RE: The puzzle of Adam

Don wrote:
Some, like kabbalists, take the view of going back (to the source) in order to go forward. Most western Christians see us as going forward only, through Christ.

rich:
I am a western Christian but I don't see it as a moving backward or forward, although I grant that Adam came before us. I see it as changing your ontology to reflect Adam's pre-fall pre-Eve ontology. Adam had no fear, no shame and no self-consciousness before the fall and the kabbalists say he had no desire because Eve had not yet been formed from his rib. After Eve is created, Adam is no longer complete in his self, and Adam and Eve each has desire for the other. It is the presence of desire that leads to the fall, after which Adam and Eve are ashamed, self-conscious and fearful.
If we consider the Nag Hammadi texts, in the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus says:
   “When you disrobe without being ashamed… you will not be afraid.”GofT 37

If these are indeed Jesus' words, then He also understood the return from the fall to be a return to Adam's state of fearlessness, unself-consciousness and shamelessness. He does not allude to a time in the future or the past, but only that you will know your ontology has changed when you can disrobe without being ashamed and afraid.

"As in Adam all men die, so in Christ all will be brought to life." 1 Cor 15:22

The Hasids see tikkun, (the repair of the world) and devekut (union with god) as aspirations that would also return creation to the state before Adam's fall, but it is an ontological state, not a point in time, hence they caution one another (specifically the anti-zionists caution the zionists) not to hasten the Redemption but to let God decide the hour because it is not the time or the human agent that is important but that the world be repaired according to His will.

Why was it important Jesus be remembered for his celibacy? In the pre-fall Adamic state there is no sexual desire. Celibacy would be the outward manifestation of desire's absence and proof of Jesus' divinity.

rich faussette

 
Received on Mon Nov 29 17:59:18 2004