Adam and eve were punished for developing a sense of shame and modesty. Covering their naked bodies was a sign of their disobedience to God, their "fall". Why is it then that nowadays the stereotypical "preachy Christian" is an image of a woman covered in clothing, from her large flowered hat to her stockinged, high heeled shoes, scolding america's youth for their immodesty. 'where is your shame!' she might say. Where indeed? And if shame is so abhorent to God as to make him kick out adam and eve, why is it so desireable today? I know that, nowadays, nudity wouldn't be the same as it was for adam and eve. we are aware of our nudity, they weren't. I just find it ironic that things went from nudity being the "ultimate good" to fully covered from head to toe being the "ultimate good".
just a thought.
3 comments:
Catrina,
I think you have it a little confused. Adam and Eve developed a sense of shame as a result of their disobedience. When man was perfectly good, there was no need for coverings, but after the fall they "realized" that they were naked and tried to cover themselves. In fact the story continues that God killed animals (the first "sacrifice" you could say) inorder to give them covering.
I put this in my blog, but my fav irrelevant teaching of Augustine's is that as long as Adam and Eve obeyed God, their bodies obeyed their wills. When A&E screwed that up by wilfully turning away from God, God took away the extra-strong Paradise Will that controlled their bodies, allowing their bodies to "act out" on their own, subject to reflexes, pains, lusts, etc... Adam sewed an apron out of fig leaves cos Eve was cute, and "mind over matter" was no longer a reality. :)
This Adam and Eve nonsense was developed in order to explain why people act the way they do. No one knew about genetics or psychology/neurology when the Bible was written. The story is like any other myth created by religions to explain the world when no means existed other than the imagination. My guess is that people wore clothing to protect themselves from the elements, and was incorporated into culture by becoming tradition. Therefore it was incorporated into religion that survives to this day based upon survival techniques.
Post a Comment