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What might be the benefits of studying religious faiths different from your own?
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God is love: to love our neighbor as ourselves means to understand who they are. Understanding the people of the world — all created in the image of God, and loved so much, that Jesus was given to all people and cultures — opens new vistas of understanding of others and ourselves, and the context one one’s own faith.
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By studying other religions, you can then not only understand why you believe in your faith but also know how to defend your faith and explain why it is true compared to others.
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I am searching for similarities among all the religions of the world, frankly because I believe that there is really one religion, what the Chinese call the Tao, “the way.” This is a belief system, an understructure, which is present in all religions such as some of the Christian commandments like “Thou shalt not kill.” I want to see such similarities among religions, but more so, I want to see the differences.
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I can think of no more influential piece of cultural identity than one’s religion. Religion has been at the root of more wars in the history of mankind than any other factor. So, at least, a study of different faiths than my own will help me understand better the international and domestic wars that are occurring in different parts of the world.
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broader perspective of what religion is about. greater understanding of the viewpoints from people with various religious background