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The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
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Publisher's summary
Stephen Greenblatt - Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award- winning author of The Swerve and Will in the World - investigates the life of one of humankind's greatest stories.
Bolder even than the ambitious books for which Stephen Greenblatt is already renowned, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve explores the enduring story of humanity's first parents. Comprising only a few ancient verses, the story of Adam and Eve has served as a mirror in which we seem to glimpse the whole long history of our fears and desires, as both a hymn to human responsibility and a dark fable about human wretchedness.
Tracking the tale into the deep past, Greenblatt uncovers the tremendous theological, artistic, and cultural investment over centuries that made these fictional figures so profoundly resonant in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim worlds and, finally, so very "real" to millions of people even in the present. With the uncanny brilliance he previously brought to his depictions of William Shakespeare and Poggio Bracciolini (the humanist monk who is the protagonist of The Swerve), Greenblatt explores the intensely personal engagement of Augustine, Dürer, and Milton in this mammoth project of collective creation while he also limns the diversity of the story's offspring: rich allegory, vicious misogyny, deep moral insight, and some of the greatest triumphs of art and literature.
The biblical origin story, Greenblatt argues, is a model for what the humanities still have to offer: not the scientific nature of things but rather a deep encounter with problems that have gripped our species for as long as we can recall and that continue to fascinate and trouble us today.
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- Unabridged
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Who is Allah? What does he ask of those who submit to his teachings? Pulitzer Prize-winner Jack Miles gives us a deeply probing, revelatory portrait of the world’s second largest, fastest-growing, and perhaps most tragically misunderstood religion. In doing so, Miles illuminates what is unique about Allah, his teachings, and his resolutely merciful temperament, and he thereby reveals that which is false, distorted, or simply absent from the popular conception of the heart of Islam.
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Comparison between the Holy Bible and Holy Qur'an
- By Recession Proof Holdings. L.L.C. (RPH) on 12-29-18
By: Jack Miles
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Primitive Mythology
- The Masks of God Series, Volume I
- By: Joseph Campbell, David Kudler - editor
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The author of such acclaimed books as The Hero With a Thousand Faces and The Power of Myth discusses the primitive roots of mythology, examining them in light of the most recent discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, and psychology.
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Epic speculation into the origins of our mythic consciousness
- By BGZ on 01-10-19
By: Joseph Campbell, and others
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The Kingdom
- By: Emmanuel Carrère, John Lambert - translator, Claire Bloom - director
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Gripped by the tale of a Messiah whose blood we drink and body we eat, the genre-defying author Emmanuel Carrère revisits the story of the early Church in his latest work. With an idiosyncratic and at times iconoclastic take on the charms and foibles of the Church fathers, Carrère ferries listeners through his "doors" into the biblical narrative. Once inside, he follows the ragtag group of early Christians through the tumultuous days of the faith's founding.
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The Gospel of Emmanuel
- By Mark on 12-31-17
By: Emmanuel Carrère, and others
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The Bible's Cutting Room Floor
- The Holy Scriptures Missing from Your Bible
- By: Joel M. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor, acclaimed author and translator Dr. Joel M. Hoffman gives us the stories and other texts that didn’t make it into the Bible even though they offer penetrating insight into the Bible and its teachings. The Book of Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve’s time in the Garden of Eden, but not their saga after they get kicked out or the lessons they have for us about good and evil.
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Good content, rather poor presentation by narrator
- By J_T on 12-28-16
By: Joel M. Hoffman
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Unbelievable
- Why Neither Ancient Creeds nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today
- By: John Shelby Spong
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Five hundred years after Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses ushered in the Reformation, best-selling author and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong delivers 12 forward-thinking theses to spark a new reformation to reinvigorate Christianity and ensure its future. Spong contends that there is mounting pressure among Christians for a radically new kind of Christianity - a faith deeply connected to the human experience instead of outdated dogma.
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great
- By Brian Diffley on 03-27-21
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Who Is This Man?
- The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus
- By: John Ortberg
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author John Ortberg shares how Jesus' influence has swept over history and how his vision of life continues to impact humanity today. Jesus' impact on our world is highly unlikely, widely inescapable, largely unknown, and decidedly double-edged. It is unlikely in light of the severe limitations of his earthly life; it is inescapable because of the range of impact; it is unknown because history doesn't connect dots; and it is doubled-edged because his followers have wreaked so much havoc, often in his name.
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NOT narrated by John Ortberg, sadly
- By T. Harris on 08-15-12
By: John Ortberg
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The Western Canon
- The Books and School of the Ages
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: James Armstrong
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Harold Bloom explores our Western literary tradition by concentrating on the works of twenty-six authors central to the Canon. He argues against ideology in literary criticism; he laments the loss of intellectual and aesthetic standards; he deplores multiculturalism, Marxism, feminism, neoconservatism, Afrocentrism, and the New Historicism. Insisting instead upon "the autonomy of aesthetic," Bloom places Shakespeare at the center of the Western Canon.....
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A personal and opinionated book on the Canon
- By Steffen on 07-23-12
By: Harold Bloom
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The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
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Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
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The Great Shift
- Encountering God in Biblical Times
- By: James L. Kugel
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Why does the Bible depict a world in which humans, with surprising regularity, encounter the divine - wrestling an angel, addressing a burning bush, issuing forth prophecy without any choice in the matter? These stories spoke very differently to their original audience than they do to us, and they reflect a radically distinct understanding of reality and the human mind. Yet over the course of the thousand-year biblical era, encounters with God changed dramatically.
