“Paradise” has from the beginning and for a long time referred to paradise on earth.
…
It was essentially a reference to the Garden of Delights where Adam and Eve lived.”
A Historical Review of Paradise

A meticulous historical journey, based on extensive historical materials, that traces the fierce debate surrounding the origin and location of paradise, and the endless challenges and adventures of proving its existence.
The author, who taught Western history at the Collège de France, is a leading researcher in the field of Western religious psychology, studying the emotions of fear and the afterlife that have dominated Western Christian civilization since the Middle Ages.
He devoted himself to the study of 'Paradise' until his death in 2020, completing the 'Paradise Trilogy' in 1992, 1995, and 2000.
This book is the first in a trilogy that continues with a longing for paradise, anticipation of the millennium, and hope for immortal joy.
What is paradise? Where is paradise located? The author ultimately argues that the three thousand years of Western civilization have been nothing more than a pilgrimage to find a lost paradise, a forbidden happiness.

Paradise was, above all, a garden.
The ancient Persian word 'apiri-daeza' meant a walled orchard.
In ancient Hebrew, this was taken in the form 'pardes'.
Later, the Septuagint translated both the more classical Hebrew words for garden, 'gan' and 'pardes', as 'paradeisos'.
In this garden, nestled in the heart of a lush countryside (Eden), everything was delightful, delicious, and fragrant.
There, men and women lived in harmony with nature, and water was abundant (which meant ultimate happiness for a people constantly threatened by dryness and desertification).
Their existence will be immortal and will unfold in joy and, as Isaiah says, “with the sound of singing.”

--- p.49

In ancient translations of Genesis, “first” is translated as “eastward,” which is why many people thought that paradise was located to the east of this disc-shaped world, separated from the area where humans now live by a very large space (which could be land or sea).
The waters of the great flood rose to very high places on the earth where we live, but they did not reach paradise.
“Whether God created Paradise here or somewhere else, there is no doubt that such a place existed and exists on earth.”
--- p.131

A river flowing from paradise on earth crosses this land flowing with milk and honey.
This river brings emeralds, sapphires, topaz, beryl, amethyst, and other gemstones.
There are forests that produce a lot of pepper in particular.
This forest is located at the foot of Mount Olympus.
A stream of water flows from this mountain and passes near the earthly paradise, and its fragrance adds fragrance to all the spices.
If you drink this water three times on an empty stomach, you will never get sick again and will live your whole life as if you were thirty-two years old.
Priest John continued, “One of the advantages of my land is that it is a sandy sea without water.
“There, the sand really moves like the sea and ripples like waves.”
--- p.187

Tropical America, praised for its climate, abundant water, rare fruits, jewels, and birds from paradise, seemed to Europeans a blessed land that retained elements of the earth before its sin.
As a result, there was a widespread belief that Native Americans, especially Brazilians, lived longer than Europeans.
This time, the old theme of paradise resurfaces again.
That is, the longevity of the ancient patriarchs attested to in the Bible was seen by many as a substitute for the immortality enjoyed by our ancestors before original sin.
Didn't the priest John live to be 500 years old? The "Fortunate Isles" of Arthurian times also granted their inhabitants the privilege of longevity.

--- p.254

He argued that God did not try to hide the location of the Garden of Eden from us, unlike he did with Moses' tomb.
Rather, God's plan is to reveal to us the existence of a paradise on earth, "to remind us of our disobedience."
So God spoke through Moses and showed us carefully and accurately before our eyes the Garden, which had become a miserable place due to the lamentable mistakes of mankind.”
--- p.323

Salcedo got around this problem by borrowing from St. Augustine and distinguishing between two meanings of the word “form.”
If this word includes only “natural ability,” we can conclude that the man is “the head of the woman.”
But if we consider “supernatural powers” ​​such as an immortal soul, grace, and free will, we can understand that men and women were equal before God, and that “some women even had these privileges and supernatural powers more than men, and were therefore more like God.”
As evidence of this, we can cite the Virgin Mary.

--- p.441