Religion and Theology

Origin and contemporary expression of the ritual of prayer
Prayer is a very important religious practice amongst both the Christians and the Jews, because its believed to connect them to some greater power. The prayers could either be from a group or an individual and takes place either in public or private place. According to Segal (1986), the Jews pray three times each day and more times during special days such as the Jewish holidays and the Shabbat (p. 86). The prayer book used by the Jews is called the siddur and it contains orders that are followed for each daily prayer. The Shema Yisrael and the Amidah are the most important prayers of the Jews. In addition, the communal prayers are considered more important and they normally contain at least ten men and above without which they wont be recognized.

According to Wise (2009), the main reason why the Jews pray is to help them focus on divinity through intellectual contemplation and philosophy. Prayer is also used to instill certain attitudes in the Jews (p. 6). To increase the chances of the prayers to be answered in favor to the Jews, the Jewish mysticism employs the use directions of intent to specify the route by which the prayer will ascend to God. This Jewish mysticism makes the Jewish prayers more meaningful which is like repairing and restructuring the universe in real time. In this sense each letter of every word or each word of every prayer has a special meaning and a specific effect to the people. This means that the prayers affect the mystical forces of the Jews universe.

Christian prayers on the other hand are very varied they could either read from the books of payer or be completely spontaneous. According to Milman (1863), the most common and universal prayer among the Christians, the Lords Prayer, is believed to be the way Jesus taught his disciples how to pray (p. 86). However not all the denominations among the Christians recite the Lords Prayer but in general all Christians pray to the Father or God. Some of them like the catholic or the Orthodox ask the saint or the righteous in heaven like Christ to intercede by praying on their behalf. This is commonly known as intercession of saints. The most common ending to most Christian prayers is in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Protestants customarily end their prayers by saying, in Jesus name, Amen. Or in the name of Christ, Amen.

Origin and contemporary expression of the nature of evil
The Christians depict their meaning of evil from both the new and the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, evil is considered something that goes against the will of God. While in the New Testament it indicates some opposition to the will of God. For instance in the Old Testament, Adam and Eve went against the will of God and ate the forbidden fruit. According to Milman (1863), this was the origin of sin for all man kind. The Bible says every man has fallen short of the glory of God and therefore should be born again if his or her sins are to be forgiven (p. 165). The mere fact that we are born in this generation means that we are all sinners and therefore we should repent.

In Judaism, evil comes about when one forsakes God as illustrated in Deuteronomy 2820. Judaism insists on obedience to the laws of God which are written in the Torah and also obedience to the laws described in the Talmud and the Mishnah. Judaism considers Satan to be one who tests man for God and not one who works against the will of God (Wise, 2009).  Even though man is responsible to make is own decisions Judaism considers the heart of man to be bent towards deception. Some cultures are of the belief that evil can happen without man not meaning it but the book of Isaiah illustrates that God is responsible for everything that happens in the world including the evil (p. 68).

Interaction between Judaism and Christianity
The Christians and Jew would certainly pray together if they so which because they all believe in the supreme creator of the earth and the universe to be God and they both pray to God. According to Segal (1986), the existence of God is therefore undisputable. More over, they all know about Jesus Christ but the only difference comes in on the understanding of which he is (p.76). The Jews believe that they have to pray directly to God for their prayers to be effectively answered. On the other hand the Christian pray to God yes, but through a mediator who is Jesus Christ the son of God. The bible even says that no one will reach the kingdom of God if he doesnt accept the Jesus Christ as the lord and savior. A lot of consideration is given to the maintenance of the covenant the Jew ancestors made with God.

As the bible suggests God created the universe and the earth and lastly made man in his own image and gave him dominion over all his creation. However it should be understood that he also gave man the power to choose between good and evil. This recognition is embraced by both the Jew and the Christian. Both the Jew and the Christians are children of God and therefore they can always find room to pray together if they wish. The best way to communicate to God according to both the Jew and the Christians is through prayer. Besides, they both believe that the God they serve is a faithful God and will always listen to their problems whenever they cry unto him (Segal 1986 p. 87).

The biggest problem that may arise in the interaction of these two religions is the difference in salvation. Christianity insists that one should be born again or in other words accepts Jesus as his personal savior if he wants to enter the Kingdom of God. On the contrary, the Jew believes that one does not have to convert to Judaism to receive salvation. You only need to follow the laws of Jew and be ethical and you shall see the kingdom of God. The understanding of evil or sin to be precise is also slightly different amongst the two religions. For Christians, it involves goes against the will of God (Wise, 2009).The Jews also consider life to be sacred and dont believe in anything like the Kingdom of God. This is very much in contrast to the Christian understanding where they believe that Jesus will return to the earth to take the righteous to heaven while the sinners will be taken to hell where they will be consumed by eternal fire (p. 49).

Results of interviews with active members of both religions
Am interview with a 25 year old Christian who is not yet married revealed that Christian pay a lot consideration on the teachings of the Bible. This is considered their guiding book to the kingdom of heaven. My interviewee who is a sales executive said that he always prays in the morning and in the evening and also before a meal. This is how he taught by his pastor. He insists that God always here his prayers even though the results are not felt immediately but he has the faith that his prayers are answered in one way or the other. According to Segal (1986), every man has fallen short of the glory of God and needs to repent (p.78). My interviewee also agrees with this and insists that one cannot go to heaven unless he is washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ in the link between Christians and God. According to him, the Ten Commandments are the guiding tools to avoid committing sins.

Another interview with a 28 year old primary teacher who was a Jew revealed that, the Jew do not consider Jesus to be a very important being like the Christians do. They believe that God does not need any scarify of a human being to forgive the sins of his creation. They also believe that their prayers go directly to God and they do not need someone to mediate between them and God. This teacher was a college graduate and she insists that there was nothing like hell or heaven in Judaism. The holy scriptures also confirm this and indicate that God loves everyone (Milman, 1863, p.56).

The above discussion shows the various aspects of Christianity and Judaism and how they relate to one another. The bottom line is that they both believe that there is God who is a Supreme Being overseeing over everyone regardless of his religion. They should therefore embrace their differences as learning opportunities and never condemn the others religion. Even the bible says thou shall not judge.