The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism [Hardcover]

David Klinghoffer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 2003

Fifty-three percent of the world’s population practices Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, religions that all trace their lineage to the towering, quasi-mythological figure of Abraham. In this reverent biography of the man who invented–or discovered–God, David Klinghoffer disentangles history from myth and uncovers the profound impact of Abraham’s message on his time and on the development of the modern world.

The Discovery of God chronicles Abraham’s life from his birth in Mesopotamia through his travels as preacher and missionary throughout the Middle East. Many of the primary sites of Abraham’s life and career still exist, and Klinghoffer describes what they were like in ancient times and how they appear today. The tangible details of the polytheistic culture are re-created, showing how Abraham challenged the most basic beliefs of his contemporaries. He did not set out to establish the Jewish religion, but rather to spread the message of ethical monotheism as it was revealed to him–a powerful message that deepened over time, as did his faith and relationship with God.

In contrast to many scholars who, troubled by its contradictions and apparent errors, see the Bible as the work of a series of scribes and editors, Klinghoffer argues that the Bible should be viewed as an esoteric text that an only be comprehended in light of the oral tradition from which it emanated. Combining rigorous scholarship and interpretive ingenuity, he draws on biblical commentary and the Jewish oral tradition as preserved by sages from the Talmudic scholars to Maimonidies to explore and explain the miraculous origins of monotheism.

At a time when the world seems to moving toward a renewed confrontation between the three great Abrahamic faiths, The Discovery of God is a potent reminder of the history and beliefs that unite them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Klinghoffer, author of The Lord Will Gather Me In and formerly the literary editor of the National Review, gathers abundant material from the oral traditions surrounding Abraham to weave a rich and colorful history of Israel's first patriarch. In order to draw a complete picture of Abraham's life, Klinghoffer relies on the Talmudic stories as well as the tales of the medieval rabbis, like Maimonides, to trace Abraham's life from his birth in Mesopotamia to his burial in Machpelah. Born into a time of spiritual revolution, Abraham gradually recognized his calling as a prophet of God who would challenge the polytheistic religions of Mesopotamia and try to convert followers to the monotheism he had discovered. Using the biblical story (Genesis 12-25) to structure his book, Klinghoffer narrates the major events in Abraham's life-the births of Ishmael and Isaac, the near-sacrifice of Isaac, the betrayal of Lot, the births of Jacob and Esau-to provide insights into the ways that Abraham maintained his monotheistic faith even when God seemed to make unreasonable commands. Klinghoffer maintains that we cannot do without Abraham as a historical figure because Abraham tells us so much about the God he discovers. A master storyteller, Klinghoffer provides a fast-paced and engrossing account of the life of the man who fathered the three major Western religions.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

A convert to Orthodox Judaism, Klinghoffer finds the key to his acquired faith in the story of its ancient founder, the patriarch Abraham. Skeptical of the skeptics who treat Abraham's story as a pious myth, Klinghoffer recognizes in Abraham a real historical figure who effected a revolution in the world's religious beliefs. To make his case, Klinghoffer supplements the scriptural account of Abraham's life with centuries of Talmudic commentary. Readers who know Abraham only from the Bible will find many surprises in these ancient commentaries, including the fact that Abram received the new name of Abraham to annul the divine punishment apportioned to a sinner. Because he writes as a well-versed amateur, Klinghoffer well anticipates the interests of general readers, although he avoids a simple-minded literalism that would deny the ambiguities surrounding Abraham's life--ambiguities that have long alienated Christian from Jew, Jew from Muslim, despite their shared allegiance to Abraham as the Father of the Faithful. Hope that the adherents of the three Abrahamic faiths will ever resolve their differences grows stronger with a book like this--lucid, profound, reflective. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (March 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385499736
• ISBN-13: 978-0385499736
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,124,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An astonishing and vivid experience, March 27, 2003

By 

Rob Gordon "Book and Vinyl Lover" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism (Hardcover)

Klinghoffer has written a brilliant book: a combination detective story -- who was this patriarch with the half-sister marriage and the bombshell concubine and the funny relationship with his kid? -- and meditation. (If the book were an album, its title would be "Abraham Comes Alive.")

