| Founding Era | ~1400 BCE – 100 CE | ~1400 BCE – 400 BCE | 610 – 632 CE | ~300 BCE – 100 CE | ~1500 BCE – 500 BCE | ~500 BCE – 100 CE | ~600 BCE – 300 BCE | 1830 CE – present | 15th–17th century CE | ~500 BCE | ~700 CE | 16th century CE | ~1500 BCE – 600 CE | ~600 BCE – present | 19th century CE – present | ~2400 BCE – 400 CE | ~2100 BCE – 300 BCE | 632 CE – 875 CE | ~150 BCE – 50 BCE | ~4th Century – Present | ~13th Century CE | ~13th Century CE | ~2nd Century CE | ~2nd-3rd Century CE |
| Region | Middle East / Global | Middle East | Arabian Peninsula / Global | Ancient Near East / Ethiopia | Indian Subcontinent | India / East Asia / Global | China | Americas / Global | Indian Subcontinent / Global | East Asia | Japan | Northern Europe / Global | Persia / Iran | Indian Subcontinent | Middle East / Global | Egypt / Nile Valley | Mesopotamia / Iraq | Arabian Peninsula / Global | Middle East / Global | Eastern Mediterranean / Russia | Israel / Europe | Persia / Islamic World | Egypt / Mediterranean | Egypt / Mediterranean |
| Scripture | Bible | Torah / Tanakh | Quran | 1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch | Vedas / Bhagavad Gita | Tripitaka / Dhammapada | Tao Te Ching | Book of Mormon | Guru Granth Sahib | — | Shinto Norito (prayers) | — | Avesta (Yasna, Yashts) | Agamas / Siddhanta | — | Pyramid Texts, Book of the Dead | Enuma Elish, Epic of Gilgamesh | Kutub as-Sittah (Six Canonical Collections) | 46 OT + 27 NT books + Deuterocanon | 46 OT + 27 NT + Patristic Tradition | Zohar, Sefer Yetzirah | Quran + Sufi poetry (Rumi, Attar) | Nag Hammadi Library, Gospel of Thomas | Corpus Hermeticum, Emerald Tablet |
| Nature of God | God exists as a Trinity: one God in three persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). God is omnipotent, omniscient, and eternally self-existent. God became incarnate in Jesus Christ for the salvation of humanity. God is both transcendent and immanent. | God is strictly one (Shema Yisrael - 'Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One'). God is incorporeal, eternal, and beyond human comprehension. Jewish theology emphasizes God's transcendence while maintaining God's relationship with the people through covenant. God has no form or body. | Allah is absolutely one (Tawhid). Allah has no partners, no equal, and shares divinity with none. Allah is beyond human comprehension yet merciful and just. The 99 Names of God describe Allah's attributes. Any suggestion of plurality in God is considered the gravest sin (shirk). | — | Ultimate reality is Brahman — the absolute, eternal, unchanging divine consciousness. Forms of God (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva) are manifestations or aspects of Brahman. Many Hindu traditions affirm both personal (with attributes) and impersonal (without attributes) conceptions of the divine. | Buddhism does not affirm a creator God or ultimate deity. The Buddha taught that belief in a permanent, unchanging God is a misunderstanding of reality. Focus is on the impermanence of all phenomena and the path to enlightenment through one's own effort. | The Tao is the ultimate principle underlying all existence — ineffable, eternal, and beyond naming or conceptualization. It is not a personal deity but the source and essence of all being. The Tao flows through everything and is the foundation of natural order (wu wei). | God the Father is an exalted, perfected being with a physical body of flesh and bone. Jesus Christ is God's literal Son, also with a perfected body. The Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. All three are united in purpose but distinct in personhood. God has advanced knowledge and power but is not omniscient about all futures. | Ik Onkar — the One Creator — is the supreme, infinite, eternal, and formless divine reality. God has no gender, form, or image; the divine permeates all creation and dwells in the hearts of all beings equally. |
| Salvation Path | Salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. Christ's death and resurrection provide redemption from sin. Most traditions emphasize faith as primary, though Catholics include works and sacraments as important. Salvation is God's gift, not earned by human effort alone. | Judaism focuses less on individual salvation and more on covenant relationship with God and ethical living. Following the 613 commandments (mitzvot) is the path to righteous living. Repentance (teshuvah) allows restoration of relationship with God. The World to Come is available to righteous gentiles as well. | Salvation (najat) comes through sincere submission to God (Islam) and righteous deeds. Faith without works is incomplete. The Quran emphasizes both God's mercy and human responsibility. No one can intercede for another; each person is accountable to God. Sincere repentance erases sin. | — | Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate goal — liberation from the cycle of reincarnation. Multiple paths exist: Karma Yoga (action/duty), Bhakti Yoga (devotion), Jnana Yoga (knowledge), and Raja Yoga (meditation). Enlightenment comes from realizing one's true nature as Atman (self) identical with Brahman. | Nirvana (enlightenment) is achieved through the Eightfold Path and understanding the Four Noble Truths. Liberation comes from eliminating suffering through understanding the nature of reality — impermanence, non-self, and interdependence. No external savior; each person must walk the path themselves. | Immortality (spiritual immortality or unity with the Tao) is achieved through wu wei (non-action/effortless action), virtue (de), and harmony with natural order. Practices include meditation, internal alchemy, and living simply. One transcends the material world through understanding the Tao and flowing with its principles. | Salvation comes through Christ's atonement combined with personal obedience to gospel principles. No grace without works; both are necessary. Personal progression continues eternally through exaltation (becoming like God). Temple ordinances are essential for salvation. All humanity has access to Christ's saving grace regardless of when they lived. | — |
