Father Abraham's Many Children (Tyler Mayfield) - Review
Note: I originally posted this review back in February, but as this is Christmas week and I owed a review to Word and Way, where my reviews are posted each week, I thought I might share this earlier review, one that speaks to the world in which we live, a world of religious pluralism. The message here is close to my heart and so it is worth resharing here and sharing for the first time at Word and Way.
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FATHER ABRAHAM’S MANY CHILDREN: The Bible in a World of Religious Difference. By Tyler D. Mayfield. Foreword by Eboo Patel. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2022. Xii + 133 pages.
In this
book, Tyler Mayfield invites us to read Genesis from the perspective of
religious pluralism. He does so by focusing on the stories of three sets of
brothers—Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, and Jacob and Esau. Each of these
three stories involves sibling rivalry and animosity. The first story, of
course, involves fratricide. In traditional readings of these texts, the
younger brother always comes out on top, while the older brother is often
ignored or vilified (as an elder brother, that is not a reading I appreciate). What
Mayfield does in this book is reverse things a bit by asking what would happen if
we paid more attention to the older brothers in these stories. What might learn
about chosenness and covenants? Could it be that God's idea of covenant is
broader than we've been led to believe? Could chosenness include more people
than we've allowed in? Mayfield ponders these questions as a Christian
interpreter of the Old Testament. He writes, one would assume, first to Christians,
inviting us to rethink the way we understand our relationships with the broader
religious world. This has profound implications for our relationships with our
religious neighbors.
I come
to Father Abraham’s Many Children as a Christian pastor/theologian who
has been actively involved in interfaith work for more than two decades. Over
the years I've developed deep and abiding friendships with people whose
religious commitments are different from my own. These friendships have been a
blessing to me. Hopefully, this is true for my friends as well. Because of
these friendships, I resonated with the message of the book. I appreciated what
Mayfield has done to uncover a way forward in our interfaith relationships that
are rooted in the way in which we read our sacred literature. He invites us to
join him on a pathway that involves "reading anew our sacred
literature" Indeed, he writes that "instead of viewing religious
diversity as a problem to be solved, we must build on the assumption that
religious diversity is a promise to be engaged. To engage faithfully, we
Christians will need fresh interpretations of key biblical texts" (p, 21).
Indeed!
This is
not a lengthy book. It can probably be read in a few hours (it’s just around
125 pages in length). Nevertheless, Mayfield’s exploration of the stories of
these three brothers from the perspective of religious pluralism opens up
entirely new horizons of understanding. Even if we don’t know the full story of
these three sets of brothers, most readers will have at least a sense of who
they are and why they are important to the larger biblical story. What Mayfield
does is ask us to pay attention to details that are easily missed or not
emphasized in our traditional telling of the biblical story. That is especially
true of Ishmael and Esau.
While
Cain and Abel are ancestors rather than children of Abraham, when we read the
book, we understand why they are chosen to be included. Most readers of this
review will know that Cain, the oldest son of Adam and Eve, killed his brother,
Abel, making it the first act of violence in the biblical story. This act of
violence is rooted in God's unexplained preference for Abel’s offering. For
some reason, Cain gets upset when God rejects his offering and takes his anger
out on his brother (by killing him). This leads to God’s question for Cain: Where
is your brother? Cain answers with a question of his own: "Am I my
brother's keeper?" The answer is, of course, yes. Mayfield notes that Cain
seems to have a problem with difference and diversity. He can't accept that his
brother's gift might be better received and so he gets angry. We do that
sometimes, don't we? What is interesting here, according to Mayfield, is the
grace that God extends to Cain in the end. Even though Cain shows little
concern for his brother, God takes note of Cain’s concern for himself and
offers him grace. Thus, as Mayfield points out, “God transforms Cain despite
Cain's inability to engage diversity. Cain may not be able to get beyond the
differences he sees in his sibling, but he is given divine grace to continue
his life" (p. 62). As for the question that Cain asked God about being his
brother's keeper, Mayfield reinforces the divine message that as children of
God we are responsible for our siblings, all of them!
Ishmael
is Abraham’s oldest son, but for Jews and Christians, he is not a figure that
gets a lot of respect in our communities. In fact, he is often ignored or
mischaracterized. He’s the one God rejects in favor of Isaac. My Muslim friends
have a different take on this story. For them, Ishmael rather than Isaac is the
fount of Abrahamic blessing. It is Ishmael who plays a leading role in Arab and
Muslim self-identity. That is because Ishmael, not Isaac, is Abraham’s heir.
For Christians, spending time with Ishmael can be eye-opening. Here in Genesis,
Isaac is the promised one, but God doesn’t forget Ishmael. God makes a covenant
with Ishmael and his descendants, promising to make him a great nation. He is
also circumcised, which means he received the sign of the covenant. Mayfield
notes that sometimes it's translations that cloud the issue and marginalize
voices like Ishmael. But, by attending to his story and that of his mother
Hagar, we discover that God doesn't draw the boundary lines as sharply as we often
do. Unfortunately, in our traditional readings of Genesis, “we ignore Ishmael
because he has had little relevance in Christianity (and Judaism).” So, we
erase him from our narrative. However, he’s not ignored by the writers of
Genesis (p. 91). Thus, we need to pay attention to his story and the stories of
others we may see as outsiders. His story suggests that God may not be so quick
to set aside people we deem irrelevant.
Finally,
we come to the story of Esau and Jacob. Yes, the twins wrestle in the womb and
beyond. It's the story of two brothers, one of whom is beloved of his father
and the other of his mother. Esau is often understood to be cursed because he
sells his birthright for a pot of stew, but is this true? Because of the way we
read this part of the story, we tend to honor Jacob and view Esau as being less
honorable than Jacob. That is interesting in light of Jacob’s own trickster
lifestyle. For some reason, we tend to identify with Jacob when he receives the
blessing of his father, even though he gains the blessing through deceit. The
question Mayfield raises here concerns whether there is only one blessing. What
if that’s not true? In fact, Mayfield helpfully demonstrates that Esau
ultimately receives a blessing from his father. Later in the story, when his brother
returns from his sojourn, enriched with wives, children, and other treasures,
Esau warmly greets his brother even though Jacob fears the wrath of Esau.
Mayfield points out that often we Christians see ourselves as purveyors of
grace to others, but the story of Esau reminds us that we are often recipients
of grace from those who embrace religious traditions other than our own. I know
this to be true in my own life. The story reminds us that God just may have
more than one blessing to share! So, shouldn't we?
Mayfield’s
Father Abraham’s Many Children is a wonderful book. I loved reading
it. It’s accessible to the general reader but rooted in deep scholarship. It
looks back at ancient stories and yet in Mayfield’s handling of them, they
become relevant to this very moment. Indeed, at a time when Christian
nationalism is rampant, along with anti-immigrant sentiment, this is a book
that needs to be read widely. That is, this is not just a book for people like
me to read. I’m already committed to the conversation. However, this book can
be a wonderful conversation starter that can lead to the transformation of how
we see the other. After all, they may be Abraham’s children. So, I highly
recommend it. Since each chapter includes a set of discussion questions, the
book will make for a very useful book for a church study group. So, take and
read and discover new stories that can enrich our faith lives and enable us to
build relationships outside our normal circles!
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