The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims

by Joan D. Chittister, Arthur Waskow, Saadi Shakur Chishti, et al.

Book Overview

The Tent of Abraham is the first book to tell the entire story of Abraham and to reenergize it as a basis for peace. Written by three leaders belonging to different faiths, the book explores in accessible language the mythic quality and the teachings of reconciliation that are embedded in the Torah, the Qur'an, and the Bible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807077291
• ISBN13: 9780807077290
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A RABBI, A MUSLIM AND A NUN WALK INTO THE TENT OF ABRAHAM AND EACH ONE DISCOVERED THEMSELVES AT HOME

Please notice the reading regarding Abraham receiving the three travellers is this Sunday's First Reading in the Roman Catholic liturgy, followed by the Gospel Reading regarding the complementary hospitality of Mary and Martha. And if you find that representation as bar joke unappealing, let us read it like Dante: A nun, a rabbi and a Muslim awoke in the midstream of their lives to discover themselves in a dark woods of war and danger, of fear and cruelty, and fled back to the welcoming refuge of Abraham's tent. Or Biblically: Abram looked out from his tent and saw three strangers approaching: A Rabbi, a Muslim and a nun. Abram ran out to prostrate himself at their feet and beg them to come into his tent to rest and to eat and to pray together. They told him to call himself Abraham and his wife Sarah. And the rest is our history. An interesting aspect of this recent book is that it reads best from the back to the front. Thus alone do we discover the unmentioned and secret author, the Rabbi Phyllis Berman, sharing her secret story, treasured for ages in secret among Hebrew women, of the profound love, alliance, solidarity and companionship of Hagar and Sarai, and thus of all the peoples engendered by Abraham: The Judeo-christian and Islam, an inheritance more numerous than the grains of sand by the sea and the stars at night. The leaves high at the top of a mighty oak tree might know only their separation, might feel only their beating one another in the powerful winds that pass. Only by looking way back may they perceive that they in fact spring from the one thick and solid trunk and are in fact children of the one Father. Other important books to read in this regard were written by the Islamic scholar and Roman Catholic Deacon, George Dardess, in particular his great Do We Worship the Same God?: Comparing the Bible And the Qur'an as well as his Meeting Islam: A Guide For Christians (A Many Mansions Book). Truly this present volume is a monument necessary for our needlessly divided times which profit no one but the war mongers and munitions makers. By this great cornerstone may we rebuild the great kingdom of peace and compassion which our One God commanded, to which our One God guides us, the thirst for which our One God fills our Spirit. This book serves well for Lectio Divina, including the remarkable Forward by Karen Armstrong, who reminds us that Abraham, in receiving the Three Strangers into his Tent, receives God. "The act of practical compassion led directly to a divine encounter." She goes on: " . . .it expresses a religious truth found in all the major traditions: it is compassion, not righteousness and doctrinal certainty, that leads us into the presence of what monotheists call God, . . ." Recall here that the Latin roots of our word religion indicate a binding back together again, to ourselves, to one another, to God. Religion therefore ties us all together in one family, one humanity, united by God. Religion explicitly doe

Praises for this contribution to peace

This is a most important book, and I highly recommend it. The combination of a Christian Sister, a Rabbi and a Sufi Murshid discussing their views of Abraham and Sarah's lives/tent from an in-depth perspective offers a model for peace and discussion that can be used in Churches, Mosques and Synagogues around the world. The authors present a discussion and model for deeper discourse that offers much hope in our seriously troubled world. The following Sura quoted from the Qur'an on page 133 of The Tent of Abraham highlights its message: "So turn your face and purpose towards the priordial religion of the upright, the hanif, the nature innately formed by the One Reality in which the One created humanity. Let there be no change in this work created by the One. This religion is self-subsisting, the standard, always resurrecting itself. But most among humanity do not understand. Turn to and remain conscious only of the One, remaining constantly in prayer. Don't deify anything else in yor life, not concepts or beliefs. Don't divide yourselves into sects that contratulate themselves on their own ideas (translation of Sura 30:30-32). We are all part of one human family who simply need to realize our divine Unity. Thank you Sr. Joan Chittister, Rabbi Waskow and Murshid Saadi for such a heartful book. Sharon G. Mijares, Ph.D. Primary author of The Root of All Evil: An Exposition of Prejudice, Fundamentalism and Gender Imbalance.

Historical Background

The book provides a good historical background of the three major religious movements. As a Christian, I learned a great deal more about the foundations of both the Jewish and Muslim faiths. It was helpful to my understanding of circumstances as they exist today.

Courageous Grief Provides Room Under the Tent for All

The story of Father Abraham is shared by Jews, Christians & Muslims. The fac that the two sons Issac & Ishamel reconcile in order to honor their Father in death provides a basis for Peace if we will make this our story.

Doyal

The Tent of Abraham presents a vision of hope: what Jews, Christians and Muslims can do for a mutual understanding of the essence that binds these three great religions in Abraham. This book is especially clutching in showing the reader how women, mothers caught up in the madness of war, can see more clearly than politicians, that our humanity and our compassion should inform us that war can never be a satisfactory solution to any human need. People of all faiths should read this book.