Abraham: A Symbol of Hope for Jews, Christians and Muslims

by Karl-Josef Kuschel

In a world where there is all too much hostility, latent or manifest, between Christians and Muslims, Muslims and Jews, Christians and Jews, and an increase in fundamentalism and extremism, this book sets out to present a new vision for peace between the religions. It centres on Abraham, a figure who has an important place in Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition, and thus forms a common point of reference. First Karl-Josef Kuschel analyses the role Abraham has been made to play in each of the three great religions in connection with politics, ideals, laws: the non-Jew who was made a Jew, then a Christian and then the model Muslim. Since he is the possession of all these religions, a future relationship between them could be an Abrahamic ecumenism'. The second part of the book then sets out the presuppositions for such an ecumenism; with a universalistic perspective, and the third section outlines the contribution that this ecumenism could make in the world of our day. In his two previous books, Born Before All Time and Laughter, Karl-Josef Kuschel has shown a rare gift for providing a refreshing, lucid and highly readable approach to important subjects. This new work is no exception and has much to say to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. Karl-Josef Kuschel teaches ecumenical theology and theological aesthetics in the University of Tubingen.

Genres: Theology

318 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 2 out of 5]

A well-intentioned but ultimately unremarkable polemic which falls too much into the trap of appealing to too many orthodoxies at a time and with no appeal to a secular, catholic (not Catholic) reader, whatever their spiritual stripe.
Abraham you might remember was the guy willing to murder his son for no reason other than because God asked him to. From the get-go, this most salient part of his legend doesn't seem to bode well for Kuschel's universalist well-wishing. But he tries and he does an okay job with what he has. Moving through Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, he dissects how the three faiths interpreted and co-opted Abraham in various guises. Abraham is a kind of early, post-diluvian locus of faith, I suppose, and has some inherent value as a kind of wandering pagan dude who wasn't Jewish, Christian, or Muslim at all, which is his appeal.
Again, Kuschel's intentions are noble and we certainly need as much pan-faith love-ins as we can muster, but this one didn't quite hook my thumbs.