ABRAHAM

For those of us who grew-up in Sunday School we had to sing that classic song “Father Abraham” and that oh so popular line “many sons had father Abraham.” This book shocked me with how many people Abraham has “fathered” over the last few thousand years. His lineage surely is more than the stars in the sky.

For the past few weeks I’ve been journeying through Bruce Feiler’s “Abraham” and it is has been a very enlightening journey. This book is filled with great imagery as you feel like you are actually seeing everything that the author is seeing as he tries to unwrap the mysteries of Abraham.

The first portion of the book was a little dull and filled with some information that was “old hat” to me but once Feiler really started unwrapping the layers of Abraham’s life it was amazing. What was most eye-opening was how Abraham is such a central figure in three different spiritual communities. I never realized how vitally important Abraham was to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Feiler speaks with different scholars and experts on each of these three different faiths and it mind blowing how similar they tell the story of Abraham even though you’d think these three faiths are different from one another. Certainly there are key differences but for the most part these three faiths hold Abraham in very high regard.

The format of the book makes for a quick read but don’t move to quickly because there are some really amazing facts about this man’s life that can be missed when reading. It is such a good read that flows extremely well. Feiler, himself a Jew, makes the book personal and that in turn makes the reader become more personal with Abraham.

HIGHLY recommend!!