William P. Lazarus has taught religious history courses for 14 years. Mark Sullivan is a writer and editor who has studied comparative religion and philosophy extensively.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

Conventions Used in This Book 3

How This Book is Organized 4

Part I: History is a Happening Thing 4

Part II: The Development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 4

Part III: Shared Aspects of the Faiths 5

Part IV: Shared Ideas Among the Faiths 5

Part V: The Part of Tens 5

Part VI: Appendixes 5

Icons Used in This Book 5

Where to Go from Here 6

Part I: History is a Happening Thing 7

Chapter 1: One God, Three Faiths 9

Holy Toledo! How Many Gods are There? 9

Monotheism Develops 10

Egypt tries the one-god concept 11

Yahweh steps down from the mount 12

Following Abraham's Lead: Judaism 13

Josiah and his faith: The beginnings of Judaism 13

God becomes universal 14

God provides protection and an identity 15

Christianity: Crossing in a New Direction 16

Paul finds a way to link beliefs 16

The Christian message spreads through the empire 16

Islam: Submitting to God 17

Chapter 2: Following Abraham's Path 19

What We Do and Don't Know about the Historic Abraham 19

Taking a tour of Father Abraham's neighborhood 20

Following the laws of Abraham's time 21

Speaking Abraham's language 22

Practicing religion before Abraham came on the scene 22

Abraham's Early Years 23

The Beginnings of Judaism 24

Agreeing to the covenant 25

Isaac's close call demonstrates Abraham's love for God 25

Following the family tree 26

In Islam, Ishmael Finds a New Way 27

Jesus Joins the Genealogy 28

Three Faiths: One Founder 29

Part II: The Development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 31

Chapter 3: Judaism: Oy Vey, What a History! 33

From Abraham, Judaism Takes the Long Road 34

Like father, like son: The leaders after Abraham 35

Over the river and through the desert, to Pharaoh's land we go 35

Moses, Receiver of God's Laws 36

Relying on plagues and walls of water to escape slavery 37

Counting on the Ten Commandments 38

Joshua takes control 38

The Days of the Judges 39

The Time of Kings 39

David starts a dynasty 40

Solomon rules wisely 40

Splitting into two kingdoms 40

Getting Conquered: The Jews Find Themselves in Hot Water 41

Monotheism arrives 42

Living under foreign rule 42

Christianity's Emergence Puts the Jews on the Defensive (Yet Again) 43

How Jews Have Influenced Society 44

Emphasizing education 45

Inventing languages 46

Jewish humor: The joke's on everyone 46

Fulfilling their dreams in America 48

Dominating the silver screen 48

Flying the Blue and White Banner of Israel 49

Chapter 4: Judaism Finds God in Everything 51

A Little of This, A Little of That 52

Maintaining Daily Practice 52

Let us pray 53

Exploring the worship wardrobe 54

Keeping kosher 55

Remembering the Sabbath 57

Observing Jewish Holidays 58

High Holy Days: Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur 58

Passover: Recalling the great escape 59

Planting and harvesting holidays 61

Purim: A great reason to party 62

Hanukkah: In praise of victory and light 62

Other holidays 63

Understanding Jewish Rituals 64

Circumcision: No getting around it 64

Bar mitzvah: All grown up in God's eyes 65

Mazel tov! Celebrating a Jewish wedding 66

Understanding Jewish Symbols .67

The menorah 67

The ark 68

The Jewish star 69

Chapter 5: Jesus and the Origins of Christianity 71

Jesus's Life and Death 71

A remarkable birth 72

The few historical records of Jesus's life 73

Preaching and teaching God's word 74

Jesus's claims stir the pot and create controversy 75

A date with the cross 76

The First Believers 76

What the early followers believed 77

The first missionary of Jesus 78

A New Religion Grows 79

The destruction of the Temple fuels growth 79

Christians separate from Judaism 80

Christian practices: It's no mystery 80

The big time arrives: Legitimacy in the Roman Empire 81

Nicene council sets the belief 82

The Greeks split while the Romans grow in influence 83

It's Hard to Keep Everyone Happy 84

Martin Luther spells out his displeasure 85

Protestants reform, the Church counterreforms, and fighting ensues 86

The rise of science in a Christian world 87

Conflict revives Armageddon ideas 88

Christianity Today 88

