Word: abraham
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...Abraham is thus a much more difficult--and more interesting--figure than at first he seems. His history constitutes akind of multifaith scandal, a case study for monotheism's darker side, the desire of people to define themselves by excluding or demonizing others. The fate of interfaith stalwarts seeking to undo that heritage and locate in the patriarch a true symbol of accord should be meaningful to all of us suddenly interested in the apparent chasm between Islam and the West. Says Abraham author Feiler: "I believe he's a flawed vessel for reconciliation, but he's the best figure...
Feiler began Abraham after the Sept. 11 attacks, seeking a unifying symbol in a time of strife. Instead, the book records his growth from a dewy-eyed Abrahamic novice to a more realistic observer. As he remarks, "When I set out on this journey, I believed ... the Great Abrahamic Hope was an oasis in the deepest deserts of antiquity, and all we had to do was track him down and his descendants would live in perpetual harmony, dancing Kumbaya around the campfire. That oasis, I realized, is just a mirage." The sober understanding Feiler ends up with, however...
...ABRAHAM...
...Abraham was born, according to tradition, into a family that sold idols--a way of emphasizing the polytheism that reigned in the Middle East before his enlightenment. The stirring first words of the 12th chapter in the Torah's Book of Genesis are God's to him and are often referred to as theCall: "Go forth from your native land/And from your father's house/And I will make of you a great nation/And I will bless those who bless you/And curse him that curses you/And all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you." Abraham would appear...
...they travel, God elaborates on his offer. Abraham's children will be as numerous as grains of dust on the earth and stars in the sky. They will spend 400 years as slaves but ultimately possess the land from the Nile to the Euphrates. The pact is sealed in a mysterious ceremony in a dream, during which the Lord, appearing as a smoking torch, puts himself formally under oath. He requires a different acknowledgment from Abraham: he must inscribe a sign of the Covenant on his body, initiating the Jewish and Muslim customs of circumcision. He is now committed...