Book Review: Abraham, a Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths

Overview of the Book and Its Significance

The book under review is Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler (2002). Feiler is an interesting author of scholarly-adjacent books in that his work is not bound by traditional academic guidelines. Rather than studying a subject in an educational setting, Feiler immerses himself in an experience. He has written about both religious and secular topics, but is best known for his books on religion. In addition to his work as an author, he is the writer and 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 acclaimed books and received an unusual amount of attention for a religion-based nonfiction work. 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 to emphasize the common background shared by those three seemingly different faiths.

Abraham reads somewhat like a history book mixed with a travel guide. In it, Feiler journeys to the Holy Land, which remains hotly contested, with all three major religious groups seeking some form of control over an area that plays a critical role in their shared history. Using his experiences traveling through the region, Feiler meets with prominent figures from all three religions and asks for their views on Abraham's influence on their faith. He also records his observations about the secular and religious events he witnesses along the way. Most people are aware that the modern Middle East is plagued by conflict in multiple locations, but Feiler makes clear that these wars are literally being fought on holy ground, and many of them are ostensibly religious in nature. He discusses the cultural particularities he encounters in each country, as well as the suspicion with which he — a foreigner — is received in many of these places. 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 site sacred to another faith.

Feiler's Portrait of Abraham

Throughout these discussions, Feiler introduces Abraham as he is recognized and characterized by all three religions. What is fascinating is that this man, seen as a significant patriarch across these faiths, was not someone one would call unequivocally good. Feiler reminds the reader that Abraham did things that make his morality seem genuinely questionable: he abandoned his aging father, exiled his firstborn son, attempted to kill his second son, and participated in large-scale warfare. 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 apparent perfection of some later figures.

Feiler devotes significant attention to Abraham's two women — his wife Sarah and his concubine Hagar — and to how those relationships shaped Abraham's bonds with his sons Isaac and Ishmael. This is a particularly compelling discussion, since the conflict between modern Jews and Christians on one side and Muslims on the other can literally be traced to the fact that they descended from different sons of Abraham. Feiler also delves into the fraught division between Christians and Jews, which can seem even more difficult to understand than any theological differences with Islam. He suggests that studying Abraham can help illuminate these divisions, since, as he writes, "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).

Key Themes: Child Sacrifice, Holy Land, and Interfaith Conflict

Feiler gives particular attention to the role that the loss of a child plays across all three major monotheistic religions. He writes: "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 across these traditions and challenges the reader to consider why child sacrifice emerges as such a predominant theme in all three religions.

Feiler also makes vivid the reality of religious strife in the places he visits. The modern Middle East is not treated as an abstraction; rather, its conflicts are shown to unfold on ground that is simultaneously sacred and embattled. This tension between the holy and the violent runs throughout the book and gives its broader argument a sense of urgency that purely textual scholarship might miss.

Conclusion

My final problem with the book was Feiler's hopeful tone. He seems to think that some form of reconciliation between the three major religions may be achievable in the near future. However, that optimism seems naive given how vividly he documents the religious strife he witnesses firsthand. He notes that the religious leaders he interviews see a path toward reconciling their understandings of Abraham with those of the other two faiths. Yet the broader state of the world suggests that many other religious leaders do not share this view. While a book that incorporated voices of religious extremism or hatred would have been far less hopeful in tenor, it might have offered greater insight into the contemporary religious conflicts unfolding across the Middle East.

References

Feiler, B. (2002). Abraham: A journey to the heart of three faiths. HarperCollins Publishers.