Sociology

Introduction
Christianity and Judaism are two religions that portray differences in many fundamental ways in spite that fact that they share historical roots. Judaism puts more stress on the actions and concentrates on the basic question of how deal with the eternal covenant that the Israelites made with God while on the other side Christianity is focused on the correct believe. Some Christian denominations are actually known to go so far to claim that the human being actions are irrelevant.  According to Rowland, Tuckett  Morgan (2006), Christianity is known to provide its believers with only what it believes to be important for salvation as indicated by the apostles of Christ in the book of Acts that is found in the Christian bible. Judaism provides the Jews with the details of the Gods covenant with Israelites and guides Jews on how to walk in gods ways, how to live a holy life on earth and how to bring peace, love and holiness into the world as well as every part of life so that it may be exulted to the level of sanctity.

The ritual of prayer and the nature of evil among Christianity and Judaism
Christianity and Judaism have however certain similar characteristics whose concepts are varied between the two religions. Christianity and Judaism are both closer and farther apart more than any two other religions. Both the Jews and the Christians know Christ on one side while on the other side they strongly differ on who he is. The major general difference between Judaism and Christianity is grounded on their different perceptions about Jesus. The Christians believe that they need a mediator between them and god, who is Jesus Christ while the Jews believe in a direct approach to God (Schwartz  Poorthuis, 2004, p.3). In prayer both Judaism and Christianity pray to God though the Christians pray through saints and Jesus Christ who was also a Jew while the Jews pray directly to God. From the start Christianity has shown a lot of respect for the saints while in Judaism the opposite seems to have taken place. The veneration of the prophets and saints among the Jews has waned since they dont believe in the significance of these people in their prayers to God. The Jews only care about maintaining respecting the covenant that God made with their ancestors. The veneration and divination of the ancient prophets was originally began by the Jews and later adopted by Christians resulting in waning respect for this practice among the Jews.

Christianity is categorized by its claim to universality which creates much difference from the current Judaism. The Christians consider that Jesus is the fulfilment of Gods promise to the nation of Israel and Abraham and that the nation of Israel will be a blessing to all people. Judaism main belief is that god is the creator of the universe and that he endorsed human beings with the ability to willingly choose between good and evil. Since God is the creator of everything including all people an earth, it follows therefore that people of all religions are Gods children. According to Judaism teaching, one does not have to convert to Judaism in order to attain salvation (Rowland, Tuckett  Morgan, 2006). Being ethical and following the law of the Jews, is the only requirement in attaining salvation. They also believe that the Jewish law provides the best guide for an ethical living.

According to Segal (1986), the Jewish religion has abundance of family and tradition beliefs. They believe that life is sacred and that there is no heaven and hell. Just like Christians the Jews recognize sin and its negative impact between their relationships with the creator. However the Jewish believe that sinning only increases the distance between you and your creator. Those with fewer sins are closer to God and those with more sins are further from God.  Judaism is basically a faith of a people in people and therefore does not actually qualify to be a religion but its mainly viewed as a group of people who go behind similar laws, traditions and beliefs. The childrens of Israel relationship with God, and other aspects of their traditions and rituals, is explained in the subject of Tanakh.

Christianity is a faith in faith while Judaism is categorized as a culture or a civilization. Christianity shows a purely theological aspect which is one of the major, and actually the most important difference with Judaism (Segal, 1986). Unlike in Judaism, in Christianity there is no concept of national identity and more so Christianity does not permeate the daily life in the way Judaism does. Just like Christian churches the Jews have their synagogues which they both use as prayer houses. In both religions, these are holy houses of God, where people can pray and worship their creator. Both the synagogue and the church act as the centres for religious life in the two religions.

However there are a few differences between the two houses or prayer. In the Christian churches, often there are representations of Jesus on the cross as well as representations of other mystical figures of the church. In the Jewish synagogues such representations are considered as idolatry and therefore not allowed in their worship houses. The rites and ritual practiced by Christians are also against the sensibilities of the Jews. For instance the presentation of the holy Eucharist in the Christian churches as the body and blood of Jesus, conflicts directly with the dietary laws of the Jews. Just like Christians, the Jews have their church leaders (Schwartz  Poorthuis, 2004, p.5). However, the significance attached to the church leaders in Christianity (like the pope) and the hierarchy used (particularly in the Roman Catholic), are very contrary to the Jewish traditions and culture.

Both in Judaism and Christianity the fact of the existence of God is accepted without question and no proof is needed. Generally both considers the Gods existence as important and necessary for the existence of universe while the existence of universe is enough proof that God exists. Judaism believes that every thing was created by God only and no one else. They therefore believe that even the evil was created by God unlike the Christians who believe that the evil was created by Satan.

Conclusion
Although Christianity and Judaism have the same origin, tremendous variations have taken place between them, which has brought significance differences between them (Segal, 1986, p.2). The two religions however share similarities on certain aspects. On the other hand Judaism and Christianity have widely differing aspects of their respective relationship with each other. According to Jews, being converted into their religion is taken as a form of adoption, i.e. becoming a child of Abraham while converting to Christianity is taken as declaration of faith (Rowland, Tuckett   Morgan, 2006).

Most Jews know Jesus and regard him a normal person just the way Christians would look at Mohammed of Islam. They hold no religious significance for him unlike in Christianity where Jesus is regarded as the way to reach God. In rituals Jews believe that god does not need any human sacrifice and that no human being should die for the sake of others sins. They do not believe in the Christian concept of a punishing place (hell) or a rewarding place (Heaven) after death. Although Judaism and Christianity may agree on several factors they again show differences in the practices and concepts explained in these factors.