Abstract and Keywords

The Introduction shows the ambiguity surrounding the term “Abrahamic religions.” Although the category is usually believed to be based on inclusivity, the introduction suggests that it can just as easily function as one of division and exclusivity. For example, each “Abrahamic religion”—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—has used the mythic figure of Abraham to legitimate itself and, in the process, establish its authenticity by invoking the claim that its members are Abraham’s true, spiritual descendants. So rather than claim that the category “Abrahamic religions” names some historical phenomenon, this chapter argues that it functions as a form of wish fulfillment and ecumenicism.

On the cold morning of February 25, 1994, which just happened to coincide that year with the Jewish holiday of Purim and the Muslim month of Ramadan, an American-born physician dressed as an Israeli soldier made his way, as tens of thousands of Jewish and Muslim worshippers had before him, to the cave of Machpelah in Hebron. There, at the tomb of Abraham, Jews and Muslims prayed awkwardly with one another as they had for centuries. On common ground, each invoked the God of Abraham in the traditional manner prescribed by their respective traditions. On this particular morning, however, Dr. Baruch Goldstein raised and pointed his machine gun at the crowd and began to shoot indiscriminately at the Muslim worshippers. Screams of horror pierced what had just a few seconds earlier been the calm melody of prayer. By the time the screams had finished, twenty-nine Muslims were dead, another one hundred and twenty-five were injured, and the perpetrator, beaten to death by the remaining crowd, lay crumpled on the ground.1

This tragic event marks the ambiguity of Abraham in the modern world. Perceived by many as the common denominator of Judaism, Christianity