New Apologetics Tim Kesser You wrote: “Is the story a metaphor for human nature? If it is a metaphor for base human nature, why would a perfectly good being allow such a thing to exist?”
We reply: The story is not intended to be taken literally, but it is intended tocommunicate some definite, non-negotiable truths about human nature. We begin with a quote from Cardinal Ratzinger, who is now Pope Benedict XVI:
“Finding an answer to this requires nothing less than trying to understand the human person better. It must once again be stressed that no human being is closed in upon himself or herself and that no one can live of or for himself or herself alone. We receive our life not only at the moment of birth but every day from without–from others who are not ourselves but who nonetheless somehow pertain to us. Human beings have their selves not only in themselves but also outside of themselves: they live in those whom they love and in those who love them and to whom they are ‘present.’ Human beings are relational, and they possess their lives–themselves–only by way of relationship. I alone am not myself, but only in and with you am I myself. To be truly a human being means to be related in love, to be of and for. But sin means the damaging or the destruction of relationality. Sin is a rejection of relationality because it wants to make the human being a god. Sin is loss of relationship, disturbance of relationship, and therefore it is not restricted to the individual. When I destroy a relationship, then this event–sin–touches the other person involved in the relationship. Consequently sin is always an offense that touches others, that alters the world and damages it. To the extent that this is true, when the network of human relationships is damaged from the very beginning, then every human being enters into a world that is marked by relational damage. At the very moment that a person begins human existence, which is a good, he or she is confronted by a sin-damaged world. Each of us enters into a situation in which relationality has been hurt. Consequently each person is, from the very start, damaged in relationships and does not engage in them as he or she ought. Sin pursues the human being, and he or she capitulates to it.” –Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Our human nature is good. Human beings were created for a situation in which all of their individual needs were met (original justice), but now (because of original sin) we live in a world of pain where our needs go unmet broadly. We were also created to be in total communion with others, and to be integral to the happiness of all other persons. Both of these aspects of human nature (the desire to meet our individual needs *and* to meet the needs of others) are inherited from our first parents. Now, though, when we cannot meet our needs in this disordered world, we are *driven* to try to meet them by our inherited nature. We can hate this drive towards selfishness and fight against it, but we are not made to fight ourselves, and so we will repeatedly give in to selfish behavior despite all resolutions to the contrary. All the while, the desire to be in total communion with others *remains*, because it, too, is inherited. Every person finds that they are in a state of perpetual conflict and frustration (torn between self and others). Some are so injured by this conflict that they are psychologically destroyed. Others cope through an intricate game of self-deception. There is no healthy natural response because the situation is intrinsically unhealthy and unnatural. The bottom line is that we are all looking for the justice that was lost, and this present state of affairs is a fiasco. God understands why we do what we do. He wants to save us from this *unjust* situation, not to inflict an unjust punishment because he blames us for a crime we didn’t commit.
The irony is that the division within us comes from the fact that we are created *good.* We are created for a world of perfect justice, and we can’t fit into our present situation of injustice. We are created innocent, and we are simply *hurt* people who are looking for the peace of original justice without knowing how to find it. A sinner is someone who has tasted death and wants to *live* and not die. Not knowing what to do, we just do what we can to reduce our pain with whatever tools are available to us.
Through the redemption, God has made a way for us to receive the fullness of justice we seek without having recourse to sin.
So, the truths about human nature to be taken from the Adam and Eve story are at least the following:
1) God created human nature good.
2) God created human nature for a world of justice and right relationship.
3) Sin has entered the human experience, and damaged the order.
4) We are now inundated with sin and all kinds of disorder.
The story doesn’t say that human nature is base or bad in any way.
Consider that those who insist on a literal interpretation of the Adam and Eve story (ignoring that the story is not even self-consistent and therefore cannot be literal) are those who *deny* the essential point of the story. They will argue that human nature is the *problem*, while the author of Genesis is arguing that human nature is good. We, God, and the Catholic Church agree with the author of Genesis on this.
January 21, 2013 at 6:33pm · Like
