Exploring the Nature and Effects of Original Sin
Assignment 1
When Man took the fruit of the Forbidden Tree, we lost that close relationship with God and Adam and Eve were casted and banned from the Garden of Eden. This story is perhaps the strongest example of a huge turning point in human history since it is because of their Original Sin the descendants of Adam and Eve are greatly affected. In this paper I will argue that woman’s punishment “…yet your desire shall be for you husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Gen. 3:16) applying it to the treatment of women using examples from Kate Chopin’s The Awakening.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, God invited man to be in communion with him to share the immense love that he has but, some may believe that the covenant between Himself and man was completely lost after the sin of Adam and Eve:
After the fall, [God] buoyed them up with the hope of salvation by promising redemption; and he has never ceased to show his solicitude for the human race. For he wishes to give eternal life to all those who seek salvation by patience in well-doing.
Even if it may seem that all hope was lost and the fear of death is lurking behind the corner, God promises them that they are going to be saved and redeemed. Although it is good that all mankind is promised redemption, the punishments that God brought upon Adam and Eve has affected the rest of man and continues to have its affects today.
The example in which reveals how God punishes Eve and how it affected women can be seen in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Throughout history, women have been subordinate to men. Women have always been under man’s rule always serving him and having little to no right or say in anything. This is cle...
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...ah is, in a sense, a renewal of the covenant with Adam.
Overall, these being the few of the many examples of how Original Sin has affected all of mankind, there is still hope for us. Whomever seeks and wishes to be saved, just as Noah wanted to be saved, shall be saved. However, submission has always been a part of history and though we have advanced and now women have more rights and slowly becoming equal to man, the submission will always be there.
Works Cited
Catechism of the Catholic Church Second ed., Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 20.
Kate Chopin, The Awakening, Bedford/St. Martin’s (Boston New York), 79.
Ignatius Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic edition. (Gen 8:15-16).
Ignatius Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version, 2nd Catholic edition. (Gen 8:18).
John Bergsma, Bible Basics for Catholics, Ave Maria Press (Notre Dame Press: 2012), 40.
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The fall of mankind with Adam and Eve caused an imbalance in the relations between God and mankind. To achieve salvation, this inequity had ...
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In the beginning, the Fall of Man began when Adam and Eve heeded not the Word of God but that of the serpent, and ate fruit from the forbidden tree. Due to their actions they were cast out of the garden of Eden into a sinful world ashamed and having to provide for themselves (KJV, Genesis 3). These actions have left believers and non believers pondering God’s actions towards man kind.
In Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, the reader is treated to an enthralling story of a woman’s lifelong quest for happiness and love. Although this novel may be analyzed according to several critical lenses, I believe the perspectives afforded by French feminists Helene Cixous and Luce Irigaray have been most useful in informing my interpretation of Hurston’s book. In “The Laugh of the Medusa,” Cixous discusses a phenomenon she calls antilove that I have found helpful in defining the social hierarchy of women and relationships between them in the novel. In addition, Cixous addresses the idea of woman as caregiver, which can be illustrated through the character of Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God. On the other hand, Luce Irigaray discusses the different modes of sexual desire of men and women in her essay, “The Sex Which is Not One.” Many examples supporting and refuting her claims can be found in the novel. According to Cixous, the most heinous crime committed by men against women is the promotion of antilove. “Insidiously, violently, they have led [women] to hate women, to be their own enemies, to mobilize their immense strength against themselves, to be the executants of their virile needs” (1455). Their Eyes Were Watching God offers many examples of women in vicious contention with one another, usually involving or benefiting a man. Janie is confronted by the malice of her female neighbors in the very first chapter of the novel, as she arrives back in Eatonville after her adventure with Tea Cake. “The women took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away for remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if i...
Despite the patriarchal society from the biblical days, God is taught as being just as much a Mother as God is a Father (102). The willful ignorance of religious scholars of the time just show that they were making a conscious effort of trying to keep women from retaining any power that they had. This relegation of religious roles in an effort to keep Men in power is a poor example of how Christianity is a religion which promotes for the love and care of all people, no matter their status. The interpretation of God from these times clash severely with my notions of what is now considered to be an all-loving entity. Women of these times were obviously not equal to their male counterparts. In modern days however, women are thought of as equals in society. The problem is that they are still not being treated as equals in a religious aspect as well as many other aspects.
...s right there with them. Even though he knew they would continue to experience hardship, he promised that he would remain faithful to them and always be with them. Jeremiah 29:11-13 states, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (English Standard Version). Even when the Judeans and Augustine were facing their darkest times and had almost completely lost hope, God was still there pursuing them and waiting for them to seek after him.
Corinthians 14:34 states, “Let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law” (Holy Bible, King James Edition). Edith Hamilton, "recognized as the greatest woman Classicist", says that the Bible is the only book before our century that looked to women as human beings, no better nor worse than men (Tanner). However, it cannot be said that this book was consistently favorable to women. Maybe not absolutely, but conditionally in personal opinion, the Bible shows numerous examples of a woman’s inferiority to men, an assessment that has been translated into the cultures of generations. In this essay I will address briefly instances in the bible pertaining to women, and continue on with thoughts on how I believe these notions have been interpreted into society.
...edge of Good and Evil did indeed produce the lustful Fall of Man, but it was in Christ that God fulfilled the covenant. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (King James Version, 1 Cor. 15.22).
In our present era, there is no doubt that the evolution of women's rights has come a long way. It is in the Western Culture that these values for which women have fought for generations, are in conflict with Genesis 1-3. The events that occur in this "creation story" are crucial in that it begins when God creates man in his own likeness and man is given domination over all living things. The significance is the prominence given to men; God is male and his most important creation is male. The biblical account underlines the supremacy of man while making it clear that women play an inferior role. Furthermore, the biblical account also describes how woman are disobedient and yield to temptation, the result of which is the expulsion of both Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. In the poem "How Cruel is the Story of Eve", Stevie Smith's castigation towards the biblical story of Eve demonstrates how women have been victims of despair and suffering since the beginning of time. She holds it responsible for cruelty towards women in history, she implies that the values derived from the story of Eve were forced upon women without choice, and finally, she challenges the authenticity of the religious tale on a whole. Without a doubt, women have fallen victim to an untrue, religious tale from the beginning of time, and the poem is an outcry representing the suffering of women throughout history.
Temptations are one of life’s most riveting tests or enticements that we face diurnal. Moreover, it causes us to yearn for something that we do not necessarily need or it causes us to sin. Furthermore, if we give into temptation, we may be blissful, but it will only be ephemeral. It is because of “The Fall of Man” that sin is second nature for us, which in turn makes it facile to give into temptation. In other words, as the verbal expression goes “we were born in sin and live therein.” As a result, our temptations can either make us or break us. The Bible states in Romans 7:19 that “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (King James Version). Strictly speaking, albeit we aspire to do good, because of our sinful nature, it becomes a struggle. However, it is for this reason, our nefarious nature that God sent down his son from Heaven, to give us hope. My definition of hope is “a positive anticipation of God’s promise.” It is this hope that gives us a reason to live, a reason to go on and vigor to surmount these temptations. Moreover, it is his death, burial and resurrection that gives us the hope of his saving grace. Nevertheless, despite the fact that hope is inexhaustible, temptation is inevitable, therefore, the Gospel according to Matthew 26:41 states” Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (King James Version).