Kristen E. Kvam

"Eve & Adam" is a very interesting book which it took me forever and a year to get through. In it the authors have compiled dozens of versions of Genesis 1-3 from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scriptures and traditions. To this they add other notable references from those traditions' apocrypha and commentaries, and then use all of this to show how Gen. 1-3 has shaped perceptions of men and women throughout various ages and various cultures. To this they add instances of the verses used to justify slavery, the egalitarian lifestyles of the Shakers and Oneida community, and womens lib, before finally examining feminist interpretations. It's a lot of heavy material to get through, but very interesting nonetheless.… (altro)

I'm not going to say it's a bad book. There are very few books that draw together so many fine and seminal pieces of literature and play them against one another so well. It's a fine book.

There are, however, features of the book which are just maddening. Did ancient religious scholars stop to question the historicity of Genesis 1-3? No, out of enlightened self-interest they did not. As the modern inheritors of that legacy, we are not quite so bound up in the literal. I think the editors, all very capible, might have included more material from the mythological, metaphysical, and allegorical readings of creation and fall.

It is an exceptional book as it is--but it could be a real masterwork if some slightly more heretical material were included.… (altro)