To write a biography of a pre-modern figure -- a man who stands somehow at the back of much of the modern world, the way D.W. Griffith hangs at the back of every movie theater, mildly grinning -- Klinghoffer has performed an immense amount of digging. By definition, there are no photos, letters, phone records, eyewitness accounts, no talkative siblings or rivalrous contemporaries; to begin with, there are just the stones and weather of the Bible. Klinghoffer excavates his story's bones from that source, pressing also into Midrash and a shamingly wide range of archaeological and critical sources. What he comes up with is an intensely readable story about one of history's great, pivotal figures; a lone man in an dusty region of the world who gave birth to the three of the world's major religions. (Birth, and also the roiling within families, is one of Klinghoffer's consistent interests in the book.)

The book is about founding a tradition, but it's also a story. Abraham rejected his own father's idolatry, found the first modern path to God, fought armies, dealt with the problems of love, marriage, fatherhood, kinship, family; one of the surprises encountered again and again in Klinghoffer's story is how much of our modern turbulence - essentially, doubt versus fidelity, and the many avenues that conflict seeks for expression -- Abraham's own life anticipates. The approach to whether miracles in the bible are "literally" true is a great feat of perception: they're "true" because they were necessary to our own understanding and acceptance of God. The author's passages on the love between Sarah and Abraham read as a kind of sweet, best-case marriage: as he sees them, the two are halves of a whole, Abraham the accepting, understanding heart, Sarah the stern, unbending head; as in any relationship, partners will fill out the available role. Klinghoffer takes the reader through the story we half-know, giving it blood and muscle along the way. It's a daring, dramatic thing to have pulled off; at a time when those three religions (in the way children in the Bible so often do) have come into conflict, it feels almost necessary.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking journey with Abraham and God, January 9, 2006

By 

AD Van Breda (South Africa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Discovery of God : Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism (Hardcover)

There is a wide range of ratings for this book - the next few give very poor ratings (1 star), while the latter reviews give 5. I've just finished reading it and can concur with most of what both groups of reviewers have said.

On the up side, the book paints vivid and dramatic pictures of Abraham's life, his journeys, his relationships and his God. Klinghoffer argues strongly and well for Abraham's role in being an evangelist for monotheism.

On the down side, Klinghoffer does treat the Oral Torah as almost more inspired than the Torah itself. His arguements about Isaac are incomprehensible. He introduces various bits of information that I found bizarre.

But, put together I, for one, found the book deeply thought provoking. He helped me get a real sense of Abraham the man, and the societies in which he moved. Many bits of Oral Torah trivia were really interesting and I am grateful to have them.

I am a theology student, in training to become a pastor in a conservative demonination. I found the book well worth reading.

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, frustrating biography of the Biblical patriarch, January 3, 2004

By 

debvh (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Discovery of God: Abraham and the Birth of Monotheism (Hardcover)

In this exceedingly frustrating book I found some fascinating insights into the Biblical patriarch Abraham, yet the author's style was so off-putting I often found myself wondering why I persisted in reading. Author David Klinghoffer writes from within the Orthodox Jewish approach that views the oral tradition (Midrash), codified by ancient rabbis and interpreted by medieval sages, as revealed truth on a par with the Torah. In fact, he argues, you can't understand the Torah unless you read it in conjunction with the oral law. His arguments in favor of his approach are arrogantly overstated yet unlikely to appeal to anyone but a true believer, which was part of what made the book so maddening. Furthermore, he asserts the factual nature of his account with no regard for the extent to which it is the product of his own selection and interpretation of the traditional texts. If he had acknowledged that his approach was one among many, and then demonstrated its usefulness, he would have been more likely to win me over.

The author structures the book as a biography of Abraham, interleaving Biblical and Midrashic tales along with selected historical/archaeological evidence (while remaining contemptuously dismissive of those who take a primarily historical approach to the Bible). Jewish oral tradition provides a wealth of instructive anecdotes with which to flesh out the terse Biblical tale, and the author demonstrates an encyclopedic knowledge of the literature. At times the dense, discursive, and often bizarre stories overwhelmed the narrative flow and made it difficult to discern the author's main points. Given the often troubled relations among the three religions that trace their heritage to Abraham, it was surprising that the author reached an ultimately optimistic conclusion, yet he made a thought-provoking case for hope.