Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths
The book I chose to review is Abraham: a journey to the heart of three faiths by Bruce Feiler. Feiler is an interesting author for scholarly books, in that his work is not bound by traditional scholastic guidelines. Rather than studying about something in an educational setting, Feiler immerses himself in an experience. He has written about religious and secular topics, but is best-known for his books on religious topics. In addition to working as an author, he is the writer/presenter of the PBS miniseries Walking the Bible, which is based on his book of the same name. Abraham is one of his most highly critically-acclaimed books and received an unusual amount of attention for a religious-based, non-fiction book. Not only did it become a New York Times bestseller, but it was also featured on the cover of Time Magazine. In the post 9-11 era, many books explored the relationship between the three major Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and Feiler's was one of the first works to try to emphasize the common background shared by those three seemingly different religions.
Abraham reads a little bit like a history mixed with a travel guide. In it, Feiler goes to the Holy Land, which is still hotly contested, with all three major religious groups seeking some type of control over an area that plays a critical role in the religious history of the groups. Using his experience traveling through the area, Feiler meets with important people of all three religions and asks them for their opinion about Abraham's influence on their religion. However, he also records his observations about the secular and religious events that he sees while making this journey. Most people are aware that the modern Middle East is plagued by war in multiple locations, but Feiler makes it clear that these wars are literally being fought on Holy Land, and many of them are ostensibly religious-based. He discusses the cultural oddities that he finds in each of these countries, and also the suspicious way in which he, a foreigner, is greeted in many of these lands. Feiler notes that, even though there is solemnity to many of these holy sites, particularly in Jerusalem, it is impossible to escape the inter-religious bickering; there is a constant threat that someone will deface or defile a holy site from another religion.
In all of these discussions, Feiler tries to introduce Abraham as he is recognized by all three religions, and as he is characterized by each religion. What is fascinating is that this man who is seen as a significant patriarch in these religions was not a man that one would call unequivocally good. Feiler reminds the reader that Abraham did some things that make his morality seem very questionable; he abandoned his aging father, exiled his first son, tried to kill his second son, and fought a world war. Abraham lacks the moral certitude that exemplifies other religious patriarchal figures, and Feiler examines Abraham's humanity in contrast to God's perfection and the seeming perfection of some later figures. He focuses a significant amount of attention on Abraham's two women: his wife, Sarah, and the concubine, Hagar, and how those relationships impacted Abraham's relationships with his sons Isaac and Ishmael. This is a very interesting discussion, since the conflict between modern Jews/Christians and Muslims can literally be traced to the fact that they descended from different sons of Abraham. Moreover, he delves into the heated division between Christians and Jews, which seems even more difficult to understand than any religious issues with Muslims. However, Feiler suggests that studying Abraham can help explain these divisions, since "the deterioration of the relationship between Jews and Christians can be seen as vividly as anyplace else in their rivalry over their shared father" (Feiler, 2002, p.137).
Finally, Feiler really examines the role that the loss of a child plays in all three of these major monotheistic religions. "All three monotheistic faiths force their adherents to confront the most unimaginable of human pains: losing a child. The binding, the crucifixion, and the dhabih -- often viewed as distinguishing the monotheistic faiths -- actually belie their shared origins" (Feiler, 2002, p.108). He focuses on how the binding of Isaac is interpreted by these faiths. He also challenges the reader to wonder why child sacrifice becomes such a predominant theme in those religions.
Although I had previously engaged in a fairly extensive...
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