Chapter 6: Christian Beliefs and Practices 91

The First Noel: Christmas and the Roots of Christianity 92

Why a holiday for the Nativity? 93

Why December? 93

Other Christian Holidays 95

Hallelujah! He is risen: Easter 95

A solemn and somber season: Lent 97

A weekly holy day: The Sabbath 98

Happening upon Christianity's Holy Sites 99

Seeing how sites become holy 99

Wandering around Rome and the Vatican 99

Rituals: Outward Expressions of Faith 100

One bread, one body: Communion 101

Welcoming new Christians through baptism 102

Celebrating additional sacraments 103

The Different Symbols of Christianity 103

The old rugged cross 103

What's the bright idea behind halos? 106

Fish, lamb, doves, and more 106

Many Christians, Many Sects 106

Chapter 7: The Birth of Islam: The Prophet Submits to Allah 109

Islam, Born in the Desert 109

All roads lead to Mecca 110

Meccans become traders with the world 111

The Prophet Arrives 111

Muhammad's early life 112

Starting out as an average guy 112

Beginning of a faith 113

Solitude leads to action 114

The faith develops: Introducing the five pillars 114

Writing the Koran 115

Muhammad Takes Command 117

Spreading the new faith 118

The Farewell Sermon 119

Breakdown at the Start-Up: Sunnis and Shi'ites Can't Get Along 119

Choosing a leader causes strife early on 120

How Sunnis and Shi'ites practice Islam 121

The Ottoman Turks Dominate Islam 123

Chapter 8: Islam: Submission of the Faithful 125

The Core of Islam: One God with Muhammad as His Last Prophet 125

Allah: The Almighty of Islam 126

The history of Allah 127

Allah's divine role 128

The Pillars of the Faith 129

First pillar: Creed (Shahada) 129

Second pillar: Prayer (Salat) 130

Third pillar: Purifying tax (Zakat) 131

Fourth pillar: Fasting (Sawm) 132

Fifth pillar: Pilgrimage (Hajj) 133

Meeting Some Muslim Sects 133

Ahmadiyya 134

Ismailis 134

Kahrijites 134

Kurds 135

Sufis 135

Wahhabis, or Muwahiddun 135

Gender Equality in Islam 136

Observing Muslim Holidays 137

Ramadan 137

Hijra: Turning the page to a new year 137

Ashurah: A day of many remembrances 138

Id Milad al-Nabi: Marking Muhammad's birth and death 138

Id al-Adha: Honoring Abraham's dedication to God 138

Lailat al-Baraa: Seeking and granting forgiveness 139

15th of Sha'ban: Shaking things up 139

27th of Rajab: A heavenly holiday 139

Getting to Know Saints in Islam 139

Common Rituals and Daily Practices 140

Getting hitched in Islam 140

Other ways of keeping the faith 141

Islam's dietary requirements 142

The Story Behind Symbols and Colors 143

Part III: Shared Aspects of the Faiths 145

Chapter 9: Reading the Holy Words 147

The Hebrew Bible 148

Sections of the Hebrew Bible 148

When were the books written? 149

When did the books become holy? 150

Understanding the Bible through JEPD 151

It's all Greek to me 151

The Christian Bible 152

The structure of the New Testament 152

Who wrote the books? 153

Where were they written? .153

When were the books written? 154

Drawing material from many sources 154

Jerome gets an assignment: Revise the Bible 155

The Koran 156

Revealing the Koran's history 156

Outlining the Koran's organization 157

Understanding the Texts 157

Translating can be such sweet sorrow 157

That's not what that says 158

I can read it, but what does it mean? 159

Things get really complicated in the Koran 159

Where are the originals? 160

Unrolling the Dead Sea Scrolls 161

What's in the Dead Sea Scrolls? 162

How do they help us translate the Bible? 163

Perusing Other Sacred Books 164

The insightful Talmud 164

The mysterious Kabbalah 165

Christians stick with the original reference book 166

The Hadith collects Muhammad's sayings and teachings 166

Chapter 10: Houses of Prayer 169

Early Sacred Sites: Stone Mounds and Altars 169

The Many Lives of the Temple in Jerusalem 171

The Temple's significance to the Jews 172

The Temple's destruction 172

A new Temple rises 173

A battle for the Temple and its rededication 173

Romans defile the Temple 174

Herod's version of the Temple 175

The Romans' view of the Temple 175

The Romans burn the Temple 176

Synagogues become the Jewish houses of prayer 178

Christians Choose Churches 179

The churches of early Christians 179

Church design evolves 180

Artistry and music abound 181

Byzantine style moves in .182

Later styles emerge,...