The great patriarch of the Hebrew Bible is also the spiritual forefather of the New Testament and the grand holy architect of the Koran. Abraham is the shared ancestor of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Abraham is the linchpin of the Arab/Israeli conflict. He is the centerpiece of the battle between the Radical Christian Fundamentalists and Radical Islamic fundamentalists. Abraham is the father, in many cases the purported biological father of 12 million Jews, 2 billion Christians and 1 billion Muslims around the world.
Muhammad may be more important for the Muslims, Jesus for the Christians, and Moses for the Jews ; yet all three traditions go out of their way to link themselves to their common patriarch. Control Abraham and you control the threshold to the divine. Abraham is no longer an individual, with individual needs. he has become God's proxy on earth. This symbolism is so profound that it reverberated down through the centuries, growing louder with each generation , until it echoes in billions of daily prayers to this day.
Abraham's covenant with God is so majestic it forms a central plank in all three Abrahamic faiths. The prophets of the Hebrew Bible refer to the Abraham of Genesis, the Gospels refer to the Abraham of Genesis, even the Koran refers to the Abraham of " the book '. Indeed, Genesis is the only place that explores the narrative of Abraham's life in any comprehensive way. The other books assume that the reader already knows the basic story.
When the perpetrators of WW III finally realize the only way to achieve a reconciliation is to hold diplomatic talks which involve religious topics, Abraham is where they must begin. The ability of a Second Enlightenment to put a new perspective on Abraham's God which all Abrahamic traditions can agree on is civilizations best chance.....
