History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition by Jean Delumeau (review)

728BOOK REVIEWS are accountable for their moral choices, for God punishes sinners but rescues the innocent. Alexander A. Di Lella, O.F.M. The Catholic University ofAmerica History of Paradise: The Garden of Eden in Myth and Tradition. By Jean Delumeau. Translated by Matthew O'ConneU. (New York: Continuum Books. 1995. Pp. x, 276. $29.50.) In this volume Professor Jean Delumeau announces a new direction for his ongoing study of ideas central to the evolution of Western Christianity. Four prior books, beginning with La peur en Occident (Paris, 1978), explored concepts of fear, sin, anxiety, and reconciliation. But History ofParadise (originaUy Une histoire du Paradis [Paris, 1992]), the first in a trilogy on ideas of human happiness, focuses on descriptions of Eden and Paradise, with special emphasis on the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries. Matthew O'ConneU's translation captures Delumeau's style and charm, and deftly handles his extensive use of "firsthand documents," which allow readers to experience "their savor and truthfulness" (p. 2). This exploration of conceptualizations ofthe Garden of Eden begins with patristic conflations of the Genesis myth with those of the pagan golden age and Happy Isles. Throughout the medieval period Europeans believed the earthly Paradise, although closed to mortals, stiU existed; patristic and medieval theologians , mappae mundi, and travel literature all demonstrate the persistence and importance of ideas of Paradise. Delumeau even connects the legend of Préster John to longing for earthly Paradise, and shows that fifteenth- and sixteenthcentury voyages to Asia and America were partly stimulated by hope of finding Eden's garden. His sources draw vivid pictures of Paradise's bounty, beauty, and pleasant climate, where eternal youth, without toil or anxiety, would have guaranteed human happiness, were it not for the sin ofAdam. Delumeau's new direction notwithstanding, this volume is closely linked to his previous inquiry into theWestern cult of guilt.Visions of Paradise ultimately undermined human joy, when hopes of discovering it gave way to conviction that the deluge had destroyed all vestige of Eden. Nimbly romping through divergent sources, Delumeau finds Renaissance "melancholy" (a central theme in earlier works) in expressions of"regret for the lost golden age and fairy lands" (p. 119)—that is, Eden—and links this to Europe's developing passion for gardens and fountains. Even as sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Protestant and CathoUc exegetes agreed that Paradise no longer existed, they remained keenly interested in the paradisal state and original sin, and employed new linguistic tools to identify Eden's exact site, the instant of Paradise's creation, and the chronology of our first parents' stay therein and expulsion therefrom.The vol- BOOK REVIEWS729 unie closes with the scientific discoveries and theory of evolution which undermined faith in Genesis in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although a tour de force by a meticulous researcher at the height of his powers, History of Paradise is not without flaws. Attempting to cover his topic's every aspect, Delumeau see-saws between centuries, often repeating himself. There are a wealth of endnotes (953 individual citations on pp. 237-270), with full bibUographical information in initial citations, but no bibliography .This makes checking references annoyingly tedious, and Delumeau frequently returns to sources, often in widely separated chapters, as he jumps back and forth in time.The index, which Usts only persons cited, is of limited value and (as spot checks demonstrated) incomplete. Lastly, as might be expected in such a wide-ranging work, some sections, particularly the discussions of medieval cartography and travel literature, are quite superficial.These reservations stated, the patient reader wUl derive a wealth of interesting information and stimulation from History ofParadise. James D. Ryan Bronx Community College City University ofNew York The Archaeology ofEarly Christianity:A History. ByWiUiam H. C. Frend. (MinneapoUs : Fortress Press. 1996. Pp. xix, 412; 3 plans, 8 maps, 16 b/w figures, 10 color figures. $3900.) Reverend Professor W. H. C. Frend, D.D., F.B.A., Professor Emeritus of Ecclesiastical History (Glasgow) and AngUcan Divine, is one of this century's great figures in the study of early Christianity. Frend is a master narrator, and I found his most recent book a treasure-trove of personaUties, places, and events...