Book Review- Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler

As a Christian I am interested in the phenomenon of Abraham as the progenitor of three of the main religions on earth. Of particular interest was the portrayal of this character through the lenses of the two other belief systems that I am not so familiar with. In an easy to read format this is at once a book for the curious without the need for serious scholarship,and will therefore be appealing to a wide readership. Coupled with this is the current apetite throughout the world to understand better the problems of the middle-east and also the clarion-call for religious tolerance and reconciliation. All of this may be found in this book which will therefore guarantee its success as a money spinner.

What I find disturbing is the tendency of the writer not so much to find the truth of Abraham, but how to reconcile the different faiths. There is the overarching but unwritten goal to find the common ground by which these three religions may be reconciled. It reminds me of the saying "peace at any price is too high a price" It seems to me to beg the question "is the reconciling of differences really worth the sacrifice of truth?"

It seems never to enter the writers mind that actually one of the faiths representation of Abraham might actally be true as an historical fact and therefore is a sound basis for faith.

The book never seriously offers Abraham as the embodiment of a life lived by the truth, and that to agree with a fabrication in the name of tolerance is actually to undermine the basis for living in harmony.

Abraham as understood through the various "manipulations" of each of the different faiths theologians over a long period seems as far as I am aware to be represented fairly and without bias by Feiler, but to say that Feiler doesn't have any presuppositions or is indeed a neutral seeker of truth is a far different thing. In the end I have to say that what is tacitly ignored in this book is the fact that truth by its very nature is exclusive, but that is not a popular thought in todays pluralistic and relativistic culture. Not to explore the possibility that actually one of those views of Abraham is true and the other two false is a serious flaw in his work, but completely understandable, given todays religious climate.

All in all well worth the read but disapointing in seeing the pervasiveness of the modern maxims in yet another author, move over Dan Brown :

a) God is a construct of theologians.

b)There is no such thing as absolute truth.

C)Tolerance is more important than truth.

d)To defer to tolerance is a guarantee of neutrality.

e)To be intolerant of misbeliefs is to be bigoted.

f)History is dependent on the flavour of todays revisionists.