Do Christians Worship the Same God as Jews and Muslims? Fr. Seraphim Rose Explains
In Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future , Fr. Seraphim Rose addresses a question that has become central to interfaith dialogue: do Christians, Jews, and Muslims worship the same God? Reflecting on a religious gathering in Geneva on April 2, 1970, where representatives of ten major religions prayed “to the same God,” Fr. Seraphim Rose questions this assumption using Scripture and Orthodox theology. He notes that, although Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claim a common origin in Abraham, this shared ancestry does not imply worship of the same God. He writes: “Thus it is a very widespread opinion that since we all lay claim to the posterity of Abraham… we all have as God the God of Abraham and all three of us worship… the same God. And this same God constitutes in some fashion our point of unity and of ‘mutual understanding.’” Yet, he warns, this line of thinking reduces Jesus Christ, His incarnation, Cross, Resurrection, and Second Coming to secondary details, making Him merely ...
