“With his extraordinary new book, Abraham: The First Jew, the British jurist and historian Anthony Julius provides a new dualistic taxonomy that deserves to find its way into scholarship and biblical discourse.”—David Wolpe, Commentary
“A bold new biography.”—Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle
“Julius has written an important and original book. In just 392 pages, he has offered us a profound intellectual exploration of the forces that are shaping Jewish identity in our age.”—Alan Bekhor, TheArticle
“The rewards of this book are considerable; one’s interest never flags as Julius draws on his remarkable knowledge. . . . This book is characterised by an authorial sensitivity to the pain of the human heart.”—Ann Sarzin, Jwire
“Julius . . . has written a formally inventive overview of Judaism’s founder including novelistic scenes, debates and multi-pronged considerations of the story’s key events. . . . It is a text rich in allusions to philosophers, Romantic poets and midrash, capturing the existential dilemmas central to Jewish life and prefigured by our ancestor.”—PJ Grisar, Forward
“Julius’s story . . . tells us what Jews have made of Abraham. That assignment is an ample one, and Julius displays a critical intellect that is up to the task.”—Robert Siegel, Moment
“A bold book and an important one.”—Stephen Spector, Review of Biblical Literature
“A profound exposition.”—Irene Lancaster, Christian Today
“This brilliantly original and often deeply moving book tells the story of Abraham so as to set out a narrative of ‘faith’ itself—the relation of faith to reason, the abiding tension between claimed conviction and inescapable or tragic questioning, the way in which, like Abraham, we may be both ‘residents’ and ‘aliens’ in the world of discourse about God. A unique and searching masterpiece.”—Rowan Williams, theologian and poet, University of Cambridge
“Anthony Julius’s Abraham is beautifully written, provocative, and wise.”—Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago
“Fascinating and profound, scholarly and playful, philosophical and aesthetic, Anthony Julius’s Abraham is an original and compelling hybrid that brings Abraham to life and through him discusses the nature of faith and his own personal philosophy.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography
“Learned, rich in revelation, beautifully articulated and researched. In an age when the phrase ‘the Abrahamic religions’ is tossed about with ease, it is more than fascinating to follow Anthony Julius’s meditations on the man himself.”—Stephen Fry, author of Mythos
