subsidiary sect of Judaism. Eventually, Christianity became a religion predominantly composed of gentiles. The Christian religion began as a Messianic response to the institutions of Roman control and the Roman Empire. Later, the Christian religion was taken up as the official religion of Rome, after the revelation of the cross to the Emperor Constantine. Christianity began as a sect of a national religion, the Hebraic Israeli-based Judaism of Jesus. It eventually evolved into a portable (particularly in its Protestant incarnation) religion 'of the book,' a religion of many nations, and catholic in spirit (in the sense of attempting to be all-encompassing) as well...
Christianity began as a revolutionary sect -- its founder was crucified for the crime of sedition, and became an institutionalized state religion in many countries today, from England to Italy.
The attitude of Christianity towards other religious faiths has also been paradoxical. Born of Judaism, anti-Semitism has plagued the faith since its inception. The disappointment that Jews did not wholly reform and conform their religion to the interpretations of Jesus, many have suggested, is the reason for this rejection. Regardless, this hostility to Judaism and the religion from whence Christianity sprang can be seen in Saint Paul's angry diatribes against his own people, in Luther's frustration at his inability to win German converts to his new faith, and even in the script of Mel Gibson's "Passion" film today. More than half of the Christian Bible is the story of the Jewish people, yet the Jewish people have been defamed for the death…
