A Study of the Premises and Requisites of Belief in a «Text-Centered» Religion and a «Person-Centered» Religion (with Emphasis on Islam and Christianity)

The difference in Islam and Christianity's views in regards to the essence of revelation and prophets is the cause of a clear distinction between these two revealed religions. In Islamic sources, revelation is from the category of speech and word and Islamic theologians believe that God speaks to man in order to have a «connection with him» and shows Himself through a language that is understandable to man; but prevailing Christianity considers «revelation» to be of the category of action and of being an event and believes that God becomes embodied in a human form in order to have a «connection with man». The core of Divine revelation in Islam is the Quran whereas in Christianity it is the person of Jesus. Based on these two different views in regards to revelation, we will call Islam a «text-centered» religion and Christianity a «person-centered» one. The question that is raised here is whether these two different views concerning revelation – from strength of argument perspective – are on the same level. In order to answer this question it is necessary to first study the premises of each view, then to compare the degree of their reasonability and finally, it is necessary to evaluate the requisites of each view in different domains like theology, type of religiosity and the sciences that are formed around each one.