This edition excavates the many layers of meaning hidden beneath the simple-sounding biblical myth of Adam and Eve. It critically scrutinizes the myth from the points of view of academic disciplines like history, literature, cultural anthropology, cognitive psychology and sociology, religion and spirituality. Its underlying assumption is that scriptural stories ideologically sum up and reinforce the knowledge, thought and behavior structure of ancient or established cultural identities. Hence it brings to the interpretation of the myth not only the traditional methodological tool of belief, but also the critically unconventional tool of suspicion. It does it in the expectation and the hope of inspiring scholars of all religions and cultures to look critically at their own ethnic traditions and histories and so avoid the danger that fundamentalism threatens the globe with.