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Changing Conceptions of God and the Self
- By DJ on 10-27-22
By: James L. Kugel
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What listeners say about The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- MichaelS
- 05-01-18
superb treatment of Augustine & John Milton
excellent literary treatment of augustine and John Milton. ties together life and art brilliantly. the movement from pre biblical myth to biblical myth was also fluid and deep. exploring the rich trade offs in different systems of thought.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anne Porfirio
- 04-30-24
The logic of the presentation
The entire presentation was great… sent me back to my art history books. It was a joy to be so engaged
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- jimbostank
- 10-20-17
Well Worth Reading
Very interesting history of the story and similar ideas. As well as the people who the story inspired. The book is very well written and researched. I highly recommend
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1 person found this helpful
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- wylie smith
- 03-20-23
Great start, but downhill from there
I will state at the beginning that I am a fan of neither Augustine nor Milton. Quite obviously, Augustine had a larger effect on history as he is a Church father. But, in my opinion at least, he lacks charity and a forgiving nature. His denigration of the body, after indulging himself for years, borders on being dualistic. Greenblatt’ a discussion of Augustine’s changing views on Adam seem to reveal more Augustine than about the creation story. As for Milton, “Paradise Lost” seemed an apt title to me as reading it was hell. I get more cultural nourishment watching “Rocky & Bullwinkle” reruns than I get out of being bogged down in his 17th century writing.
I did appreciate Greenblatt’s referral of Adam and Eve as a story, particularly when he brings in ‘Gilgamesh’ and ‘Enemu Elish.’ Until Augustine enters the pages, the book moved right along for me, but then it really slowed. While the end with the chimps fits in with Greenblatt’s arc of the story, it felt WAY too long for me.
So, many interesting points and thoughts, but long stretches of ennui for me.
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- Darwin8u
- 02-11-18
For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return
Greenblatt traces the story/myth of Adam and Eve from its origins (a Jewish reaction to Babylonian rule and myths) down to a post-Darwin world. He focuses a lot of time on the literature (Milton), philosophy (Lucretius), doctrine (Augustine), and art (Dürer) while maintaining a rough chronology of time ( from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts*.).
It was fascinating and moved quickly. I don't think it was as good as The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, but still worth the time and energy; comparable to Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. The big negative for me was its unevenness. Some chapters made me want to eat the fruit myself. Others made me pray for banishment. OK, that is probably a tad dramatic. I thoroughly enjoyed the sections on Milton, Durer, Augustine, and the first chapters that looked at Babylon and Gilgamesh: A New English Version in relationship to the Jewish people and the story of Adam and Eve.
I also appreciated the discussion that the story of Adam and Eve invariably brings up concerning sex, guilt, marriage, gender, power, faith, science, and our need to tell each other stories and understand where we came from and where we will eventually end up.
* Moroni 10: 3
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16 people found this helpful
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- Nic
- 06-13-23
Great humanist
There’s no greater hater of pre-modernity than a renaissance lit/Shakespeare guy, and Greenblatt is the best of his type. So if you expect a lot of sacred reverence you won’t find it. But he’s so erudite and fun that I think everyone can get a lot out of it - he makes learning easy.
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- T. R.
- 10-04-17
just Ok
the book had a good start but it became obtuse in the final touches. it really needed to explore Adam and Eve on a specific level and go with it. It was all over the place and at the end dealing with the monkeys and chimpanzees it seem to have lost it's connection to the book itself. the book made a good start but it finished poorly.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-20-23
Not a simple read, but worth it.
In typical Greenblatt style this is well written and detailed dive into a side of the Adam and Eve saga. Loved his literary reviews, and as others have noted at times they are VERY detailed, but for me that detail is precisely the point. Explaining why a story about creation has so many varied interpretations and why we would want ANY of them is a complicated topic. The question of “why do we exist” is vexing and many different answers have been given. The story arc takes us through so many different world views, perspectives, and brings you back feeling the better for that journey. I will cherish reading this again and again as it’s has so many interesting details that my tiny mind just cannot comprehend.
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- Andrey Borul
- 09-15-17
Disappointing..
A mocking sceptic view of the story of Adam and Eve and its results.. calling it the best fantasy and fiction... disappointing..
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9 people found this helpful
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- Slade
- 09-04-19
Starts strong but quickly falls into postmodernism
Started strong and is masterfully read by one of my favorite narrators; however things quickly fall apart into postmodern deconstructionism.
If your primary takeaway from Hesiod and the Genesis author about Pandora and Eve is that women are at fault for all the worlds ills and Zeus/Dyeus (“Order”) always wins (because latent misogyny) your grasp of the mythological archetypes is simplistic at best.
Since the author was incapable of relating it I’ll summarize it here.
Men and Women have dualistic sexual strategies that both compete and compliment eachother.
Fundamentally sperm is cheap and eggs are expensive. Men want to spread seed to ensure that at least some of that seed survives to adulthood. Men are (in general) more biologically driven to invest because we can never be sure if what comes out is actually ours (unless we stick around and actively mate guard/invest).
Women want the best seed and provisioning their sexuality can purchase in the moment. Biologically they care little for long term strategies because they know on a subconscious level that anything that comes out of them is in fact theirs and as long as they are fertile they can make more.
These underlying dualistic reproductive strategies are why love is such a complex and dualistic state of being that is both the destroyer of worlds and the giver of hope!
This is the dualism being poetically illustrated in these great human narratives and while they have been used by the ignorant to justify just abut every moral movement under the sun; this doesn’t mean that misogyny is their “latent” purpose.
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