Image and Likeness of God: Adam and Eve

            I was teaching about Adam and Eve (Creation) in my class once. Always, the first thing I have to do is to retrain my students how to read Sacred Scripture in a scholarly manner. I am convinced that atheists in our society are more fundamentalist in their reading of Scripture than Catholic scholars. Atheist critics of Christianity presume that all Christians look at Scripture as if it is a history book or some account of historical facts. Granted, the New Testament is considered historical and several of the books in the Israel Scriptures (Old Testament) do record historical events. But to say every book in the Bible is to be read literally is a relatively new concept in Biblical scholarship, if that is the right term. As a result of this literal kind of reading, many atheistic criticisms of Christianity are, themselves, based on literal interpretations of Sacred Scripture. Of course, Catholic scholarship does not (and never has) been so literal in its understanding of the Truth of Scripture. Don’t be mistaken; Catholic scholarship teaches that Sacred Scripture is Truth, but it is Truth beyond material understanding. The Psalm tells us that God’s Word is a lamp, and to use the Pit analogy, it can certainly be used to guide us in the pit and to help us tie the rope around our waist, but where that lamp or flashlight comes from and why it was sent to us remains a mystery. The Truth of Sacred Scripture is such a deep mystery to us that to criticize stories about Adam and Eve as not fitting geological evidence or some other scientific or material Truth simply does not fit the nature of the text being criticized. It is like using a Geiger Meter to judge a pie eating contest; the rubric doesn’t match the form. Sacred Scripture can still be True, though it is not historically factual.

My class and I read the story of Adam and Eve and we observe a few important details. First, God makes humans in His image and likeness. We already talked about how important it is for us to see this as God’s first mention of humanity. Second. When God creates humans He calls them “very good”, as opposed to “good”, which suggests a specialness of humanity. Of course, if humans are made in the image and likeness of God, then “very good” could also be read as “holy.” Humans are made in the Holy image and likeness of God. That is, Adam and Eve are made to Love and to be Loved. That is what St. John Paul II calls “original Holiness”. I ask my students a question: “If Adam and Eve are material beings and are limited to a material “Garden”, then how can they possibly know that they can Love and be Loved the way that God made them to Love and to be Loved?”  The only real response is that they have been taught somehow, and the only way they have been taught is if they are in a relationship with the One who is Love and Holiness, and the only way they can be in a relationship with God so deeply is if they have acquiesced or humbled themselves to a degree that they know, by phronesis, that they are Loved and are made to Love.  Adam and Eve have some sort of Original Sacramental Vision.

(Monk was a good dog!)