Do Abrahamic religions have a concept similar to the "enlightenment" found in religions like Buddhism and Taoism, where people are able to become an "immortal saint/bodhisattva" through individual effort?

by 04231993
bunker_man

Well, they have sainthood. That's really the best you're going to find. Also is this really a history question?

Gnoticism was an early christian spinoff that had something more like buddhas. Reincarnation existed, and the god of the world was seen as an either evil or ignorant god. And only by becoming enlightened do you reach the highest afterlife rather than some mid level one or whatnot.

intenta1

I agree with a previous answer, this isn't so much a historical question as it is a theological one. It makes it harder to cite sources to back this up. Also I can only answer in regards to the Bible-derivative Abrahamic religions, as I don’t have a strong enough understanding of Islam.

The larger biblical religions, that is various Protestant denominations, Judaism and Catholicism, don’t have the idea of enlightenment stemming from personal effort. One could argue the Catholic “saints” are, but this was not through personal effort, but rather seen as the power of God working through them to give them powers, and even this was not seen as enlightenment so much as miraculous.

The issue is that one of the shared fundamental beliefs of two of the three Abraham religions (Judaism and Christianity) is that it isn’t personal effort that saves people, but rather grace, as seen through the sacrificial system and the death of Jesus accordingly. This makes enlightenment, which in religious terms would require perfection to stand before God, impossible through personal effort.

Two examples, however, stemming from the Bible of enlightenment of an individual (Jesus aside) could be the Transfiguration of Jesus, which shows Moses and Elijah, two humans, in a seemingly enlightened state (although the meaning could be interpreted differently). However this is not seen to be through any personal effort. The second one is the Revelation of Saul/Paul, where he receives a vision and understanding of Jesus and grace, but again, personal effort seems to be ignored (in fact Paul did the opposite and persecuted Christians), and it is a product of mercy.