What
if Adam and Eve never existed?
Did
mankind descend from a single pair? Science tends to say not: new
species are
unlikely to develop from a single base, and there are ancillary
difficulties
such as the genetic effects of incest.
These
would of course be enhanced if, as Genesis, describes
it, the female partner derived her germ line from the man. But from the
Church’s point of view descent from an original group is
complicated by the
doctrine of Original Sin, on which salvation history is centred.
“Just as one
man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one
man’s act of righteousness
leads to justification and life for all. (Romans 5).
It would be
interesting to explore a
way through which polygenism could be reconciled with Original Sin.
The question is
academic, partly
because it may prove impossible to demonstrate incontrovertibly how the
human
race started, and partly because the distinction between brute beast
and man
with a capacity and a responsibility for moral choice is a spiritual
one, and
so not necessarily subject to the normal rules.
A
theory which I favour is that we are a fusion and a tension between the
nature
of the evolved brute beast, whose entire dynamic is self-benefit, and
the
spiritual nature though which we understand good and evil, and so moral
obligation. We actualise our captivity to sin through our choices, just
as we
actualise our freedom through grace to follow the good. This would be a
truly
original sinful state (not in itself a personal fault) and truly
inherited with
our human nature. In such a theory, Adam (a collective Hebrew word with
no
plural form, for “man”) becomes representative of
the human race,
particularised in a story – as was the custom. That may seem
a radical idea but
it requires no greater jump in interpretation than has occurred before,
as
scientific discovery has stimulated the Church towards a deeper
understanding
of the allegorical aspects of Scripture.
But
what does this make of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception,
whereby Mary
was free from Original Sin by virtue of her son’s saving
merits applied
retrospectively? If we rephrase Original Sin as a natural lack of
integrity
between our higher and lower natures then Mary’s freedom from
this lack becomes
itself a wonder. Her total being, body and soul, is fully harmonised
and fully
sanctified. She is, from the very beginning, the exemplar of the
perfection
towards which all Christians aspire. She is of course subject to
suffering,
illness perhaps, and temptation and death for, like her son, she is a
true
human being, and this is the human condition. But at all times her
spirit,
oriented towards the good, infuses her body and makes her complete
human person,
a holy thing.
March
2008
A
further note