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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Brief Guide To the Study of Islam: Anthropology and Soteriology II. Introduction Questions about human nature and destiny appeared among humans at almost the dawn of civilization, and may be definitive of humanity itself. However, the universality of these questions should not blind us to the fact that they have been formulated in very different ways by different cultures and different religions.

In Christianity and Islam there is the shared assumption that both the nature and destiny of humanity are found in the purposes of God. Both Christianity and Islam place the question of humanity in its relationship to the one transcendent God at the center of religion. And both see that relationship as problematic. Yet profound differences arise between them. For the Christian religious tradition that problematic relationship arises when humanity grasps for itself the prerogatives of God.

The essence of idolatry is God remade in a human image, or something even lower, and is rooted in humanity's rebellion against God's command. In the Christian tradition the sin of humanity is more than just specific acts, it is a fundamental characteristic of humanity after the Fall, dominating the whole life of a humanity powerless to overcome it or deny it its bitter fruits of death and evil.

The first followers of Jesus were anxiously awaiting a Messiah, a Savior who could deliver them from sin. The salvation which they awaited was conditioned by an extensive tradition of Jewish reflection on sin, on Israel's history, on the position of the individual, the nation, and the world in relation to God, and on God's plan for human history.

Christian theology was determined by the ways in which Jewish hopes were met, redefined, and extended by the person of Jesus and the content of his preaching. The followers of Jesus discovered that the destiny of humanity is to be restored to full humanness by the eradication of sin and the re-establishment of God as God in human life through faith in Jesus as the Christ.

Both the pervasiveness of sin, and the comprehensiveness of the grace required to destroy it, are reflected in the Christian theology of atonement through God's sacrifice of the Son, and the eschatological images of the Kingdom of God found at the center of the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus as the sinless man capable of making and being the sacrifice on the cross is also the image of authentic humanity, the new Adam.