by JULIET WATERS

Bruce Feiler had been working on a sequel to his best-selling spiritual pilgrimage, Walking the Bible, when he watched the twin towers collapse from his apartment window in New York. As he heard more and more questions about why there was so much hatred between Muslims, Jews and Christians, one figure kept coming back to him: Abraham, the father of all three religions. So he started work on a new book.

For those only vaguely familiar with Abraham, here’s his basic story from Genesis, though inter-religious conflict has produced well over 200 versions (Feiler considers his version 241.) Throughout their lives Abraham and his wife Sarah wish for a child. When Abraham is 85, Sarah convinces him to sleep with her slave, Hagar. Ishmael is born. Fifteen years later, when Sarah is 90, she finally has her own son, Isaac. Now jealous, Sarah insists that Abraham send Ishmael and Hagar out in the desert. God saves them and promises Ishmael he will father a great nation. They make their home in Mecca (Mohammed is considered Ishmael’s descendant.) Years later, God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. But just as Abraham raises his knife, God stops him and rewards him by making him the founder of Judaism (Muslims believe it was Ishmael whom Abraham was asked to sacrifice.) When Abraham dies at the ripe old age of 175, his two sons come together to bury him in Hebron.

Since its publication, Feiler’s short, fascinating book, Abraham, has inspired a Time magazine cover, a Judge Wopner retrial of Abraham (a phone-in verdict narrowly acquitted him of attempted murder), and Feiler has heard from “Mel Gibson’s people” about a possible Hollywood movie. In town last week for a reading, the Mirror asked Feiler a few questions:

Mirror: To what do you credit your book’s popularity?

Bruce Feiler: I think most people who speak openly about religion, or who write about religion come at it from within a tradition, or they’re a faith leader or scholar of some kind. I’m not. I had a crisis of authority. Who am I to write a book about Abraham? But I now think that’s the key. I don’t feel obliged to defend any tradition. There’s plenty of beauty in the different interpretations, but there’s also plenty of demonizing. Everybody does it more or less equally.

M: Do you think a better understanding of Abraham will solve the geopolitical crisis?

BF: What’s going on between the Israelis and the Palestinians, what’s going on between the West and Iraq, what’s going between Al Qaeda and the world - that is a political matter, with some religious overtones. But those problems are going to be solved politically. Paradoxically, the sooner we separate religion from the discussion, the more likely we are to solve the political problems.

M: Many people’s impression of Abraham is that he’s a fanatic or worse. These days he’d be considered psychotic. What’s yours?

BF: I have a totally different take on this. When you look at the original Torah, God does not expressly say to kill Isaac. It commands Abraham to bring Isaac as an “offering.” The raising of the knife might have been Abraham’s choice. Maybe he was testing God. Abraham is not a saint. He is not Mother Theresa… Abraham introduces into the world the notion of violence in the name of faith. He tries to kill each of his sons, Ishmael by kicking him out to the desert, and Isaac up on that rock… Yet they come and stand side by side and bury their father. They forgive him and they forgive each other. But what’s important is what’s not in the story. They don’t hug or embrace, they don’t have dinner, they don’t live happily ever after. They just stand side by side. That is the model. The goal is not one religion, or to have some Esperanto mumbo jumbo. It is just mutual respect… And in that sense his story is very powerful. :

Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by
Bruce Feiler, William Morrow, hc, 224pp, $36.50