Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 76 No. 3, 2006.
Review article
Abraham Our Father in Faith. History, Belief and Theology
Adalbert Rebić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In this article, the author presents Abraham's life, his character and work. The author firstly deals with the historical aspect of Abraham's emergence on the Biblical scene and then with his significance in the history of the God's people, Israel in the Old Testament. The author then broadly analyses Abraham's calling, highlighting his faith and trust in God. Furthermore, the author shows how God appears in Abraham's life, how he communicates with him directly (earlier texts) and yet again through his messengers — angels (later texts). God adapts to human methods of communication. To illustrate, the author describes the scene where God appears to Abraham in the figure of »three« and promises the birth of his son Isaac. The author dedicates a special chapter to Israeli history which can already befelt in Abraham's life: Israeli history during the time of Abraham is anticipated through the journey from Ur Kasdim to Canaan (exodus from enslavement in Babylon) to Egypt and then exodus from Egypt to Canaan and their settling in the Promised Land. Abraham became the symbol of unity of the Israeli nation despite their internal (tribal) divisions.
The author then analyses Abraham as a witness of original religion. In Biblical texts, Abraham is the forefather of all those who believe, he becomes of the »father of faith« of all who he is not the »father by blood«. Abraham is a man of salvation in advance, a man leaving without return, a man of action through faith, a father of possible and impossible missions and as such even today he is an idol for interreligious understanding.
In conclusion, the author describes Abraham's figure in the Kur 'an. The Kur 'an mentions Abraham (Ibrahim) in several places. For the Kur 'an, he is the first Muslim, the first man who completely gave himself to God and in that regard was Mohamed's forefather. The author concludes the article highlighting Abraham's significance to interreligious dialogue today.
Keywords
Abraham; Abraham and history; faith and history; Biblical notion of history; Abraham in the Bible; Abraham a man of faith; Abraham a model for believers; Abraham in the Kur'an
Hrčak ID:
23824
URI
Publication date:
18.1.2007.
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