what are the differences between muslim and catholic theology?

[Big_Dummy]

granted muslims denies the Trinity, deity of Christ, Resurression of Jesus, what else?

 

[Cat_Herder]

Islam posits a master-slave relationship between Allah and humans.

Catholicism instead teaches a familial relationship in which God is our Father and even our Brother. That of course means we are all God’s children and all siblings within the Communion of Saints.

 

[Nine_Two]

Mainstream Islam holds that Muhammed was the seal of the prophets, although various sects hold to later prophets.

 

[Claire_from_DE]

Jesus reiterated the Jewish concept that God desires us to love Him above everything and that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. Then Jesus took it further by teaching that we are to act as a neighbor to everyone. And He went even further by telling us to love one another as He loved us.

Islam doesn’t seem to me to be a religion of love but more of a tribal religion. The members love their own but not others outside of their religion. They would like to compel all to submit to God and to the leadership of their religion. This justifies the wish of the extremists to destroy those who refuse to accept their beliefs.

To me, Catholicism is based on loving God and Islam is based on fearing God. To a Muslim, it would be presumptuous to call God ‘Father’ as Jesus told us to do. Catholics consider that Jesus made it possible for us to be God’s children. St. John said, “We are God’s children now…”. Muslims consider themselves to be God’s slaves.

Both religions have in common the concept that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Muslims don’t believe that the One God is a trinity of persons. They deny that Jesus is the eternal Son of the Father who became man and who died to reconcile us to God and who rose from the dead. To them, Jesus is a prophet. They think that what is written in the New Testament is lies about Jesus that were written by Christians.

 

[Claire_from_DE]

granted muslims denies the Trinity, deity of Christ, Resurression of Jesus, what else?

Since these things are the basis of Christianity, all the differences in theology would go back to exactly what you have stated.

Catholics deny that the angel Muhammad claimed he saw was from God. So we deny the basis of their religion too.

There were many many people who saw Jesus die and who saw Him during the forty days following His resurrection. Muhammad is the only one who saw the angel…

 

[WetCatechumen]

I have to second the master-assertions. Of course, we can’t deny that a part of this is part of Christianity because we use that language too (dominus = master, servus = slave, we mistranslate them as Lord and servant respectively).

But as one of my Lebanese friends (Maronite) explained to me, Muslims believe that God is a will whereas Christians believe he is a nature. God is good, and therefore it goes against his nature to alter his decrees or to treat people unjustly - so he doesn’t. However, whatever Allah declares as his will is what is just - and it can change from one day to the next.

 

[Contarini]

granted muslims denies the Trinity, deity of Christ, Resurression of Jesus, what else?

This seems like an odd question to me. These are the key issues from which everything else flows. It’s like saying, “What do atheists and theists differ on other than the existence of God?”

Edwin

 

[Contarini]

I have to second the master-assertions. Of course, we can’t deny that a part of this is part of Christianity because we use that language too (dominus = master, servus = slave, we mistranslate them as Lord and servant respectively).

But as one of my Lebanese friends (Maronite) explained to me, Muslims believe that God is a will whereas Christians believe he is a nature. God is good, and therefore it goes against his nature to alter his decrees or to treat people unjustly - so he doesn’t. However, whatever Allah declares as his will is what is just - and it can change from one day to the next.

Well, there are Christians who believe this as well. Many would argue that William Ockham and some other late medieval Catholic theologians thought in this way (Duns Scotus perhaps as well, though in a highly nuanced sense). Many Protestants think this way, though with the dominance of Thomism this view has pretty much died out among Catholics, and I don’t think it was ever held by Orthodox.

Also, I’m not sure that all Muslims believe this. When the Pope made a claim to that effect, he was criticized by Muslims and scholars of Islam, who pointed out that the theologian he chose to emphasize was not typical of Islam as a whole. And that’s before you take Sufism into account. . . . .

I think there’s definitely a difference in this regard, but I think it’s more of a spectrum–some Christians are at the same point as Muslims, or even more toward the “pure will” end of the spectrum than some Muslims. But certainly Islam seems on the whole more favorable to this way of thinking about God than Christianity.

