The Film Portrays Pilgrimage as a Vaguely Optimistic Experience
The film portrays pilgrimage as a vaguely optimistic experience that helps Christians renew their religious faith. Pilgrimage appeals to the father because he feels divine, acts as penance for science, and strengthens one's relationship with God. It is a delicate vocation in which both the attendants and the father pray for a miracle.
The Father's Revitalization and Self-Help
After being forgiven of his sins, the father feels revitalized and full of positive energy. He is, however, portrayed as a proponent of self-help. As a result, the father is pleased to share, as he recognizes that each character has found something new concerning themselves hence they are going back to their standard way of life as a changed individual. Hence, this process of sharing shows that grace is unreservedly at work. However, the source of that grace is considered just as beautiful scenery as Jesus Christ.
Contradictions to the Real Purpose of Pilgrimage
Insights that are revealed in the movie contradict the real purpose of pilgrimage as shown by the Catholic Church. Each of the characters in this movie is participating in pilgrimage as a result of different reasons. For instance, one character known as Yost is taking part in a pilgrimage to lose weight given that he is excessively fat such that his wife refuses to give him his conjugal right. Similarly, there is a Canadian lady who is in just to run away from awful choices she made in her past life. It is only father who seems to take part in the pilgrimage due to spiritual purpose.
Abraham: A Patriarch in Three Faiths
According to the book: Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths, Abraham is the unifying Patriarch of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The call of Abraham pans dramatic terrain of today's world, both physically and spiritually. The call and Abraham's journey as the father of the human race started from what is recognized as southern Iraq and concluded in the West margins of Hebron.
The Story of Abraham and Interfaith Relations
The book narrates the story of an individual who is a constant search for the shared or common ancestor of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Passing through war-prone zones, violence at religious environments, and searching for leaders of faith, Feiler exposes the essential yet divisive role played by Abraham among the religions mentioned above. Provocative and fortifying, Abraham presents a thoughtful as well as inspiring dream of unity that will redefine the false thoughts we have about ourselves, neighbors, and our future.
The Departure of Abraham and Comparison to Pilgrimage
Abraham got a call when he was about seventy years. He was instructed by God to leave his home, including his family and follow God into the unknown land that He was going to give Abraham. The author of this book terms it as an inclusive departure from everything which has gone or existed before the evolution life and sensibility. Therefore, Abraham took his family, including his nephew, Lot, and began the journey. He trekked south into Canaan, which was the land occupied by warriors known as Canaanites. He temporarily settled in Beth-el and Shechem, in which later his offspring came and inherited Canaanite. Following critical evaluation, this can be compared to the pilgrimage that both Christian and Muslim religions observe.
Abraham as a Unifying Figure and His Theological Importance
The history of Abraham is depicted in the book as the first monotheist and the professed biological father of more than one billion Muslims, twelve million Jews, and the two billion Christians. The many prodigies about Abraham obtained from his call and the interpretation of its differing theologies.
The Concept of Call and Abraham's Significance
The concept of call in Christian theology traces the need felt for Abraham for coming up with its legitimacy. Feiler has shown and admitted being taken aback by the collective obstinate misuse of Abraham through Judaism during the middle ages. On the other hand, Christians indeed need Abraham as a non-Jewish union to Jesus and declaring restricted rights to Abraham has put Jews aside from the past. Similarly, Muslims may claim that true capitulation to God predated Christianity and Judaism.
The Role of Religion in Creating and Suppressing Community
Many theologians have discussed the topic of religion. For instance, Alain de Botton says that religion has created and suppressed community. Trying to talk about a universal topic, he says that communities potentially hold close the world. All the same, theologians who are most conscious of their universalizing arguments instantly emerged to be a rival, even adversaries, of every challenging claim. Hence, the work of Alain Botton can be summed up by being entitled as the religion of irony. According to Botton's work, absences of religion would mean that there is no community with Catholic doctrines will ever take shape. However, with competing religions, any given community is put in danger. Thus, I would say that the world is fastened together and torn apart by the same single force.
Religion and Extremist Hatred
The topic of religion relates with Feiler ideology of call in a way they both brings out the cause and purpose for extremist hatred and makes people comprehend it, at least a little. However, as much as it helps people's understanding, it could leave little Christian hope that any form of little perceptive is impending, between Judeo-Christian and Islam. Eventually, the variance from Abraham looks to be more influential in the Middle East apparently than the shared source of the dominant monotheism with regards to his remarkable life story.
Seeking Unity Among Religions
In essence, it would be appropriate to say that, given the common grounds outlined in Catholic pilgrim and the Call of Abraham, all religion belief might affect children of Abraham; conversely we do not look like Cain and Abel, but rather we love each other as human beings.
