[Through Adam, our corruptible mortal flesh smothers and misdirects our eternal spiritual spark.
It does not matter whether we are literally descended from Adam’s loins or whether Adam somehow represented all humanity.
We all know the punchline: When Adam sinned, we all fell.]
Summary of text [comment] page 82
[Consider Adam and Eve’s first babies. One murdered the other.
Every baby is capable of growing up and murdering any other baby.
The reason is desire. Our desires are so disordered that reason cannot bring them under control.
This is Original Sin.]
[Adam and Eve leaving the garden is like the soul descending into the corruption of matter.
Nothing good comes of this. All humanity falls. Even babies are doomed.]
[In Augustine’s treatment of the Story of the Fall, Adam and Eve, like the soul on the verge of its descent, make a fate-filled choice.
Despite their perfection, they do not see the trap door.]
[In order to justify infant baptism, Augustine turns to the fairy tale at the start of Genesis. He imagines a Story of the Fall that parallels the Gnostic descent of the soul.
Adam, like the soul before incarnation, is perfect (incorruptible and good). Adam could even control his you know what by reason. Imagine that.
Better, try not to imagine that.]
Summary of text [comment] page 82
[So, for Augustine, the question becomes:
How to explain this infant baptism business to the fellows?]
[The women of the pagan Roman Empire know this: Christian baptism transforms hellacious vessels of evil matter into joyful, wonderful, innocent babies.]
[In Augustine’s time, mothers know this.
They also know that their babies could die long before they were old enough to acquire secret knowledge.
Baptism is like a ticket out of a Manichaean trap. Mothers want their children baptized in order to redeem the baby’s spiritual spark within its material evil.
Plus, they wanted it done without delay.]
[So the question becomes: How do I redeem the spiritual spark that makes up my true self?
Redemption is promised through secret knowledge (gnosis) that guides the ascent of the soul.]
Summary of text [comment] page 82
[Does the first singularity confirm Augustine’s social construction of Original Sin?
So far, I noted, in blogs on Anthony Zimmerman’s work, that Augustine’s paradigm looks like the myth of the descent of the soul.
Augustine was once a Manichaean philosopher.
In the Manichaean view, babies are evil.
Why?
They are material.
The incorruptible and good spirit that animates each baby collects corruptible and evil material in its descent.
The details about how this occurs are never quite clear. But, everyone knows the punchline: Babies are eternal spiritual sparks trapped in corruptible mortal flesh.]