Another point to consider with regard to Cat Herder’s claim is that the word “familia” in Latin (or “oikos” in Greek) originally included slaves. So much of the language in the Latin liturgy about being members of God’s family had a very different set of connotations than such language has today. Even parent-child relationships were much closer to master-slave relationships (though certainly never identical) than they are today. So much of what Christians glibly take to be a Christian-Muslim difference may partly be due to changing definitions of the family, and of interpersonal relationships generally, in the Western world. Ancient Christians certainly thought a lot more like Muslims in this regard than most modern Christians do (in terms of seeing God as an awe-inspiring authority figure). Maybe in certain respects they were closer to Muslims than they were to us.

So I think we should be careful about these claims, without denying that there really does seem to be at the very least a difference of emphasis between the two religions.

Edwin

 

[wwolverine]

1. Muslims limitation on God, ie He cannot become a man
2. Muslim have to pray only in one direction which points to makka,( which was changed frm Jerusalem), Where as Christian can pray annd face all over as God is everywhere.
3. Muslims stll follow the OT of offering sin sacrifice, but they they dont know about it. ie sacrificing goats or sheep.
4. Muslims have prayer seggration.
5. Muslimss say they believe in all prophets who came, but dont have any proof other than the names in their quran. ( books of psalms ad ten commandments are missing and even the teaching of forgivenes taught by Jesus are missing.

 

[Contarini]

1. Muslims limitation on God, ie He cannot become a man

Yes, I think this is a really good talking point with Muslims, given their emphasis on God’s power.

1. Muslim have to pray only in one direction which points to makka,( which was changed frm Jerusalem), Where as Christian can pray annd face all over as God is everywhere.

Though traditionally Christians face east.

1. Muslims have prayer seggration.

So do Christians in some cultures, right?

Edwin

 

[wwolverine]

Yes, I think this is a really good talking point with Muslims, given their emphasis on God’s power.

Though traditionally Christians face east.

So do Christians in some cultures, right?

Edwin

Thnks Edwin, but you left 3 and 5. any particular reason?

God Bless

 

[Contarini]

Thnks Edwin, but you left 3 and 5. any particular reason?

God Bless

I didn’t have anything to say about them. I know that Muslims do offer a kind of sacrifice during the hajj, but I’m a bit confused as to what they think they are doing (you seem to be suggesting that they are confused as well). I have also heard that Ethiopians and maybe Armenians have similar practices (talking about Christians here).

I’m not sure I understand point 5, though I take your general point to be that Muslims use the name of the prophets, but have at best a tenuous connection to the actual teachings/writings of these prophets (including Jesus, who of course to us is a lot more than a prophet!). I would agree with that. Certainly Jews think we misinterpret the prophets (and to some extent we would return the charge, at least in the sense that we think there’s more to the prophets than Jews recognize), but at least we do have their writings and acknowledge them as inspired Scripture.

Edwin

 

[elwill]

granted muslims denies the Trinity, deity of Christ, Resurression of Jesus, what else?

these are the core differences between islam and christianity , most of other aspects are similar .

i can’t think about any other critical differences in core beliefs

 

[elwill]

1. Muslims limitation on God, ie He cannot become a man

God have the ability to become anything , who said that he can’t ?

1. Muslim have to pray only in one direction which points to makka,( which was changed frm Jerusalem), Where as Christian can pray annd face all over as God is everywhere.

we can pray in any direction and in anytime , it’s just when it come to ritual of salaht prayer then it must be in the direction of mekkah , isn’t their rituals in christianity where you should practice inside the church ?

1. Muslims stll follow the OT of offering sin sacrifice, but they they dont know about it. ie sacrificing goats or sheep.

just curious if jesus in NT prohibited sacrificing goats or sheep ?

1. Muslimss say they believe in all prophets who came, but dont have any proof other than the names in their quran. ( books of psalms and ten commandments are missing and even the teaching of forgivenes taught by Jesus are missing.

OP asked about differences
i think that muslims and christians believe generally in prophets of OT , argument in this point is useless for OP question

 

[Reuben_J]

i can’t think about any other critical differences in core beliefs

Probably there are more areas where one can find critical differences in the two religions - and I would say they are critical. By critical I mean the consequence of doing them would be damnation.

