Up first, SHAME.
Graham Ward, of Oxford University in Cambridge, England,
explores the theology of Adam and Eve’s shame after the fall in his essay “Adam
and Eve’s Shame (And Ours)”. He first states, “the first effects of
disobedience…was shame at the realization they were naked” (305). He recognizes
the realization of nakedness as the effect of their shame because Adam says to
God “I was afraid because I was naked.” Ward continues in his essay to define
the shame we share because of the fall. He first notes that fear and shame are
scientifically viewed as “the most basic human emotions” and that they were
referred to as “the passions” (2). Ward defines shame as such;
“Shame exposes that which is most
intimate about the embodied self, but it also exposes sets of values and levels
of interest. We can only be ashamed if we care about something. So shame is
both a very personal experience, but also a highly socialized event in the
sense that it is saturated with social and cultural investments. Body, self and
society meet around practices of shaming and experiences of being ashamed” (308).
His definition leads into how I want to explore Adam and
Eve’s shame in relation to mankind’s fallen view of feminine beauty. In my
thesis I plan to claim that woman is the most beautiful creation. A person’s
body is an incredibly personal part of him or her. The body is also intimate.
The shame felt by Adam and Eve, according to Ward, explains that our bodies are
the most intimate part of us. Our bodies are extremely valuable to us.
In addition to Ward’s point, with
our bodies we can give and receive the most intimate experience of love. There
is something very sacred about the human body and women being the apex of
beauty in creation have a unique value in their bodies. Women experience shame
rooted in the value of their body also in relation to themselves selves and
society around them. There are two pivotal ways a woman can experience shame
that distort true feminine beauty that I want to cover in my thesis. One, in
the way they view themselves; and two, lust.
Ward
makes note that Adam and Eve felt shame in their bodies, particularly their
genitalia. Ward paraphrases and quotes Augustine’s theology:
“Augustine concludes that sin
manifests itself in the disordered nature of human desire, and in sexual desire
most particularly…Adam and Eve were not ashamed before the fall, ‘[t]hey
experienced no motion of the flesh of which they would be ashamed,’ Augustine tells
us. Their shame arises because they are sexually aroused and that arousal (…)
embarrasses them. Concupiscence is born…because this movement of which it was
ashamed came from the violation of Divine command” (308).
Ward’s mention of Augustine’s theology of Adam and Eve’s
shame is the exact point I plan to make regarding our shame in the context of
lust. After the fall the dignity of man and woman are violated by
concupiscence. Therefore, beauty, most especially the most beautiful, is no
longer easily perceived due to concupiscence.
[TOB]
Ward
explains, “Shame is both a negative consequence of sin and a positive
indication of the soul’s continuing nobility” (309). He believes that shame
“can act as a drive to improve what Augustine describes as ‘this troubled
state’ “ (309). He goes into how shame is a negative effect of Adam and Eve’s
sin but the shame affects them as well, which John Paul II refers to the
redemption aspect of their shame. They feel the shame of their concupiscence
but the affect of the shame makes them realize there is something innately
unordered in their desires. As I mentioned earlier, Ward states that they were
ashamed because the “movement” came from a “violation of Divine command.” What
Ward is saying suggests that concupiscence or lust is a violation of divine
command and the shame they experience reveals the impurity of lust. Simply,
their emotional reaction to being naked in front of one another is a negative
experience they attempt to resolve through veiling themselves.
Of
course I need a further source to back this point up, and maybe Theology of the
Body is my answer, but because women is the crown of creation (song of songs)
and the fruit of the tree of good and evil give Adam and Eve a type of
“knowledge,” it seems that suddenly man can see her beauty in a more fuller
sense, but it is too much for him to bear. His knowledge, concupiscence, can
lead him to lust after her, or her beauty, veiled, can redeem man back to
innocence and led him to love. This point leads into the next point I will make
in my thesis – that feminine beauty is so valuable that it can lead men to God.
(I cant help think of Plato’s symposium at this point. If only Diotima was a Christian!)
Before I over do it – which, since I have already begun to
make statements without much build to them or research to strengthen my point –
I’ll call it a close. This article has so much more to offer in regards to my
thesis and I’ve also begun to dive into TOB a little. How exciting!!! Hopefully
I can tackle this topic well and clearly as well as learn a lot about it.
Senior year seems to be pretty wonderful. Blessings, folks.
(source: http://litthe.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/3/305.abstract - I can't give you all of the article because I got it off a data library at school and I'm not about to break the law but just to give you an idea of my source, theres an abstract. No, he's not exactly John Paul II but many of his points I have found line up directly with TOB. Cool, huh? More on that later...)
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