Sunday, August 29, 2010

Know thy… Know thy…

The Christian doctrine of original sin amounts to equating two ancient maxims: "Know thyself" and "Know your enemy."

For, in the Christian faith, your own greatest enemy is ultimately yourself.

The dogma is not a transference or dissolution of personal responsibility onto Adam and Eve's slate. Nor is it a draconian condemnation for each of us personally based on them.

Rather, it is an admission that each of us is of the same moral constitution in action than Adam and Eve were in fact. Being of the same nature, we are of no better substance than they were.

Like it or not, laying claim to "being a human being" includes laying claim to the radical humanness of Adam and Eve and the radical Adam-and-Eve-ness of our human nature.

The sad truth is that we find ourselves immediately, and in fragments, in the icons of Adam and Eve. The good news––the Gospel––is that we find ourselves ultimately, and in a transcendent unity, in the icon of God, Jesus Christ.

No comments: