“The only force strong enough to take on religious extremism,” Bruce Feiler concludes at the end of his latest book, “is religious moderation.” It is this notion that gives Where God Was Born : A Journey by Land to the Roots of Religion a dimension far above and beyond the usual fodder one reads with biblical commentary. Feiler explores the highly volatile areas of Iran, Iraq, and Israel using starting from the book of Joshua in the Bible, from the invasion of Canaan to David and Solomon’s successive reigns, to Babylonian capitvity and Diaspora. Feiler’s travel companion, archeologist Avner Goren, also feeds the reader with, perhaps, a more objective view of the region’s history in addition to its more recent troubles. But what makes this book so powerful is that Feiler’s moral vision transcends people, nationality, land, and even religion itself.