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The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma And The Birth Of Three Faiths (2009)

by Charlotte Gordon(Favorite Author)

3.8 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

031611474X (ISBN13: 9780316114745)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Little, Brown and Company

review 1: I seem to be giving everything four stars these days. I would say this is a solid four star book. This is a non fiction, non-religious retelling of the Old Testament story of Abraham. The woman in the title, who named God, is Hagar, Abraham's second wife. But this is the story of Abraham, who was instrumental in three regions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The author spends a lot of time explaining the differences between each religion's understanding of essentially identical happenings. Fascinating.
review 2: Creative stories based on the Abraham saga abound so I give Charlotte Gordon credit for writing yet another book that attempts to fill in the many gaps that the Hebrew scriptures leave for one's imagination. What is unique about this work are the many ... moresources she draws on to fill in those gaps. Gordon draws on sources from all three Abrahamic monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Wether it's the New Testament and Church Fathers, or the Talmud and Mishnah, or the Koran and Hadith, she develops the story of Abraham and his family delicately weaving these many traditions into an exploration of the characters and events that make this story so well loved. Her strengths are her skills in the literary field (creative writing, literary criticism) and historical reconstruction. Her weaknesses come into play when drifting too far into theology. However, I cannot fault her for this since the above disciplines overlap and play off each other. Now, while it was certainly not a book that blew me away it was still an easy and enjoyable read. There is a nice section of notes that gives those with a more scholarly interest to explore further and there is an extensive bibliography which has provided me with an ever expanding wish list. Nevertheless, as I said earlier the strength of this book and it's unique contribution is the attention she gives to Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions in reconstructing the story of Abraham and the woman who named God (and you'll have to read the book to find out who that is). less

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