Justin Jackson abstract

Who Told You That You Were Naked?: Death, Vulnerability, and the Original Sin

Working specifically from an Eastern Orthodox perspective, I will tease out of the Genesis narrative, specifically with regards to the original transgression, the way in which a fear of death, and hence an original vulnerability, prompted Adam to seek to blame both God and Eve for his own transgression. I will briefly outline the differences between the Western notion of Original/inherited sin/guilt and the Eastern notion of Ancestral sin, and will then demonstrate the way in which Ancestral sin can be understood from a Girardian modelperhaps a more natural expression of Girards mimetic theory than an Augustinian reading of Original sin/guilt. Rather than a sacrificial model of atonement for the original sin, the East tends to emphasize an incarnation model, a model which highlights Gods reunification of mans soul and body, thus a trampling down or death by death. By focusing on an incarnational model of atonement versus a sacrificial model in response to original sin, I will highlight how vulnerability and repentance informed much of the Easts (and much of the early Churchs) understanding of salvation.

According to the East, mortality and immortality were a choice for the first humans. They chose the former and abandoned the latter when questioned by God about their misdeed. Girard argues that the first sin resulted in the first act of scapegoatingAdam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent. I will argue that the expulsion is also self-chosen, that, in fact, according to Eastern Orthodox tradition, God offers Adam and Eve a chance to repent of their misdeed so that they need not be expelled. In their act of scapegoating, they both reject Gods offer of repentance (his Divine tolerance) and choose to cling to self-protection (non-repentance). The removal of Adam and Eve is not conceived of as a punishment but rather as an act of compassion on the part of God. The immediate choice of immortality is removed so that they wont live a fallen life in perpetuity, immortal in sin. The Incarnation rectifies this by destroying the enemies of man: death, sin, corruption, and the devil.

If we take seriously Christs trampling down of death and bestowing upon humanity eternal life, then we must ask what the new relationship is between vulnerability and invulnerability towards death. From an Eastern perspective, death, and the fear of death, is the way in which sin metastasizes once in the world. One finds this understanding of the relationship between death and sin in the Early Greek Fathers. They translate Romans 5.12, for example, accordingly: As sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all men; and because of it [death], all men have sinned. The fear of death, then, breeds selfishness and self-preservation. Our response to vulnerability is to make ourselves invulnerable, to place our own interests, our own lives, above those of our fellow humans. Conversely, to accept and to live accordingly to an invulnerability towards death means living a life of vulnerability towards the Other individual; in the language of Emmanuel Levinas, I am responsible for the Other without waiting for reciprocity, were I to die for it.

Justin Jackson is an Assistant Professor of English at Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan. His courses and research focus on violence and ethics in Old and Middle English literature, particularly medieval biblical narrative. He has an article forthcoming in Contagion, And They Sang a New Song: Reading Johns Revelation from the Position of the Lamb (co-authored with Allen Redmon). Other relevant forthcoming research projects include an edited collection of essays on Emmanuel Levinas and medieval literature (contributor and co-editor with Ann Astell) and an edited collection on Eastern Christianity and literature (contributor). At Hillsdale College, he also teaches a seminar on Mimetic Theory.

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