AHC: Orthodox Christian - Orthodox Jewish - Sunni Islam ecumenism against "Western Decadence"

alter

Can you imagine a present-day or a near-future ecumenistic alliance between Orthodox Jews, Orthodox Christians and Sunni Muslims against perceived "Western Decadance" and other 'modified forms' of their religion? For example Orthodox Jews would be against Reform Jews and Secular Jews, Orthodox Christians would be against Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Charismatic and Pentacostal Churches, and Sunni Muslims, -particularily those from Turkey- would be against Shia Islam as practiced in Iran, and Saudi Arabian Wahhabism.

Their arguments could be, that their faiths represent a genuine worship of the Abrahamic God dating back to Antiquity, while these newer churches and religious directions are false and misinterpreted.

Bonus points if these religions merge into one faith with multiple sects called "Abrahamism" or something.
 

overoceans

If by "Orthodox Christians". you mean the Eastern Orthodox who came out of the 1054 Schism, I don't know if they would neccessarily have much in common with Orthodox Jews. And I don't think Orthodox Jews would regard Orthodox Christians as worshipping the genuine "Abrahamic God", any more than they'd regard Catholics as doing that. I think once the Christians brought Jesus into it, the Orthodox Jews were off the bandwagon.
 

Lalli

Orthodox Jews couldn't form any kind of ecumenist movement against Western Decadence. Judaism and Christianity hasn't much common anymore. And even Islam might be too far from any kind of form of Christianity.
 

alter

From analyzing articles of faith and style of liturgies, it seems to me that Orthodox Christianity generally preserves a style that is more or less consistent from Antiquity onwards while Roman Catholicism is more reminescent of Medieval Europe. Protestantism is of course, much more modern, deriving from the Early Modern Period, (and the 20th century in case of Charismatic movements and Pentacostalism).

My idea was, that since Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Judaism, and Sunni Islam seem to be the branches of these religions that preserve the most elements from their early periods, and they have a certain 'Middle Eastern flair' dare I say, that seems to be gradually disappearing from other branches, they might be the versions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism that have the most likely chances of forming a kind of ecumenism.
 

overoceans

alter said:
From analyzing articles of faith and style of liturgies, it seems to me that Orthodox Christianity generally preserves a style that is more or less consistent from Antiquity onwards while Roman Catholicism is more reminescent of Medieval Europe. Protestantism is of course, much more modern, deriving from the Early Modern Period, (and the 20th century in case of Charismatic movements and Pentacostalism).

My idea was, that since Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Judaism, and Sunni Islam seem to be the branches of these religions that preserve the most elements from their early periods, and they have a certain 'Middle Eastern flair' dare I say, that seem to be gradually disappearing from other branches, they might be the versions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism that have the most likely chances of forming a kind of ecumenism.
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I don't think Orthodox Jews would really care which Christian group has the strongest claim to preserving the early Church. The veneration of Jesus Christ is going to be a deal-breaker, no matter what.

Now having said that...

alter said:
against perceived "Western Decadance"
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I could actually see an alliance of small-c conservative monotheists(not specifically Orthodox) against "Western Decadence", especially if certain distorting effects from the world of foreign-policy(eg. evangelical support for Israel) were somehow removed from the equation. Though these faith groups might more likely be taking their lead from political actors. Eg, if future US presidents revive gay rights as a foreign-policy motif(I'm assuming Trump is gonna drop that like a hot potato), you might see rival world-powers saying "This sort of decadence is an affront to the dignity and the values of the global south[or whatever], we'll support anyone who wants to stand up against it". And religious leaders allied with or at least supprtive of those political actors will yelp their assent. That could bring together(for example) small-c conservative Jews in Israel, Muslims elsewhere in the mideast, and right-wing Christians everywhere.
 
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Roger II

This sort of happens already; very traditionalist Orthodox Jews tend to vote Republican, for instance(it's less uniform with modern Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews skew very heavily Dem), and you sometimes see very conservative Jews and Muslims in Israel making common cause on cultural issues.
 

Arkenfolm

I just don't see how this makes sense. Instead of some weird ecumenism, it seems way more plausible that they'd unite against Western decadence in all that entails.

Why just Orthodox Christians? Many Evangelical churches in Africa and elsewhere hold many of the same values as other fundamentalist Abrahamists, and can occasionally be very violent (they burn gay people and witches to death through the brutal method of necklacing--which incidentally is also practiced by some radical Muslims, amongst others).

But they have problems uniting. Fundamentalist Muslims have a special hatred of Jews because of Israel and Zionism, fundamentalist Christianity has a special hatred of Muslims because of immigration and terrorism, fundamentalist Jews--outside your radical Zionist types--seem to be the most peaceable toward the others as long as their religion is respected (i.e., don't send them New Testaments), which the sort of fundamentalist Christians (and I don't mean Christian Identity neo-Nazi types) who preach that all Jews who don't accept Jesus go to Hell most certainly won't.

But I guess since each group knows the other group is damned in some form, that doesn't matter so much compared to the issues all of them face--Modern Western society is increasingly unkind to traditional interpretations of religion, and worse, is hellbent at promoting that around the world. Modern Western society is seeking to pervert their religion into moderate (read: corrupt) forms, if not openly encourage atheism and unbelief. This is an alliance of convenience only--they have no love for each other, but their hatred of Western decadence goes much, much further.

I see such a movement forming at some point in the future. But with all the political issues (Zionism, immigration), preventing social conservatives of various faiths from uniting against this, it'll have to wait a while.

And hell, while you're at it, you might as well just throw in fundamentalist Hindus too.
 
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