History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition

By Jean Delumeau

Book Overview

With erudition and wit, Jean Delumeau explores the medieval conviction that paradise existed in a precise although unreachable earthly location. Delving into the writings of dozens of medieval and Renaissance thinkers, from Augustine to Dante, Delumeau presents a luminous study of the meaning of Original Sin and the human yearning for paradise.
The finest minds of the Middle Ages wrote about where paradise was to be found, what it was like, and who dwelt in it. Explorers sailed into the unknown in search of paradisal gardens of wealth and delight that were thought to be near the original Garden. Cartographers drew Eden into their maps, often indicating the wilderness into which Adam and Eve were cast, along with the magical kingdom of Prester John, Jerusalem, Babel, the Happy Isles, Ophir, and other places described in biblical narrative or borrowed from other cultures. Later, Renaissance thinkers and writers meticulously reconstructed the details of the original Eden, even providing schedules of the Creation and physical descriptions of Adam and Eve.
Even when the Enlightenment, with its discovery of fossils and pre-Darwinian theories of evolution, gradually banished the dream of paradise on earth, a nostalgia for Eden shaped elements of culture from literature to gardening. In our own time, Eden's hold on the Western imagination continues to fuel questions such as whether land should be conserved or exploited and whether a return to innocence is possible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252068807
• ISBN13: 9780252068805
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Paradise revisited

In this day and age of critical theory and revisionist history, it is refreshing to have a strong, document based, historicist's account of a concept such as 'paradise'. Regretfully today the idea 'paradise' has become either an almost empty platitude for the tourist industry,and other commercial commoditities or some type of incomprehensible 'carrot' for the suicide martyr. Delumeau is able to demonstrate the evolution of the concept and today's deconstruction of paradise through an acceptance of 'evolution' but only because he first establishes the original sacred and secular constructs. The examples of 'paradise' depicted in medieval manuscripts, and medieval and renaissance art will appeal to the art history lover looking for more in depth context for the paradise narrative. Although I found there was a little too much of a bias towards the Western traditions and a subjective weighting given to certain stories such as Prestor John's Kingdom , the book overall was informative and for fact and fiction writers alike, revisiting paradise with Delumeau is a worthwhile inspirational journey .

Man's "search" for Eden

The author's original work is in French and has been ably translated into English. He covers various attempts though the ages by Christians, primarily, _to locate_ the "garden of Eden." This book's "usefulness" is in its comprehensive coverage of various authors up to about the time of the Enlightenment (18th century AD). Towards the end of his book he concludes Eden "is a myth" and gives his reasons for this position. His "bibliography" of sources consulted _is impressive_ and should be useful to those unaware of the vast number of books and treatises done on Eden over the ages.