| Evangelical Christianity |
Humans are created imago Dei but are fundamentally “fallen” and spiritually dead due to inherited and personal sin. |
Original Sin and total depravity; separation from a holy God. |
Substitutionary atonement; salvation strictly through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. |
The experience of “conviction” proves the diagnosis of sin; the feeling of “peace” proves the Holy Spirit’s presence. |
| Catholicism |
Human nature is wounded by sin but remains essentially good and capable of cooperation with grace. |
Loss of original justice; disordered desires (concupiscence) and lack of sanctifying grace. |
Sacramental life (Baptism, Eucharist, Confession) and “faith working through love” within the Church. |
The continuity and historical “oneness” of the Church are seen as evidence of its divine institution. |
| Islam |
Humans are born in a state of natural purity (fitrah) and are meant to be God’s representatives (khalifa) on earth. |
Ghaflah (forgetfulness/heedlessness) of one’s true nature and the oneness of God (Tawhid). |
Submission (Islam) to the Will of Allah through the Five Pillars and following the Sharia. |
The linguistic “inimitability” of the Quran and the order of a disciplined life validate the message. |
| Buddhism |
All conditioned existence is characterized by impermanence (anicca) and the absence of a permanent self (anatta). |
Tanha (craving/clinging) and Avijja (ignorance) regarding the true nature of reality. |
The Eightfold Path; cultivation of wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental discipline leading to Nirvana. |
The reduction of suffering through practice is used as empirical proof of the Four Noble Truths. |
| Karl Marx |
Human nature is not fixed but is a product of social relations and material/economic conditions. |
Alienation (from product, process, others, and self) caused by private property and class exploitation. |
The overthrow of capitalism through class struggle and the establishment of a classless, communist society. |
Resistance to these ideas is labeled “false consciousness,” which further proves the power of the ruling ideology. |
| Friedrich Nietzsche |
Life is fundamentally the “Will to Power”—an urge to expand, overcome, and create. |
Nihilism and “slave morality” (resentment) which suppresses the natural instincts of the strong. |
Revaluation of all values; the affirmation of life as it is (Amor Fati) and the emergence of the Overman. |
The act of interpreting life through this lens is itself an expression of the Will to Power, confirming it. |
| Sigmund Freud |
The psyche is a battleground between biological drives (Id) and social/moral constraints (Superego). |
Repression of libido and unresolved childhood conflicts leading to neurosis. |
Psychoanalysis; “where Id was, there Ego shall be” (strengthening the rational mind through insight). |
Any disagreement with the theory can be dismissed as “resistance” or a “defense mechanism” of the patient. |
| Carl Jung |
The psyche is a self-regulating system striving toward wholeness and “Individuation.” |
One-sidedness of the persona and the failure to integrate the “Shadow” or the “Collective Unconscious.” |
Integrating archetypes and the Self through dream work, active imagination, and symbolic living. |
The occurrence of “meaningful coincidences” (synchronicity) is seen as the inner world mirroring the outer. |
| Viktor Frankl |
The primary motivational force in humans is the “Will to Meaning.” |
The “Existential Vacuum”—the feeling of meaninglessness and emptiness in modern life. |
Logotherapy; discovering meaning through creative work, experiential encounters, or one’s attitude toward suffering. |
Finding meaning in even the most horrific circumstances (like the Shoah) proves the primacy of meaning. |
| Meister Eckhart |
The ground of the soul and the ground of God are one and the same (the “Spark”). |
The “I-ness” or ego-attachment that creates a false sense of separation from the Divine. |
Gelassenheit (releasement/letting go); emptying the self to allow the “Birth of the Son” in the soul. |
The subjective experience of non-dual awareness makes external confirmation or logic irrelevant. |
| Nagarjuna |
Everything is “Empty” (Sunyata) of inherent existence; things only exist interdependently. |
The “essentialist” error—clinging to the belief that things (including the self) have a fixed, independent nature. |
The “Middle Way” (Madhyamaka); using logic to deconstruct all views until one rests in the “Great Emptiness.” |
The logical breakdown of any “proof” for fixed existence becomes the very proof of Emptiness. |
