PARADISE: A HISTORY OF AN IDEA THAT RULES THE WORLD
Book ID/图书代码： 03275005B10107
English Summary/英文概要： Brought up by parents who belonged to and were expelled from a fundamentalist Christian sect, Kevin Rushby learned at an early age that promises of paradise are not always what they seem. From the Church in the Middle Ages to the people who prepare suicide bombers, or even Make Poverty History campaigners, there are always people promising a better tomorrow if only we’ll do what they say.
So he sets out on two journeys: the first is a physical one to the Mountain of the Assassins in present day Iran, the home of the myth that ‘bright-eyed maidens of Paradise’ await all those who die in the service of Allah. The second is intellectual – back through the history of our ideas about Paradise in both the Judaeo-Christian and the Islamic traditions.
On both journeys he is keen to unearth the history of how we have come to live in such a divided world and how from similar beginnings the rationalist and enlightened strand of human endeavour has diverged from fundamentalist religion of all kind. The ancient Greeks divided writing into two categories: mythos, reserved for things like tales of the gods, and logos that related to external realities and verifiable facts. He shows how the logos strand of rationalist thought stretches from Pythagoras in Samos (and Babylon) to Jacobean England and the mythos from the Book of Revelations to the London Underground in 2005.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： Kevin Rushby的父母曾经是基督教原教派系的，后被驱逐出了该教会，他很小的时候就明白所谓的上天堂其实并不是那么回事。从中世纪的教堂到那些培养自杀性爆炸人体炸弹的人们，好像总有一批人会站出来说只要照着他们说的做，就可以有更美好的未来。
于是他开始了两次旅行：第一个是亲身来到今天的伊朗，伊朗是个充满神秘的地方，天堂里热情的天师们会等候所有为真珠而献身的人们。第二趟旅程是知性的，重返历史，回顾犹太教与基督教以及伊斯兰传统中对天堂的理解。
他渴望通过这两趟旅行，挖掘出为什么这个世界会走向今天这样一个分裂状态的历史缘由……
Awards/获奖情况：Kevin Rushby生活在苏丹、马来西亚、泰国和也门。他是全职作家，曾写过四本作品：《追寻光之山》、《天堂之花》、《卡丽之子》、《寻找海盗天堂》。
About the Author/作者介绍： Kevin Rushby has lived and worked in Sudan, Malaysia, Thailand and Yemen. He is a full-time writer and the author of four previous books:
Chasing the Mountain of Light, Eating the Flowers of Paradise, Children of Kali and Hunting Pirate Heaven
Format:HARDCOVER
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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