| Afterlife | Heaven and Hell as eternal destinies determined by divine judgment. On Judgment Day, the living and the dead stand before God. Some traditions affirm purgatory as an intermediate state of purification. The body is resurrected and reunited with the soul. The ultimate hope is the Beatific Vision — direct, face-to-face encounter with God. | Olam Ha-Ba (the World to Come) is the ultimate destiny of the righteous. Gan Eden (Garden of Eden) serves as a place of reward, while Gehinnom is a temporary place of purification — not eternal damnation. Judaism deliberately leaves afterlife details vague, placing primary emphasis on ethical living in this world. Resurrection of the dead is affirmed in rabbinic tradition. | Jannah (Paradise) and Jahannam (Hellfire) await after the Day of Judgment. The dead enter Barzakh, a barrier-state between death and resurrection, where the soul experiences a foretaste of its destiny. On Judgment Day, all cross the Sirat (bridge) over Hellfire. Deeds are weighed on a cosmic scale. | — | The soul (atman) undergoes reincarnation through samsara, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Karma — the accumulated moral weight of one's actions — determines the nature of the next birth. Multiple heavens (svargas) and hells (narakas) exist as temporary way-stations. The ultimate goal is moksha: liberation from the cycle entirely and union with Brahman, the ultimate reality. | Rebirth (not reincarnation — there is no permanent soul) occurs across six realms of existence: gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings. Karma drives the process of rebirth, but there is no self that transmigrates — only a continuity of causes and conditions. Nirvana is the cessation of suffering, craving, and the cycle of rebirth. There is no creator-god who judges. | At death, the soul returns to the Tao, the source and sustainer of all things. Philosophical Taoism sees death as a natural transformation, not something to fear. Folk Taoism developed an elaborate celestial bureaucracy of heavens, hells, and ancestral spirits. Taoist practitioners sought physical and spiritual immortality through meditation, alchemy, qigong, and moral cultivation. | After death, spirits enter the Spirit World — either paradise (for the righteous) or spirit prison (where the gospel is taught to those who did not hear it in life). Universal resurrection reunites body and spirit. Judgment assigns souls to one of three degrees of glory: Celestial (highest, presence of God), Terrestrial, or Telestial. Baptism for the dead allows proxy ordinances for the deceased. Eternal families persist beyond death. |
| Prayer Style | The Lord's Prayer, Morning & Evening Prayer | Shacharit (Morning Prayer), Mincha (Afternoon Prayer) | Fajr (Dawn Prayer), Dhuhr (Midday Prayer) | — | Puja (Devotional Worship), Japa (Mantra Repetition) | Sitting Meditation (Zazen / Shamatha), Walking Meditation (Kinhin) | Zuowang (Sitting and Forgetting), Neiguan (Inner Observation) | Personal Prayer, Family Prayer | Nitnem, Kirtan | Ancestor Veneration, Ritual Propriety | Shrine Visit, Harae Purification | Morning and Evening Prayer, Scripture Reading | Khorshed Niyayesh, Kusti Prayer | Samayika, Navkar Mantra | Obligatory Prayer (Salat), Nineteen Day Feast | Temple Purification Ceremony, Offering Presentation | Temple Divine Service, Personal Prayer and Incantation | Five Daily Prayers (Salat), Ablution (Wudu) | Holy Mass (Eucharist), Liturgy of the Hours | The Jesus Prayer, Divine Liturgy Attendance | Shema Yisrael with Kavanah, Meditation on Hebrew Letter-Names |
| Fasting Practice | Lent, Advent Fasting | Yom Kippur, Tisha B'Av | Ramadan, Mondays and Thursdays | — | Ekadashi, Navaratri | Uposatha Days, Eating Before Noon | Bigu (Grain Avoidance), Seasonal Fasting | Fast Sunday, Personal Fasts | Personal Spiritual Fasting, Charitable Langar | Mourning Period Restraint, Ancestor Festival Restraint | Matsuri Preparation, Monthly Observance | Lent, Good Friday | Gahanbar Fasting, Nowruz Preparation | Paryushan, Daslakshanparvan | The Nineteen-Day Fast (Sawm), Spiritual Intensification | Festival of Sed, Mourning Period for Osiris | Days of Mourning (Ud-Namu), Festival Preparation Days | Ramadan (Month of Fasting), Voluntary Fasts | Lent (40 days), Ember Days | Great Lent, Apostles' Fast | Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Tikkun Chatzot (Midnight Vigil) | Ramadan Intensive, Khalwa (Seclusion) |
| Key Figure | Jesus Christ | Moses | Muhammad | Enoch (7th from Adam) | Krishna | Siddhartha Gautama | Laozi | Joseph Smith | Guru Nanak | — | Emperor (Shinto figurehead) | — | Zoroaster | Mahavira | — | Thoth (god of wisdom) | Marduk, Enlil, Enki | Prophet Muhammad | Jesus Christ; Pope | Jesus Christ; Ecumenical Patriarch | Rabbi Isaac Luria | Al-Ghazali, Rumi, Ibn Arabi | Jesus (as revealer of gnosis) | Hermes Trismegistus |
