A Comparison of Christianity and Taoism

A comparison of

Christianity and Taoism

It is not precisely known when the concept of religion was first introduced to mankind but, it is thought to be pre-existed when the very first form of human civilization emerged. Thus, the religion always occupied the greatest part of human civilizations. As the civilization advanced, the religion also advanced. About two thousand years ago, there were few powerful countries which could exert both cultural and religious influence on the surrounding countries. Among them, Rome of the western part of the world and China of the eastern part of the world had developed their own religions, Christianity and Taoism respectively. Christianity is monotheism based on Judaism and is developed by disciples of Jesus Christ after his ascension thus, it originally was not developed by Rome but, Rome officially approved it as the national religion and it also played the most significant role in spreading Christianity throughout the entire Europe. Taoism can be described as the representative religion of China and her people. It consists of Taojia philosophy, Buddhism, Confucianism and other practical skills and is seeking immortality and benefits of present life through physical, mental training and praying for fortune. In this paper, these two religions are compared according to six concepts, the structure, the belief, the God, the suffering, the revelation and the salvation.

Firstly, the authority. The authority of Christianity is held by church. Only church and its priests or pastors hold authority to perform religious rituals and there is an organization whose main role is to protect its belief and persecute the heretics. It also has fully and well developed structure beside its organization overseeing and controlling the religion such as organizations to fight for human rights, freedom and peace, to save people from poverty and abuse etc. The believers called Christian are eager to do missionary works. However, the authority...