[Cold Heat]

Exactly!

I often wonder what would have happened, had not the "New Testament" been written or brought to the forefront.

This process never occurred in Islam, or better said, has yet to occur.

[steve-b]

I often wonder what would have happened, had not the "New Testament" been written or brought to the forefront.

Obviously, the New Testament per se is not required -- Jews today don't go around engaging in massacres of the sort described in the Biblical account of the original conquest of Caanan.

Realistically, what civilizes a religion (or any other major institution) is some counterveiling force that prevents it from wreaking evil, or at least penalizes it significantly for doing so. In the case of Christianity, the civilizing process was a fallout of struggles between Church and State and (particularly after that German monk tacked his notions up on a church door) between church and church.