The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths

by Charlotte Gordon

The saga of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar is the tale of origin for all three monotheistic faiths. Abraham must choose between two wives who have borne him two sons. One wife and son will share in his wealth and status, while the other two are exiled into the desert. Long a cornerstone of Western anxiety, the story chronicles a very famous and troubled family, and sheds light on the ongoing conflict between the Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds. How...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031611474X
• ISBN13: 9780316114745
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Changed the way I read the Bible

The beginning of the book alone is worth the price of admission! I have been reading the Bible and teaching Sunday School for many years and found the research and interpretation to be excellent. This is a crucial time and set of stories in the history of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Oral and written traditions from all three faiths are carefully explained, then combined to render thoughtful and fascinating interpretations of individual words and stories that make up the similarities and subtle differences between the faiths. All this may sound very "heavy," but the stories and reflections are done so well that the book is very readable and enjoyable. I recommend it highly and hope it will make you think about religion and the Bible in new ways.

Wonderfully Insightful

As a Christian and as a teacher who has taught about the semitic religions, I thought I knew the story of Hagar and her legacy in her son Ishmael, however, I realized after reading this book that my knowledge was only surface. This is a fantastic read for anyone interested in reading not just about women of the bible, but of women in history. The author has done a wonderful job gathering her information and telling the story of Hagar's life that will leave you wondering why this book hadn't been written before this.

Difference between the Great Three Religions

Charlotte Gordon brings the biblical history of Abraham, into modern-day language that we can all understand. She shows how the three great faiths, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam had their beginning from the loins of Abraham. I met strong-willed women within the pages, who seemed to have God's ear, far more than a weak-willed and indecisive Abram/Abraham. The book contains stories within stories, written succinctly and with clever insight. She pulls back a veil as over a murky mirror, to reveal the clarity of the passions and emotions hidden behind the stark and musty words of the tales as told in the Bible.

A stunning, eye-opening examination of an ancient story

Charlotte Gordon has performed a great service with this remarkable scholarly analysis of the tragic love story at the heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Her sensitivity to what the figures of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar mean to believers in these great faiths is matched with her fearless scholarship. Ms. Gordon makes the ancient scriptural tale of Hagar and Ishmael's exile into the desert gripping and real for modern readers. And her willingness to go back to original sources to challenge dogmatic views of this sacred story is refreshing and sorely needed at a time when faith is too often mixed with fundamentalism and anti-intellectualism. As a practicing Muslim, I was delighted by her fair and compassionate portrayal of Hagar, the ancestral matriarch of Islam, and was grateful to see how respectful she was of the example that Hagar provides for modern times, both as a strong woman and as a symbol of human freedom and dignity. And Ms. Gordon's analysis of the deeply complex personalities of Abraham and Sarah make these holy figures accessible and believable to modern readers. She takes away the "idolatry of perfection" that has often veiled these scriptural figures from believers and makes them flesh-and-blood human beings who share our passions, flaws, fears and hopes. Abraham and his wives and children become living examples for us today, rather than plastic saints with no relevance to our personal moral struggles in our daily lives. "The Woman Who Named God" provides a much-needed examination of an archetypal story which defines the identities of billions of human beings, and I hope the both believers and non-believers will read this book and learn why the story of Abraham and his family still matters today.

Great read, fascinating story

If you're interested by the history of religion and what's behind it, this is your book. What's amazing about this book is that it's made a lot of theological and historical scholarship really fascinating and compelling, a story that I couldn't stop reading. There's also a wonderful women's perspective on what's often been an all-male story. I'd recommend this book to anyone, and I already have. I feel like I know the situation of the present-day Middle East better because I read this.