Where God was Born: A Journey by Land to The Roots of Religion (2005)

Hands down the best book I've read about the Middle East and religion. Reviews:
http://www.travellingcari.com/2013/04/27/where-god-was-born/
http://www.travellingcari.com/2013/04/27/review-where-god-was-born/ ( )

Where God Was Born: A Journey by Land to the Roots of Religion by Bruce Feiler. Epiphany library section 7 A: The Church in the World, World Religions. Author of Walking the Bible and Abraham (both in our church library), Feiler in this book takes us on a journey through the middle east to track down the origins of the monotheism. Traveling with his sidekick, he first visits Jerusalem for an exploration of its ancient underground water spring system. Then he visits sites such as the Elah Valley, location of David and Goliath’s showdown.
From there, his trip gets much riskier as he visits Ur, Iraq, Abraham’s historic home. He also visits the ancient ruins of Babylon, Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh, and the capital of ancient Assyria, Nimrud. We learn it’s very dicey to travel in Iraq – bombers and thieves own the roads. In one case Saddam built a gaudy palace overlooking Babylon as if wanting to transfer the power of ancient Babylon’s civilization to himself. Feiler also interviews the director of Iraq’s National Museum, stripped of many of its most precious artifacts during the war.
Next, Feiler and his wife travel to Iran’s holiest city, Qom, as well as Tehran and Persepolis. Feiler, being Jewish, is particularly interested in attitudes of native Muslims for their Jewish countrymen. Iran, larger than the entire middle east put together including Iraq, Syria and Egypt, has some half million archeological sites that today remain unexcavated. One archeologist says Iran needs an army – of archeologists – to unearth all these sites because there is much to find that will help explain the origins of monotheism. There are numerous Persian and Zoroastrian influences in the Bible. For example, Cyrus, King of Persia, liberated the Jews in Babylon and enabled them to go back to Judea.
While most people in the middle east want peace, it is very elusive. All sides must give up something to achieve it, but few want to compromise. Most are confronted with the daily challenge of trying to find work, food, and clean water, so difficult when governments are chaotic, vicious, or nonexistent. People describe what it is like to live with constant fear and tension. Feiler hopes that this book will create greater interfaith dialogue, understanding, and respect. ( )

book read by author on CD

Continuing the “saga” he started in Walking the Bible, Bruce sets out to explore the Fertile Crescent and nearby areas, especially Iran, to work out what the second half of the Hebrew Bible discussed—the rise of monotheism and the development of Judaism. He also continues to try to discover ways that the 3 Abrahamic Faiths can learn to live together. This book is a wonderful mix of ancient history and current events that sometimes threatened to overwhelm me (I’m must do something about my lack of geographic and political knowledge) but kept me enthralled, educated me in many areas, and gave me much food for thought about my own faith beliefs and how I live them out. The chapters about Iraq and Iran were particularly meaningful to me because until I read this I knew virtually nothing about these areas except what I’ve been reading in the headlines. One thing that struck me—and Bruce points this out near the end of the book—the Biblical stories about these areas tell of many, almost constant wars as the Jews were moving into and living in the Promised Land as they came up against societies who did not share the value system they felt they were getting from God; it seems that in these 20th and 21st Century times once again there seems to be almost constant conflict brought about by differing views about God and how we should serve Him. Is it a vain hope that we can ever get along? According to Bruce the only thing that can save our religions is religion—the moderates need to be more proactive and not allow the fundamentalists destroy any possibility of being able to accommodate each other and learn from each other. Although he puts it differently, Bruce seems to believe as I do that no one religion or faith has a “lock” on The Truth—we all have aspects of Truth but not a final answer. We need each other to come closer to knowing what God would have us all do. ( )

http://storyjunkie.livejournal.com/34817.html

On first impression this is a more serious sort of travelogue. Traveling around Jerusalem these days should never be taken lightly, and soon the narrative devices of a mystery told in the first person begin appearing.

The solution is more elusive than a mere "Who done it", as Feiler is searching for a religious identity that doesn't hold an obligation to hate, or to accept that things must remain as divisive as they are. The mystery is how to reconcile this need with the narrative that the faiths of Abraham were given: the Torah, the Bible, the Koran.

In the first section there is a treatment of the bloody history of Jerusalem that doesn't let that history detract from Feiler's search. There is focus on King David, as a figure others have rallied to. There is an unflinching look at the metaphorical, historical and spiritual truths contained in the text of the Bible (as that is the collection Feiler is using here for the most part). He is asking the hard questions, and trying to find answers, and taking the reader with him.

His writing style is more fire-side storyteller than professor, for which I am personally grateful. Details of his surroundings, and his companions, forays into his personal history and the associations he's making between the past and the present are all presented in a conversational format. Reading this so far has been like listening to someone knowledgeable and wise enough to know that they still seek answers talk about something deeply meaningful to them. Just because it's meaningful doesn't mean they examine it any less closely or critically than if it was merely another interesting puzzle. ( )