If the Adam and Eve stories are true, then what the hell happened to us?\u00a0 \u00a0In Chapter 8, Zimmerman discusses the Council of Trent\u2019s decrees on \u201cconcupiscence\u201d.\u00a0 This term points to an attraction to sin than neither destroys our free will nor displeases God.\u00a0 Unless of course, attraction becomes deeds and deeds become addiction.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, the term \u201cconcupiscence\u201d is actually more slippery than that, because, at the Council of Trent, at least, some proposed that \u201cconcupiscence\u201d is a feature, or consequence, of Original Sin.\u00a0 At this point, \u201cconcupiscence\u201d became more than an attractor. It became like a gravitational field.\u00a0 Help, I\u2019ve fallen and I can\u2019t get up.<\/p>\n
These varying ways of looking at \u201cconcupiscence\u201d was the fuel for drama, not on its own accord, but in regards to the concept of Baptism.\u00a0 Baptism somehow washes away Original Sin.\u00a0 But concupiscence is another matter.<\/p>\n
In the end, the Council finally decided that concupiscence did not suddenly start with Original Sin and that the best way to think of it is: Spontaneous and vigorous natural drives.\u00a0 These include all those tempting thoughts that passed through the mind of mythic Eve before she plucked the forbidden fruit.\u00a0 Her free will was not hopelessly entangled in the irresistible onslaughts of concupiscence.<\/p>\n
Instead, she was na\u00efve.\u00a0 In the Genesis Story, her naivet\u00e9 was part and parcel of the idea that she and Adam were naked yet without shame (Chapter 9).\u00a0 At this point, Zimmerman brings up St. Augustine with a cautionary note: Beware the 13th<\/sup> chapter of the 13th<\/sup> book of the City of God.\u00a0 Here, Augustine proposed that, upon eating the fruit, Adam and Eve experienced a new motion in their flesh, in strict retribution of their own disobedience to God.\u00a0 Any woman knows that men tend to experience \u201cnew motion\u201d in their flesh.\u00a0 Yet so few regard it as strict retribution of their own disobedience to God.<\/p>\n At the same time, any man knows that women tend to experience \u201cnew motion\u201d in their flesh.\u00a0 And how often do we regard it as strict retribution of our own disobedience to God?\u00a0 What a difference.<\/p>\n Obviously, nakedness connotes vulnerability.\u00a0 \u201cNaked without shame\u201d goes with feelings of invulnerability.\u00a0 \u201cNaked with shame\u201d goes with feelings of vulnerability.<\/p>\n Augustine implied that Adam and Eve\u2019s feelings of invulnerability were a condition that made their transgression possible.\u00a0 We can describe those feelings of invulnerability as \u201cpride\u201d.<\/p>\n Yet \u201cpride\u201d, so conceived, does not seem to dovetail with Paul, in his letter to the Romans, who wrote:\u00a0 I do not understand my own actions.\u00a0 I do not do what I want.\u00a0 I do what I hate.\u00a0 What does that imply?\u00a0 Because I admit that what I do is what I hate, and because I admit the law is good, I am willing to venture that the source of my unwanted actions, the one responsible for my unwanted actions, is the sin that dwells in me.<\/p>\n To me, that sounds like addiction, one of the end points of concupiscence, rather than pride.\u00a0 Sin has dissociated Paul from the law and from his own actions.<\/p>\n Thus, at the end of chapter 9, Zimmerman has brought the reader through a traditional rendering of the Story of Adam and Eve, and how the Council of Trent dealt with issues concerning the interpretation of Genesis and other scriptures.\u00a0 Zimmerman paints a multifaceted picture that is difficult to summarize because his synthesis focuses on what the Council focused on, points of disputation, where the Story of Adam and Eve were only part of anyone\u2019s arguments.\u00a0 I did my best.<\/p>\n So what are we left with? \u00a0On one hand, there is the St. Augustine side of the picture, containing images of invulnerability, wayward members, shamelessness and pride.\u00a0 On the other hand, there is a non-St. Augustine side of the picture, containing images of naivet\u00e9, concupiscence, dissociation from law, and addiction.\u00a0 Each side of the picture has a different theo-dramatic flavor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If the Adam and Eve stories are true, then what the hell happened to us?\u00a0 \u00a0In Chapter 8, Zimmerman discusses the Council of Trent\u2019s decrees on \u201cconcupiscence\u201d.\u00a0 This term points to an attraction to sin than neither destroys our free will nor displeases God.\u00a0 Unless of course, attraction becomes deeds and deeds become addiction. Needless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-science-of-original-sin"],"yoast_head":"\n