Across families

Orthodox Judaism and Sunni Islam

Different families with 11 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.11 (0 would be identical).

Orthodox JudaismJudaism

Covenant with a people, worked out in a law that covers ordinary life in detail, under an interpretive authority that is rabbinic rather than priestly. The lowest E3 value in the matrix: belonging here is inherited, not chosen.

Sunni IslamIslam

Absolute and undivided oneness, a transcendent God who is nonetheless nearer than the jugular vein, and a revealed text taken as dictated rather than authored. People are born sound and forgetful rather than fallen, which places C3 far from the Christian position despite everything the two share.

Where they agree

A1 Divine reality
Both sit at a divine reality certainly exists — a gap of 0.00.
A3 Plurality
Both sit at strictly one — a gap of 0.00.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at revealed and fixed — a gap of 0.00.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Both sit at an intentional act — a gap of 0.00.
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at essential and prescribed — a gap of 0.01.
E4 Standing of nature
Both sit at between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred — a gap of 0.02.
C2 Shape of time
Both sit at one life, then judgment — a gap of 0.03.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at a personal being one can address — a gap of 0.04.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Both sit at literal and binding — a gap of 0.05.
D3 The body
Both sit at between to be disciplined and to be celebrated and leaning to be disciplined respectively — a gap of 0.10.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound and between fallen and in need of rescue and ignorant but fundamentally sound respectively — a gap of 0.12.

Where they part company

E1 Exclusivity
Orthodox Judaism: between one true path and many valid paths. Sunni Islam: one true path. A gap of 0.45 on an axis running from “one true path” to “many valid paths”.

All seventeen axes

Axis	Orthodox Judaism	Sunni Islam	Gap
A1 Divine reality	a divine reality certainly exists	a divine reality certainly exists	0.00
A2 Personhood	a personal being one can address	a personal being one can address	0.04
A3 Plurality	strictly one	strictly one	0.00
A4 Locus	between wholly beyond the world and fully present within it	leaning wholly beyond the world	0.20
B1 Source of truth	revealed and fixed	revealed and fixed	0.00
B2 Reading of sacred text	literal and binding	literal and binding	0.05
B3 Institutional authority	clergy and tradition decide	leaning clergy and tradition decide	0.20
C1 Survival of the self	leaning continues in some form	continues in some form	0.23
C2 Shape of time	one life, then judgment	one life, then judgment	0.03
C3 The human condition	leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound	between fallen and in need of rescue and ignorant but fundamentally sound	0.12
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good	between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight	between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight	0.15
D2 Centrality of ritual	essential and prescribed	essential and prescribed	0.01
D3 The body	between to be disciplined and to be celebrated	leaning to be disciplined	0.10
E1 Exclusivity	between one true path and many valid paths	one true path	0.45
E2 Origin of the cosmos	an intentional act	an intentional act	0.00
E3 Locus of belonging	a people, inherited	between a people, inherited and an individual choice	0.34
E4 Standing of nature	between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred	between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred	0.02

Positions for Orthodox Judaism rest principally on Tanakh, Mishnah and Shulchan Aruch; for Sunni Islam, on Qur’an with the Sahih collections and classical Sunni fiqh. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.

Which of the two is closer to you?

The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.