Compare the teachings of two religious or philosophical texts
A respectful side-by-side of what two texts claim and teach, grounded in quoted passages and showing where they agree and differ.
The prompt
Help me compare two religious, spiritual, or philosophical texts.
Text A: [TITLE, and edition or translation - paste passages if you have them]
Text B: [TITLE, and edition or translation]
Themes to compare: [e.g. "the nature of God", "suffering", "ethics", "the afterlife" - or ask you to choose the main ones]
Purpose: [class assignment / personal study / interfaith discussion / writing project]
Depth: [overview / detailed with passages]
For each theme:
1. What Text A teaches, with 1-3 short supporting passages and references (chapter/verse or section).
2. What Text B teaches, with the same.
3. Where they agree, where they differ, and where the difference depends on interpretation.
4. How major traditions or scholars interpret the key passages differently, if relevant.
Also include:
- The most distinctive or surprising claims in each text, explained in context.
- Historical background that affects how each text is read (authorship, date, audience, translation issues).
- A summary table: Theme | Text A | Text B | Agreement or difference.
Rules: be neutral and respectful to both traditions; describe what the texts and their readers say rather than judging which is true. Keep quotes short. Only quote passages you're confident are accurate for the translation I named; otherwise give the reference and mark it [VERIFY] so I can check it in the text itself.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Research & Summaries prompts
What to fill in
- TITLE, and edition or translation
- overview / detailed with passages
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the RTF structure (Role, Task, Format). RTF tells the model who to be, what to do and what shape the answer should take. It is the quickest structure that still gives noticeably better results than a bare request.
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