Paradise : a history of the idea that rules the world / Kevin Rushby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rushby, Kevin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Paradise.

Paradise--History of doctrines.

Heaven.

Physical Description:

xv, 272 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Carroll and Graf edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Carroll & Graf : Distributed by Publishers Group West, 2007.

Summary:

The paradise myth has been one of the most powerful motivators in human history, influencing and energizing all kinds of individuals and groups. From the Assassins of twelfth-century Persia to the Pilgrim Fathers of America; from Pythagoras to modern-day downsizers, there have always been those who would seek perfection on earth. This hope for an earthly paradise drives humanity onwards, pressing for change and offering salvation. Yet it also comes attached to religious beliefs such as Armageddon, original sin and martyrdom-all notions that influence modern life even when hidden beneath a veneer of secularism.

Kevin Rushby traces the belief in paradise from its earliest origins down to the present day, taking in a vast array of characters, particularly from within Christian and Islamic cultures. The story carries us not only through the delights of botanic gardens and utopian dreams of seventeenth-century Europe but also to terrible events such as the Holocaust and the atrocities of modern religious extremism. Paradise uncovers the history of an idea and in doing so reveals some of the key events and characters that have shaped our view of perfect happiness.

Contents:

I Origins: 800 BC-AD 1000 1

1 Pythagoras and Harmony 8

2 Apocalypse and Eden 15

3 Muhammad and the Perfect Man 27

II Hastening the Apocalypse: 1000-1500 37

4 Martyrs, Messiahs and Assassins 45

5 Crusaders and Last Days 53

6 Christopher Columbus Discovers Eden 67

III New Edens in an Old World: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 79

7 New Routes to Paradise: Relics and Indulgences 84

8 The Collectors 92

9 The English Eden 107

10 The Separatists Head for America 120

11 The Birth of Science 124

12 The Decline and Fall of Witchcraft 137

13 Selling the American Eden 142

IV The Modern Paradise: 1700-1945 149

14 The Comforts of the New Earthly Paradise 154

15 Creating the New Adam 161

16 Robert Owen and the Godless Millennium 170

17 Religious America Tries to Build a New Adam 183

18 Social Darwinism: Eden by Eradication 192

V Consumer Idylls of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries: Rural Retreats and Shopping Malls 203

19 A Consumer Durable Eden 208

20 'Wilderness is Paradise Enow' 216.

Notes:

First published in the UK by Constable in 2006.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-258) and index.

ISBN:

0786719109

OCLC:

76905746