If Adam had not fallen. Part 4

If Adam had not fallen

Part 4: Yes, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

It is this deep regret that makes the issue of “If Adam had not fallen” so intense, so pressing, so important for the life that we live together in society.

Of course, I must “get real”. The whole point about being human is that we have that nature which means we will fall. But if we just accept this, and form an accommodation with a compromised nature, then we will sink into a lack of awareness that we could be other. For if the fact that we fall is the disgrace of humanity, the awareness that we have done so is our glory. It is only this knowledge of and acceptance of the fact that we could have done better that drives our striving to be better. Acknowledging that Adam has fallen, recognising that I am not as I could be, is the vision that gives hope of redemption. It is this vision that is so important, and holding on to it is why I keep focussed on that fundamental issue of being human: if Adam had not fallen. He has. How are we to pick ourselves up?