Zimmerman’s Chapters 12, 13, 14 and 15 (titled “Irenaeus on Original Sin”, “Pioneer theology of Irenaeus:, “Pre-Augustine Fathers”, and “The Genius of St. Augustine”) turn on the previous blog.  That blog reflects the ancient model of human nature: Soul – anima – is joined to flesh – caro – through an immaterial – spiritus – principle.

After reading quite a few books by Henry Corbin (one of the first Westerners to write about Iran, the soul of Persia), I have an inkling of how the human being comes into this world:  The anima is joined to the caro through spiritus.  Sound familiar?

The question is how?

Plato had a model that reflected the pagan world.   The anima descends to the caro.  The spiritual principle is “descent”.

If you imagine a symbolic order congealing around this model, you might think that the motif of “return” or “ascent” would be prominent.  How does the anima ascend back to the source?  By ridding itself of the earthly burden – the earthly distractions – of the caro.   In the extreme, you might get the world according to Mani, where the good, beautiful, life-filled anima endeavors to escape the bad, ugly, dying caro.  Or you might get hundreds of prescriptions designed to accomplish the ascent through ritual action.  Or you might die ao your soul would get recycled.

Now, enter the Jews (and Christians) with all that Adam and Eve business.

Would it not be perfectly sensible to fit the Story of Adam and Eve into the descent model?  The pre-lapse Adam would be like anima (good, beautiful, life-filled) and the post-lapse Adam would be like the rest of us after the soul’s descent (trying to escape the bad, ugly, and dying caro).

“The Fall” would fit its billing and parallel the familiar – pagan – model of human nature.