Adam, Eve, and Catholicism

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Hello everybody!
I’ve been researching Catholicism and I’m a little confused about your take on Genesis. One of my favorite YouTubers, Bishop Barron, seems to affirm that Adam was not a real person. He calls these early Genesis stories “theological poetry.” This has been my take on the text. I think it’s a fictional narrative written in response to similar Babylonian myths, the Enûma Eliš. The Israelites were combating one story with another, and it’s still a powerful thing… on the theological level. But I’m pretty sure none of it is real life history.
But according to this article (Adam, Eve, and Evolution | Catholic Answers), it is the indisputable teaching of the Church that Adam and Eve were literal parents of the human race. It also affirms that these two people committed an evil deed that “marked” the whole of human history.
Anyway, sorry for the long post! I’m just looking for some clarification. Thanks!
 
Adam and Eve were real people created by God. I thought that was doctrine.

Not sure if their names were Adam and Eve or what the Church says about that.

Not sure where Bishop Barron is coming from, I would have to read his full text.
 
And related to this, is a book like Humani Generis by the Pope infallible? How can I know which works of the Pope are supposed to be infallible?__
 
Its a Papal Encyclical so it carries weight on Magesterial Teaching. Is everything in the encyclical infallible(some may be non-infallible), Im not sure about that, but some points are as they have been the teaching from Scripture or through the Magesterium.
 
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Bishop Barron has several videos concerning Adam and Eve on his YouTube channel.
 
OK, so the Humani Generis is not infallible, right? I don’t have to believe it to become Catholic? (Edit: Because it’s Sacred Magisterium, but not Universal Magisterium.)
 
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What in Humani Generis are you at odds with?

I would slowly read the link I sent you. You will understand the subject much better.
 
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The part where he talks about a literal Adam messing up humanity. “Now, it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through generation is passed onto all and is in everyone as his own.” (Humani Generis 37)
 
Adam and Eve were real people who really sinned against God and lost the original grace and justice which God had given then. All humans alive claim descent from them. That must be accepted by all Catholics.

You don’t have to believe there was a literal serpent, or that the original sin was eating from the fruit of a specific literal tree, or that they were kept in a literal garden, or that this was 6,000 years ago.

It is a real, historical story. You are free to believe it is told in a poetic, mythological mode.
 
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Ayden said:
One of my favorite YouTubers, Bishop Barron
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It would be helpful if you linked to the actual video you are talking about
Ayden said:
He calls these early Genesis stories “theological poetry.”
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Yes, certainly. There are multiple senses of scripture, and also different types of literature in the bible. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t communicate truth.
Ayden said:
This has been my take on the text. I think it’s a fictional narrative
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No, that is not at all what Bishop Barron is saying.
Ayden said:
seems to affirm that Adam was not a real person
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Yes and no.
Was there a real person named Adam walking around in a garden with a talking snake 6000 years ago? No.

Did we have real first parents who lost original sanctifying grace and friendship with God by their own act? Yes.

I suggest you read Humanae Generis.
 
What was the grace that God had given them? Growing up, I was taught that it was living forever on earth.
 
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