Humans cannot live without stories. But one story has proved itself the most durable and hauntingly real of all time. The mythic tale of Adam and Eve has shaped conceptions of human origins and destiny for centuries. Stemming from a few verses in an ancient book, it became not just the foundation of three major world faiths, but has evolved through art, philosophy and science to serve as the mirror in which we seem to glimpse the whole, long history of our fears and desires. What is it about Adam and Eve's story that fascinates us? What does it tell us about how our species lives, dies, works or has sex? In a quest that begins at the dawn of time, Stephen Greenblatt takes us from ancient Babylonia to the forests of east Africa. We meet evolutionary biologists and fossilised ancestors; we grapple with morality and marriage in Milton's Paradise Lost; and we decide if the Fall is the unvarnished truth or fictional allegory. Ultimately, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve allows us a new understanding of ourselves.

Is the concept of God dead? Or is the experience to which the concept points, and the supreme value which it expresses, dead? In other words, shouldn't the question for today's world be, "Is Man Dead?" rather than "Is God Dead?" In this major book from the author of "The Sane Society" and "Man for Himself," we explore the evolution in the Old Testament of the basic concepts of God, Man, History, Sin, and Repentance. Erich Fromm shows how the concept of God evolved from that of a "jealous" God to that of a "constitutional monarch" and finally to that of the nameless God bound by the same principles that govern man. Conversely, he shows how Man, once the obedient servant of God, became free to the point of making his own history. While his vast knowledge and wide-ranging insights cover a broad area, Erich Fromm's greatest appeal to today's readers will be in his urgent cry for a rebirth of humanism—and in his implicit answer to the question, "Is religious experience necessarily connected with a belief in God?"

Judith Hauptman argues that the Tosefta, a collection dating from approximately the same time period as the Mishnah and authored by the same rabbis, is not later than the Mishnah, as its name suggests, but earlier. The Redactor of the Mishnah drew upon an old Mishnah and its associated supplement, the Tosefta, when composing his work. He reshaped, reorganized and abbreviated these materials in order to make them accord with his own legislative outlook. It is possible to compare the earlier and the later texts and to determine, case by case, the agenda of the Redactor. According to the author's theory it is also possible to trace the evolution of Jewish law, practice, and ideas. When the Mishnah is seen as later than the Tosefta, it becomes clear that the Redactor inserted numerous mnemonic devices into his work to assist in transmission. The synoptic gospels may have undergone a similar kind of editing. --Publisher's Website

Many books have been written on the Bible and evolution by scientists, but this volume is written by a biblical specialist. In Faith and Fossils Lester Grabbe, a prominent Hebrew Bible scholar, examines the Bible in its ancient context and explores its meaning in light of emerging scientific evidence. Both the Bible and the fossil record raise significant questions about what it means to be human, and Grabbe expertly draws on both sources to grapple with who we are and where we came from. Written in uncomplicated language and featuring eleven spectacular color plates, Grabbe's Faith and Fossils creatively shows how science and faith intersect in questions about human origins.