July 5, 2020
GOD'S FAULT, NOT ADAM'S:
Blaming Adam : The origins of human things are flawed, no question, and inequalities remain. But should we not try to honor the principles of Washington or Jefferson and distinguish them from the prejudices of the day that they shared? (Glenn Arbery, July 4th, 2020, Imaginative Conservative)
History amply demonstrates that origins are always flawed. Rome, for example, began with Romulus's murder of his brother and with the rape of the Sabine women. The question to ask is whether the founding enterprise was worthwhile despite its flaws. Nowhere is this questioning more explicit than in Milton's Paradise Lost, which the Wyoming Catholic College juniors read in the same semester as texts of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.The extraordinary thing about the presentation of Adam in the poem is that in Book X he reflects explicitly on what it means to be the flawed origin, not just of a nation, but of the human race itself. After the Fall, Adam comes to a full recognition of the miseries he will bequeath upon his offspring:O voice once heardDelightfully, Increase and multiply, [730]Now death to hear! for what can I increaseOr multiply, but curses on my head?Who of all Ages to succeed, but feelingThe evil on him brought by me, will curseMy Head, Ill fare our Ancestor impure, [735]For this we may thank Adam...Adam's very first thought after perceiving how thoroughly he would be cursed by his own progeny is to blame his own origin:Did I request thee, Maker, from my ClayTo mold me Man, did I solicit theeFrom darkness to promote me, or here place [745]In this delicious Garden? as my WillConcurred not to my being, it were but rightAnd equal to reduce me to my dust,Desirous to resign, and render backAll I received, unable to perform [750]Thy terms too hard, by which I was to holdThe good I sought not. To the loss of that,Sufficient penalty, why hast thou addedThe sense of endless woes? inexplicableThy Justice seems...The passage seems altogether appropriate for the present day. To my mind, the real questions being raised in the current political climate are not political at all, but metaphysical and religious. Did I ask to exist? And, more than that, did I ask to exist in this way, burdened with this history, subject to these limitations?
Even He found the limitations too much, so how couldn't we. But the important thing to realize is how religious this moment is; how completely dependent on our recognition of our natural sinfulness.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 5, 2020 7:07 AM