The Family of Abraham

Bakhos is a unique voice in an arena that seems to attract some particularly overstated positions. A valuable book that will find an eager readership among those interested in learning more about the differences and similarities to be found across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
-- Andrew Rippin, University of Victoria, British Columbia

In this elegant book, Carol Bakhos interprets the conflicts in Abraham’s family, following them through the centuries in the intertwined traditions of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Insisting on important differences as well as similarities, The Family of Abraham is a lively and intelligent guide to the comparative study of these three religions.
-- Guy Stroumsa, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In her lucid new book, [Bakhos] challenges the notion that the first patriarch can be so innocuously pressed into the service of interfaith reconciliation…She proves uniquely attuned to the interpretive richness with which each tradition fashioned and refashioned its own Abraham and, therefore, to the perils of detaching a pluralistic one-size-fits-all Abraham from the particular traditions that, for better or worse, have so enduringly granted him life and meaning. Alfred North Whitehead once quipped that the history of Western philosophy is a footnote to Plato. If Carol Bakhos is any guide, today’s contentious continuities and discontinuities among Jews, Christians, and Muslims may none too hopefully be said to be a footnote to Abraham.”
-- Benjamin Balint Weekly Standard