Beginner’s Guide

This is an introductory map of comparative religion — not missionary material, and no judgment on the truth or standing of any faith. It has one goal: to let you see clearly the network of "who influenced whom, who shares a story with whom" among the great traditions. Whether you believe, and which, is your own affair.

A Few Things to Know First

This site uses a "as a given tradition records / holds / believes..." framing, presenting each tradition’s own self-account without adjudicating the truth of a faith or the standing of a school. Every line you see on a figure card is essentially "this is how such-and-such religion tells it," not this site drawing a conclusion for you.
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are often together called the "Abrahamic religions," because all three share one ancestral line (Abraham, Moses, and others) yet developed different records on key episodes — such as "whether the son offered was Isaac or Ishmael." Such differences are noted in the "version differences" of the figure cards, and do not mean anyone’s record is "more correct."
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism likewise share the cosmological resources of ancient India (karma, rebirth, liberation), and the Buddha himself first practiced within the soil of Hindu culture before walking a different path.
A single religion is not monolithic either: Christianity has the divisions of Catholic / Protestant / Orthodox, Islam the divisions of Sunni / Shia, Buddhism the divisions of Theravada / Mahayana / Chan — divisions that often arise from real historical disputes over path or succession. This site states only the course of events both sides acknowledge, and adjudicates neither legitimacy nor orthodoxy for any side.

A Few Suggestions

First figure out "which tradition is speaking," then decide how to read a record. The same figure (Abraham, Jesus) is recorded from wholly different starting points by different religions, and reading them mixed together breeds the confusion of "so which one is true" — there is no need to pick a side; sorting out "who is speaking" is enough.
On sensitive sectarian differences (the Sunni / Shia dispute over succession, the Catholic / Protestant doctrinal difference), read with a mind to "understanding the historical course" rather than "judging who is right or wrong" — this is also the bottom line of this site’s editorial stance.
Keep "echoes today" separate from "the original traditional record." Each card here separately flags the borrowings and adaptations of a figure in modern pop culture and everyday speech, adaptations that have often already departed from the original religious context; don’t conflate the two.

How to Read

To learn "how a tradition tells it itself," go to the originals

For Judaism/Christianity check the Hebrew Bible and New Testament; for Islam the Quran and hadith collections; for Hinduism the Bhagavad Gita and Puranas; for Buddhism the Pali Canon or the Mahayana scriptures — each card here cites the specific chapter of the original in its "source," and reading against the text beats relying on secondhand retellings.

To learn "how the great traditions connect," look at the graph

The relationship graph here arranges the 63 figures by six blocks — Jewish patriarchs / Christianity / Islam / Hinduism / Buddhism / Chinese thought — and you can see at a glance how Abraham is at once ancestor to three religions, the master-disciple line of Buddha and Ananda, the allusion of Laozi and Confucius on ritual — these connections are themselves the best entry to understanding that "religion does not happen in isolation."

To learn "how faith has shaped today," look at the echoes

From everyday idioms like "bearing one’s cross," "Delilah," and "the mark of Cain," to the olive branch on the UN flag and the Star of David on the Israeli flag, religious narrative has long seeped into modern language and symbol — each card here lists such "echoes today" to show where religious stories still work in the present.

Go Deeper: Introductions to Comparative Religion

Karen Armstrong, A History of GodTracing the historical evolution of the concept of "God" across the three monotheisms of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, one of the most recommended introductions to the relationship of the "Abrahamic religions."

Huston Smith, The World’s ReligionsA classic comparative-religion textbook introducing the world’s major traditions with "empathetic understanding, no value judgment," long a staple of university general-education courses.

Shoko Watanabe, Japanese Buddhism / a general history of BuddhismA concise general history of Buddhism, tracing the evolution from early Indian Buddhism to Mahayana and the eastward spread of Chan.

Go Deeper: Originals and Reference Works

The Hebrew Bible and the New TestamentThe direct originals of Jewish and Christian faith; different translations differ slightly in wording, so reading across versions is advised.

The Quran (a reliable annotated translation)The most central original of Islam; read it with a reliable annotated edition to avoid fragmentary, out-of-context quotation.

The Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana (abridged)The two most widely known Hindu classics — the former a philosophical dialogue, the latter a narrative epic — two different entries into Hinduism’s cosmology and ethics.

A Time Coordinate

The Ancient Near East and India (BCE)

c. 2000 BC The patriarchal age of the Hebrew Bible (Abraham)
c. 13th century BC The records of Moses and the Exodus
c. 6th century BC Laozi, Confucius, and the Buddha active almost contemporaneously — Jaspers called it the "Axial Age"

Around the Turn of the Era: The Birth of Christianity

c. 4 BC–AD 30 The life of Jesus (scholars differ on the exact years)
Mid-1st century AD Paul’s mission to the Gentiles; Christianity moves beyond Palestine

The 7th Century: The Rise of Islam

AD 610 Tradition records Muhammad receiving the first revelation in the cave of Hira
AD 622 The emigration to Medina (year one of the Islamic calendar)
AD 680 The Tragedy of Karbala, the origin of the Shia Day of Ashura

The Middle Ages to Modern Times: Division and Spread

5th century AD Augustine’s City of God
6th century AD Bodhidharma crosses east, Chan first spreads to China
AD 1187 Saladin retakes Jerusalem
AD 1517 Martin Luther posts the Ninety-Five Theses; the Reformation begins