A Question for Catholics

[Isa_Almisry]

Every time the Early Church Fathers make Mary equal to Eve, they are telling us that Mary (like Eve) was conceived without sin.

Otherwise (if she were born into sin), it would make more sense to parallel her with Sarah, wife/mother of the Hebrew Covenant.

The New Adam and the New Eve were not starting from scratch, but reversing the process of the Old Adam and Eve. Hence, Old Eve came from Old Adam, but the New Adam comes from New Eve. Hence why not Sara, but Eve. Also why this talk of singular grace in anticipation of Christ’s merits doesn’t fit the typology: Eve falls, then brings Adam down, the New Adam rises and brings the New Eve (and the rest of us).

The Fathers develop a typology, for instance, of Eve and Mary both being virgins, but nothing about an IC.

 

[Jordan_Francis]

The Fathers develop a typology, for instance, of Eve and Mary both being virgins, but nothing about an IC.

We can not expect the Church Fathers to speak of IC because they were writing long before Original Sin became such an important concept in the Catholic Church. There was a different, albeit not essentially different, concept of sin before Augustine’s ideas won acceptance.

When comparing Mary to Eve, Justin Martyr speaks of Eve as both “a virgin and undefiled”. What does undefiled mean that virgin does not mean? It is not a leap to think that Justin is speaking of Eve in terms of spiritual purity. The undefiled, virgin “Eve bears the word of the serpent and brings disobedience and death”, the undefiled, Virgin Mary “bears the Word of God” and brings obedience and life.

The advent of the Augustinian paradigm, which is an evolution and fuller understanding of the role of sin in human affairs, neccessitates that we shift our language in terms of Original Sin, hence, the eventual dogma of the “Immaculate Conception”. The IC is inconcievable apart from the understanding of Original Sin and arises in the context of this teaching.

Personally, this is why it does not bother me very much that Catholics and Orthodox have different understandings here. We are speaking about sin in two different “languages”.