Product Description

In recent years there has been an explosion of curiosity and debate about Islam and about the role of religion, both in the world and in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The numerous books published on these questions speak to issues of politics, history, or global security. None speaks to the heart and the spirit, and yet millions of people experience these issues not as political, economic, or intellectual questions but as questions of deep spiritual, emotional, and religious significance.

The Tent of Abraham provides readers with stories that can bring all the faiths together. Written by Saadi Shakur Chishti, a Scottish American Sufi, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, an American Jew, and Joan Chittister, a Benedictine sister, 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. It also weaves together the wisdoms of the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian traditions into a deeper, more unified whole.

The Tent of Abraham is the first book to tell the whole story of Abraham as found in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sources and to reenergize it as a basis for peace.

"If you are going to buy only one interfaith book, this has to be the one."
—Rabbi Dr. Michael Hilton, Manna: The Forum for Progressive Judaism, Winter 2007

"Want an antidote to tragic headlines about religious conflict in the Middle East? Try this remarkable new book. A celebration of religious diversity that is likely to leave readers more optimistic about the potential for peace."
—David Crumm, Detroit Free Press, 2007


Joan Chittister, OSB, is a best-selling writer and lecturer. She lives in Erie, Pennsylvania. Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the director of The Shalom Center in Philadelphia and author of numerous books, including Seasons of Our Joy (Beacon/ 3611-0/ $18.00 pb) and Down-to-Earth Judaism. Saadi Shakur Chishti (Neil Douglas-Klotz) is an internationally known Sufi scholar and writer. His most recent book is The Sufi Book of Life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #634845 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-10
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 218 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The three coauthors, representing the three major Western faiths (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), explain each religion's basis for a monotheistic multifaith movement by delving into ancient stories. Waskow, a rabbi, offers intellectual perspective on the Abrahamic story, explaining symbolic themes of Judaism. The Torah, for instance, is said to have been written with "black fire on white fire": The white fire is the blank spaces, where Jews of each generation are meant to read and reread the language contained in the black fire. Catholic sister and popular writer Chittister describes the Middle East conflict with compelling anecdotes from her own firsthand experience in founding an Israeli-Palestinian women's group. Finally, Sufi writer Chishti discusses the spiritual content and opinions related to Islam. The authors explore provocative questions, such as which son Abraham meant to sacrifice (Isaac, ancestor of the Jews, or Ishmael, ancestor of the Muslims) and the nature of the relationship between Sarah and Hagar: were they devoted friends, rivals or simply property of Abraham? Evoking the "open tent" policy of Abraham, who welcomed all visitors to his home despite social mores, the coauthors air out all options. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Rabbi Arthur Waskow is the director of The Shalom Center in Philadelphia and author of numerous books, including Seasons of Our Joy (Beacon/ 3611-0/ $18.00 pb) and Down-to-Earth Judaism.

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 does not permit us to kill one another, not even in the name of God, but to love one another.

Truly this book is far too profound and important and prophetic for our times for me to attempt a superficial summary here. This is a book to live with, and to awaken by to the welcoming fact that we all dwell within the generous tent of Abraham. This book comes recommended by several authoritative sources, including Tikkum, which writes, "This book will open your eyes to the possibilities of collaborative work between our traditions, and is a must read for those doing interfaith peacework."

Our duty as believers is to do interpersonal peacework. Blessed are the Peacemakers. Do for others what you want them to do for you. Read this book and live it, please, for the sake of our children and their children.

Late last year Our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, paused in silent prayer inside Turkey's Blue Mosque, breathing our unity of Faith. May we follow faithfully his holy example.

And what a joy and a relief to read in this context the great Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, still strong and prophetic. I also strongly recommend her The Rule of Benedict: Insights for the Ages (Crossroad Spiritual Legacy Series). It was she who led me to this Tent of Abraham, now available in paperback and important for us to study carefully and prayerfully today.

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.