I will lay out a few here:

(1) Marriages - it is a deadly sin for Christians to have more than one wife at any one time.

(2) Carnal punishment - Christians will not impose physical punishment for moral sin let alone putting someone to death for it.

(3) Christians do not believe that Mohammad is a prophet nor do they believe that his teaching comes from God. Therefore to believe what Mohammad taught would be a mortal sin for Christians.

(4) The command to kill. There is no such command in Christianity.

The following may be the lesser differences (depends on how one looks at them, they can be critical differences too):

(1) Dietary law

(2) Islam condoning lying in some situations

(3) Islam’s an eye for an eye Vs Christianity’s turning the other cheek.

(4) Islam’s love of their own kind Vs Christianity’s love of neighbors.

(5) Islam’s belief that prophets could not do any wrong and sin.

(6) Different understanding of who were the prophets and who were not respectively in Islam and Christianity.

(7) Islam’s only pray for their own fellow Muslims Vs Christianity’s can pray for anybody.

Those I can think of at the moment but there are probably more that I may miss.

 

[elwill]

Probably there are more areas where one can find critical differences in the two religions - and I would say they are critical. By critical I mean the consequence of doing them would be damnation.

I will lay out a few here:

(1) Marriages - it is a deadly sin for Christians to have more than one wife at any one time.

(2) Carnal punishment - Christians will not impose physical punishment for moral sin let alone putting someone to death for it.

(3) Christians do not believe that Mohammad is a prophet nor do they believe that his teaching comes from God. Therefore to believe what Mohammad taught would be a mortal sin for Christians.

(4) The command to kill. There is no such command in Christianity.

The following may be the lesser differences (depends on how one looks at them, they can be critical differences too):

(1) Dietary law

(2) Islam condoning lying in some situations

(3) Islam’s an eye for an eye Vs Christianity’s turning the other cheek.

(4) Islam’s love of their own kind Vs Christianity’s love of neighbors.

(5) Islam’s belief that prophets could not do any wrong and sin.

(6) Different understanding of who were the prophets and who were not respectively in Islam and Christianity.

(7) Islam’s only pray for their own fellow Muslims Vs Christianity’s can pray for anybody.

Those I can think of at the moment but there are probably more that I may miss.

i’m not sure if the OP was asking about such deep details , i thought he was asking about the core beliefs about God , not how we marry or how we pray or how we fast or even what is holiday in both relegion

 

[Reuben_J]

i’m not sure if the OP was asking about such deep details , i thought he was asking about the core beliefs about God , not how we marry or how we pray or how we fast or even what is holiday in both relegion

Maybe you are right. He does not list any religion which he belongs to.

Believing in what the consequence of the difference may be, I thought it would be critical difference if the consequence will lead to our damnation.

 

[Reuben_J]

i’m not sure if the OP was asking about such deep details , i thought he was asking about the core beliefs about God ,

I was thinking along the line that one god could say do this and you would go to heavenly paradise while the other would say if you do that you will certainly go to hell. Seeing such a marked contrast between the two gods, they could hardly be the same being thus would constitute big difference in the belief of what God is like to the two religions respectively.

not how we marry or how we pray or how we fast or even what is holiday in both relegion

probably there is little or no difference in how we fast and pray but there is definitely in the area of marriages.

 

[elwill]

I was thinking along the line that** one god could say do this and you would go to heavenly paradise while the other would say if you do that you will certainly go to hell.** Seeing such a marked contrast between the two gods, they could hardly be the same being thus would constitute big difference in the belief of what God is like to the two religions respectively.

actually my God is one , and he said the two things .
1- do this and you would go to heavenly paradise
2-if you do that you will certainly go to hell

do you wanna to say that god in christianity will not cast anyone into the hell

probably there is little or no difference in how we fast and pray but there is definitely in the area of marriages.

we don’t eat or drink anything from sunrise to sunset in our fast

 

[Bob_Troutman]

Muslims have temporary marriages. They can have a marriage that lasts only one night.
A female child of any age can be given in marriage. Even a baby girl can be given in a temporary marriage. The man practices what is called “thighing it.” He masturbates on the baby. This practice goes back to Mohammad who took a child for a wife and practiced “thighing it” until she was 9 years old when he consummated the marriage.