By Bruce Feiler

William Morrow, 2001, 464 pages

Review by Susan Jeffers

A fascinating account of an ambitious expedition, this book is primarily travelogue, with significant excursus on the Bible, culture, and the spiritual experience of postmodern humanism. Bruce Feiler is an educated, cosmopolitan, nearly agnostic Jew on a journey through the geographical setting of his ethic and faith community’s defining text, during which he gradually awakens to some of the human and divine realities to which that text points.

With his friend, advisor and guide Avner Goren, Feiler explored, conversed, saw sites and, at each key juncture, "pulled out our Bibles." After a brief synopsis of each successive biblical text (no need for the reader to pull out his or her own Bible!), Feiler ruminates on religious and historical aspects of the story and its setting. Avner seems to know everything: the Bible, history, archaeology, languages, and the people, both individuals and groups.

Feiler describes himself as having had little connection to the Bible when he started the project, but he obviously reads a lot and asks good questions. I’m not much of a listener to National Public Radio, so I don’t know what kind of pieces Feiler has done for All Things Considered, but he obviously has a talent for research, interviewing and journalism. More importantly, he has a talent for introspection and lets us walk along with him as he discovers again and again that "the Bible is not some abstraction, nor some book gathering dust.... it’s an ongoing narrative."

The book is divided into five parts which don’t exactly correspond to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, but rather to five geographical areas in which the events in those books take place: The God of Our Fathers (key sites around Jerusalem), A Coat of Many Colors (Egypt), The Great and Terrible Wilderness (Sinai), The Land That Devours Its People (more Sinai), and Toward the Promised Land (Jordan). It was sometimes hard for me to follow the precise itinerary, as Feiler mixes description of the trip with Avner’s past archaeological work, places where related events occurred, and locations in literary works that somehow shed light on the story. There is a nice map of the region; it would also have been good to have some help following the route.

Feiler’s vivid and detailed descriptions of the people he meets and his interactions with them are among the best parts of the book. He also does a great job with the physical features of the land. However, once I noticed the frequency of his food metaphors these were a bit distracting: "the limestone collapsed like a soufflé," "like watching a bowl of melting Life Savers," "peanut-butter colored stone," "like mint jelly dripping down a lamb shank," "cluster after cluster of foreboding mountains, each one more parched than the next. In this scene, like a tub of Cracker Jacks spilled onto the desert floor, Petra was clearly the prize."

A few minor complaints: I wondered why Feiler failed to capitalize the name "bedouin." I found myself disbelieving that anyone could be as oblivious to key aspects of the religio-political climate of the region as Feiler seemed to be. And I was disappointed with his web site, www.walkingthebible.com, which seems more a vehicle for self-promotion and invitation to buy books, rather than "provid[ing] further help for those interested in visiting some (or all) of the sites" (as the resource section at the end of the book claims).

I think the ideal way to read this book would be with a diverse group, including Jews, Christians and Muslims. Feiler does a great job conveying how the layered meanings of Torah were opened to him as an American Jew in the course of his travels, and he provides a number of passable accounts of his encounters with various European and American Christian pilgrims, saints and historical figures. But apart from his repeated observation that Avner had many Arab friends around the region ("he respected the bedouin, gave them work, dignified their culture, and, simply, listened"), and a couple of uncomfortable anecdotes toward the end (in Jordan), he shows little understanding of the sensibilities of Palestinians in particular or Arabs in general, whether Christian or Muslim. The three "religions of the Book" share the part of the Bible Feiler walked; but the terrain looks very different from the standpoint of each faith tradition. It would be great to read Feiler’s point of view "in conversation" with some others.

But interfaith and intercultural sensitivities aside, this is a book stands on its own as a frank and insightful account of one very perceptive man’s encounter with Scripture and the land where it all took place. So what’s not to like?

Susan Jeffers is an independent Bible student and teacher, and adjunct faculty at Bethany Theological Seminary and the Earlham School of Religion, both in Richmond Indiana.