Western religions Western religions Western religions refers to religions that originated within Western culture, and are thus historically, culturally, and theologically distinct from the Eastern religions. The term Abrahamic religions (Islam, Eastern Christianity and Judaism) is often used in lieu of using the East and West terminology. Western culture itself was significantly influenced by the emergence of Christianity and its adoption as the state church of the Roman Empire in the late 4th century and the term "Christendom" largely indicates this intertwined history. Western Christianity was significantly influenced by Hellenistic religion (notably Platonism and Gnosticism) as well as the Roman imperial cult.
Bible and Orient Museum close bonds of the Bible with its ancient Near Eastern surroundings. Keel observed that without knowledge of these symbols, many biblical comparisons, symbols and visions cannot be properly understood and thereby demonstrated the general importance of ancient Near Eastern cultural history for biblical science. By interpreting biblical texts in their historical context, a fundamentalist-literal understanding of the Bible can be avoided. Furthermore, this approach shows the relations between Islam and Judaism, between Christianity and Judaism, between Judaism and ancient Near Eastern Paganism, and thereby relativizes the claim to absolute truth by the monotheist religions. Subsequently, Keel and his colleagues successfully