Children of Abraham: Part Three | Religious History Documentary | Timeline

Children of Abraham: Part Two | Religious History Documentary | Timeline

Children of Abraham: Part One | Religious History Documentary | Timeline

In the post 9/11 world, entrenched religious belief is often seen as a key factor in a "clash of civilisations" - Christians, Muslims and Jews locked into an age-old struggle.

In this thought-provoking three-part series, Mark Dowd, a Catholic who trained to be a Dominican Friar, embarks on a very personal journey to the Holy Land, Egypt, Turkey, Bosnia and the USA to explore the shared roots and deep enmities of the three faiths, and to discover if there is hope in a shared future. The prophet Abraham is central to the three great monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yet, despite these shared origins, and the reconciliatory promise to Abraham that "all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed by you", his descendants have often resembled a squabbling, dysfunctional family. Dowd's journey of discovery is an attempt to grapple with the big questions: Why, if there is one God, are there three so-called monotheistic faiths? Why do some people abuse religion to demonise their enemies while others build bridges to them? And why have the "children of Abraham" often fallen so short of the legacy of unity that was promised to the prophet?

The Abrahamic Fallacy: Why Abraham Is Not a Point of Unity for Islam, Judaism, and Christianity

Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors hosted Dr. Mark Durie on January 21, 2014, in Los Angeles, California, at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel.

Over the past fifty years the expression 'Abrahamic' has become widely used to refer collectively to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The key idea is that the three religions 'share' Abraham and find in him a point of unity.

The phrase 'Abrahamic religion' or 'faith of Abraham' was first promoted in ecumenical circles during the 1950's and 1960's by Lebanese Maronite priest, Youakim Moubarak, whose theological vision was political, of an 'egalitarian Palestine in which Jews, Christians and Muslims demonstrate together its abrahamic and ecumenical vocation'.

In reality, however, Abraham is a divisive figure: in Judaism he is the Torah-observant father of the Jewish nation; for Christians he is the apostle of salvation by faith alone; for Muslims he is the proto-typical Muslim, a forerunner and validator of Muhammad.

Moubarak took the phrase 'religion of Abraham' from the Koran and his promotion of it is a manifestation of dhimmi theology, a worldview constrained by existential fear, psychological accommodation and denial. In fact the 'Abrahamic vocation' inspired by the Koran leads to Islamization and sharia implementation. The current state of the Middle East offers eloquent testimony to the hollowness of this vision.

Dr. Mark Durie is a theologian, human rights activist, Anglican pastor, a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at the Middle East Forum, and Adjunct Research Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Islam and Other Faiths at Melbourne School of Theology. He has published many articles and books on the language and culture of the Acehnese, Christian-Muslim relations and religious freedom. A graduate of the Australian National University and the Australian College of Theology, he has held visiting appointments at the University of Leiden, MIT, UCLA and Stanford, and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1992.


Related »

Is Islam an “Abrahamic” Faith along with Judaism and Christianity?

VIRTUE ONLINE: My friend Mark Durie, an Anglican priest and theologian, has written a book refuting the thinking common today that Islam shares a theological lineage from Father Abraham with Judaism and Christianity.

"Islam has no family resemblance with Christianity and Judaism. The similarities are appropriated, not inherited," the Anglican priest and theologian Mark Durie starkly stated in his book "Which God? Jesus, Holy Spirit, God in Christianity & Islam." This volume is essential reading for Christians who wish to counter the "Abrahamic fallacy" of Islamic kinship with Judeo-Christian faith.

In his book, Durie noted the oft-touted idea of Western Abrahamic civilization in a world that once esteemed its Judeo-Christian civilization. Many assume that Islam joins Judaism and Christianity in possessing a theological lineage from the Old Testament's Father Abraham. "This is new thinking which reflects the growing influence of Islam," Durie said, adding that "one expression of the Islamicization of Christian thought serves the supersessionist program of Islam."

Durie stressed that wording in the Quran recognizes Islam not as a faith that is subservient to Judaism and Christianity, but "as the primordial religion." Those of the Islamic faith believe that other religions can be called "Abrahamic" only as concessions, because those faiths "derive their history in a confused and corrupted way from Islamic roots." As noted in Quran 3:67, Islam proclaims that Abraham and other biblical figures were actually Muslims whose revelations Jews and Christians through the ages perverted into a "debased derivative of Islam." » | Andrew Harrod | Thursday, September 10, 2015

PHILOS PROJECT: Children of Abraham’s Islamic Pretender » | Andrew Harros | Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Mark Durie »

Which God? »

Richard Dawkins Debates Flying Horses with Muslims
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Sahih Bukhari 5:58:227 "...Then a white animal which was smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey was brought to me." ... "The animal's step (was so wide that it) reached the farthest point within the reach of the animal's sight. ..."