The First Love Story Lp

The story of Adam and Eve has stood at the center of every conversation about men and women in Western civilization for the last 3,000 years. It has been both a source of division between the sexes and a model for how relationships can survive temptation, transgression, loss, and pain. For some this story is mere fantasy, and for others it's a fact. But for all of us, the story of the Bible's first couple has shaped how we live today. From the author of the bestselling Walking the Bible, The First Love Story traces the legacy of the most famous couple in history to answer the question: Are Adam and Eve merely the cause of sin, degradation, and mistrust between the sexes, or might they be a source of unity and resilience--and even perhaps inspiration for our relationships? Traveling across the globe and through history, from archaeological digs in Israel and a women's rights protest at the Western Wall, to the supposed sight of the Garden of Eden in modern-day Iraq and the London of Milton's Paradise Lost, Bruce Feiler examines how our love life, our sex life, our domestic life, and our spiritual life are inextricably linked to the first pages of the Bible. Whether we're debating equal pay, the chore wars, the sinfulness of sex, or the nature of marriage, we are influenced to an astonishing degree by what happened in Genesis between Adam and Eve, God and the serpent--and how centuries of religious leaders interpreted or manipulated these events to preserve their power. But their story does not merely demonstrate something about who we are, it also gifts us with practical wisdom about how we might live our lives. Bruce Feiler's book reveals that the first man and the first woman matter because they introduced the idea of love into the world, and their enduring love provides a roadmap for how we can persevere together and fight off the forces of alienation and selfishness that risk tearing us apart.