Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics

Paper Info
Page count 2
Word count 536
Read time 3 min
Topic Religion
Type Thesis
Language 🇬🇧 UK

Hinduism can be defined as a religion that holds many beliefs and practices while Christianity holds specific beliefs. It would be a challenging task to give a comparison between the two religions although there are some unique similarities and differences. One major difference between Hinduism and Christianity is that Hinduism recognizes all religions and embraces them as valid and different from each other. According to Hinduism, all religions can be defined as the different means used to achieve one end. On the other hand, Christianity recognizes Christ as the only way to reach God. It does not recognize other religions and terms them as invalid (Jones 80)

Nature of the Sacred Scripture

The bible is a compilation of consecrated writings in Christianity. It is not one book but a collection of 66 books written over a long period of time. The Bible is in two parts: the old and the New Testament. All Christians believe the Bible is in some way the inspired word of God. When Christians refer to the Bible as inspired, they mean that the writers of the Bible appear to have been influenced by God (Orr 20). The Bible is the ability to enlighten Christians not only on what to accept as true but also on how to practice the faith. Christians do not agree that the Bible is the only authority, nor do they agree on the importance to be given to sections in the Old and New testaments. Some Christians accept other authorities as sources of knowledge from God to give details on how to live by God’s laws (Hocking 3).

The most sacred scriptures of Hinduism, the Vedas are looked upon by the tradition as terminologies of eternal truth that are exposed to humankind through perceptions at the beginning of every great extraterrestrial cycle. Resulting from the Sanskrit root vid, “to know”, the word Veda means “sacred knowledge”. Even though there are some Hindu groups that disregard or even lessen the importance of the Vedas, approval of their authority has been one of the few criteria that Hindus have used to decide which religious groups India could be reckoned as part of their tradition. Intellectuals have usually held that the Vedic texts were poised by Indo-European-speaking people known as the Aryans, who were moving into the Indian subcontinent (Stietencron 235).

Ethics

In Hinduism, there are many forms of truth for instance polytheism that extends afar reincarnation i.e. truth and the (level of) experience go hand in hand. In Christianity, Christ is the light and the sole truth. Christianity puts more emphasis on extending love to (our) neighbors whereas Hinduism insists that we are our own neighbors (Banner and Torrance 17).

Hinduism holy book teaching’s is on us trying all (four) paths, convinced that fulfillment can only be attained in the fourth path. As opposed to Hinduism (where experience prevails) Christianity is entirely based on faith and experience is not recognized. It is not Christianity (Burke 36). It is even a Christian heretical doctrine, but it is not idiocy. Both religions (especially in ancient) hold sacrifices to their God as a way of repenting their sins. They both command righteousness and faithfulness and failure to comply with them attract penalties.

References

Banner, Michael C. and Torrance, Alan J. The doctrine of God and theological ethics Theology and Philosophy. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006

Burke, Patrick T. The major religions: an introduction with texts. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004

Hocking, William John. Modern Problems and Christian Ethics. BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008

Jones, John P. India, Its Life and Thought. Los Angeles: Echo Library, 2009

Orr, Charles. The Gospel Day; Or, the Light of Christianity. Rockville: Wildside Press LLC, 2009

Stietencron, Heinrich Von. Hindu myth, Hindu history, religion, art, and politics. Andhra Pradesh: Orient Blackswan, 2005

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Reference

EssaysInCollege. (2022, May 23). Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics. Retrieved from https://essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/

Reference

EssaysInCollege. (2022, May 23). Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics. https://essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/

Work Cited

"Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics." EssaysInCollege, 23 May 2022, essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/.

References

EssaysInCollege. (2022) 'Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics'. 23 May.

References

EssaysInCollege. 2022. "Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics." May 23, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/.

1. EssaysInCollege. "Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics." May 23, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/.


Bibliography


EssaysInCollege. "Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics." May 23, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/.

References

EssaysInCollege. 2022. "Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics." May 23, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/.

1. EssaysInCollege. "Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics." May 23, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/.


Bibliography


EssaysInCollege. "Hinduism and Christianity: Nature of the Sacred Scripture, Ethics." May 23, 2022. https://essaysincollege.com/hinduism-and-christianity-nature-of-the-sacred-scripture-ethics/.