Sonderbooks Book Review of Abraham

Reviewed November 22, 2002.
William Morrow, New York, 2002. 224 pages.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bruce Feiler’s Walking the Bible, so I snapped up his new book when it arrived at the library.

This book was not so much about the places where Abraham walked as it was about the traditions that have risen up around Abraham in the three faiths that take him as their father.

This book was interesting. I didn’t know anything about many of the traditions and stories of Judaism and Islam about Abraham. The author comes from a Jewish background, and he did run up against some of my beliefs in assuming that the Torah was written in Ezra’s time, that Jesus didn’t claim to be the Messiah, and that John put words in Jesus’ mouth that Jesus himself would not have said.

But those things were quite aside from the main point. The main point is that we all take Abraham for our father. He is truly the father of monotheism, and an example of faith in God to all three religions. He expresses the hope that our common father can bring us together. An interesting and thought-provoking book.

Reviews of other books by Bruce Feiler:
Walking the Bible
Walking the Bible (Children's Edition)

-top of page-

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****Abraham*

A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths

by Bruce Feiler