Walking the Bible
Bruce Feiler
With the vague object of grounding his Jewish faith in something more concrete, Bruce Feiler spent a year traveling by foot, 4-wheel drive, boat and even camel searching out locations of various events of the first five books of the Bible.
Whether one is religious or not, I think that almost anyone would get something out of this book. I think it seems to reflect one's own ideas back, not to change them.
What I got from this book would probably be entirely different than someone else would get from it.
Although I already knew, of course, the common roots of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, and how these beliefs still very much affect the world today, I still found this aspect of the book quite fascinating. The historical details and their connection with the ancient holy writings, (i.e. the Bible and the Koran), were equally fascinating. It made me not only consider re-reading the Bible, but reading the Koran and The Seven Pillars of Islam by T.E. Lawrence, which was mentioned in the book several times, as well.
The main idea that I took from this book is how religions/beliefs are first formed and then changed over time to adapt to each culture or cultural influence; how each culture creates its own God or gods and rites.
As I said, though, I think that each reader will come away from this book with something different.
