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on 08-12-2002 16:19
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By Bruce Feiler
William Morrow
223 PP.
$23.95
“Abraham remains a defining figure for half the world’s believers.”
Reviewed By Khalil Abdel Alim
Abraham is the father of the three major religions in conflict in the Middle East and now in America. His life story is repeated with some variation in all their traditions and liturgies, but he predates all three religions. He transcends them all to have originated the reality of monotheism - belief that God is one.
In this book, Bruce Feiler attempts to trace Abraham through the three religions. To do so, he traced the historical geography of Abraham’s life and travels. He talked with scholars of all three religions. He posits that the shared belief in Abraham can be a hope for peace.
Feiler states that God created Abraham as the prototype of the man that God wanted; what the generations of Adam and Noah had failed to be. Abraham put nothing or no one in creation before God.
The author says he could find no archeological evidence of Abraham’s existence. That he exists in scripture and in the stories and traditions of the three faiths. While Adam is man’s universal physical father, Abraham is man’s universal spiritual father.
Of the many instructive signs in the life of Abraham, one the most important is “the call.” When God told Abraham “go forth from your native land from your father’s house to the land that I will show you,” Abraham set the example for mankind in their worship, obedience, and submission to God that is today followed in all three faiths. In that, he obeyed God without a sign or proof of who He was.
Abraham is not only the spiritual father of the three faiths, but their genealogy is traced to him. The Arabs are descendants of Ishmeal, Abraham’s first born son, by his wife’s, Sarah’s, African maid Hajar; the Jews and Christians descended from Abraham’s second son, Isaac, born to Sarah in old age. So, the internecine conflict in the Middle East is among cousins.
Abraham collected knowledge and mixed it with the idea of an omniscient one God and passed that onto his descendants Ishmael and Isaac Muslims and Jews. They once ruled the world with their knowledge now they threaten to ignite the world in a conflagration as they fight over some desert stones and rocks.
The author also describes the signature event in Abraham’s life - the presenting of his son as a burnt offering ; which son, and his actual age are disputed by both Muslim and Jewish authorities. But whether it was the first born, Ishmael, or the son Isaac, it is not really important. The real lesson is Abraham’s unquestioning obedience to God which is left as a lesson eternally for mankind. Lesser tests for obedience to God are failed miserably by modern man.
Some religious people may have a problem with Feiler. He is a journalist not a theologian. Sometimes the cynicism of his profession enters his narrative. His reverences to God’s motives and behavior sometimes border on sacrilege. His lack of true spiritual insight is also demonstrated when he is flummoxed at how the three faiths have, according to him, adopted Abraham. He fails to see that God had given direction for mankind to Abraham and that they developed religions somewhat in accord with the religion of Abraham - worship and obedience to one God-monotheism.
Bruce Feiler confesses his discomfort with the Rabbi’s revision of scripture to make Abraham exclusively for Jews, Feiler is Jewish, but he seemingly attempts to assuage his discomfort by projecting the same onto Christians and Muslims - that they changed scripture in order to claim Abraham. He errs when he quotes a contemporary Rabbi as saying that the Quran says that Islam would rule the world. It does not. In fact, it says “there is no compulsion in religion” - people are free to worship as they choose.
Feiler makes a common error when he confuses the religions and differences among them with the contemporary political situation in the Middle East.
Feiler concludes his book by stating that his search for Abraham has given him hope that the religions can come together, and therefore the world can come together. He says that he sees Abraham not as a Jew, Christian, or Muslim but as an every man of future hope for humanity.
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Last update : 08-12-2002 16:19
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