Western Faiths

The major Western faiths originated in the Middle East. The ancient faith of the Zoroastrians, which was influential in the development of religions in the Middle East, developed in Iran. The religions of the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims are closely interrelated. Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew, and the sacred scriptures of the Jews were adopted by the Christians to form the first part of their Bible. Six hundred years after Jesus, the Prophet Mohammed preached the Muslim religion in Arabia, but he was familiar with both the Jewish and Christian religions, and is regarded by Muslims as the final successor in a line of Prophets, which included Abraham and Jesus. These religions developed over the centuries in close contact with one another, even though they were often mutually intolerant of each other, frequently to the point of bloodshed or war.

 

Contacts with the religions of India were rare until relatively recently, although there were followers of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam in India from earliest times.