Inheriting Abraham: The Legacy of the Patriarch in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Front Cover
Princeton University Press, Sep 30, 2012 - Religion - 264 pages

How Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have reimagined Abraham in their own images

Jews, Christians, and Muslims supposedly share a common religious heritage in the patriarch Abraham, and the idea that he should serve only as a source of unity among the three traditions has become widespread in both scholarly and popular circles. But in Inheriting Abraham, Jon Levenson reveals how the increasingly conventional notion of the three equally "Abrahamic" religions derives from a dangerous misunderstanding of key biblical and Qur'anic texts, fails to do full justice to any of the traditions, and is often biased against Judaism in subtle and pernicious ways.

 

Contents

Who Was and Is Abraham?
1
Call and Commission
18
Frustrations and Fulfillments
36
The Test
66
The Rediscovery of God
113
Torah or Gospel?
139
One Abraham or Three?
173
Notes
215
Index of Primary Sources
235
Index of Modern Authors
243
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2012)

Jon D. Levenson is the Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies at Harvard University. His many books include Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life, which won the National Jewish Book Award, and Creation and the Persistence of Evil (Princeton).

Bibliographic information