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

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 .

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.