What Should A Catholic's Attitude Be Towards Adam & Eve?

[savedfamily]

Just wondering what should one’s attitude be toward our first parents, Adam & Eve. Please enlighten me…Thanks!

 

[PhilVaz]

Can you be more specific please?

Are you wondering how to square with biological evolution, so we can start evolution-creation thread #928,582,658,173,738,382,658 ?

I think the Catechism is pretty clear they were real, but how much of the Genesis story is to be taken literally is not defined in the Catechism. Here is a summary:

1. By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings.
2. Adam and Eve transmitted to their descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called “original sin.”
3. As a result of original sin, human nature is weakened in its powers, subject to ignorance, suffering and the domination of death, and inclined to sin (this inclination is called “concupiscence”).
4. “We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin is transmitted with human nature, “by propagation, not by imitation” and that it is… ‘proper to each’” (Paul VI, CPG § 16).

And for the record, the Catechism defines the “six days” of “creation week” as symbolical right here:

1. God himself created the visible world in all its richness, diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as a succession of six days of divine “work,” concluded by the “rest” of the seventh day. On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths revealed by God for our salvation, permitting us to “recognize the inner nature, the value, and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of God.” [Vatican II LG 36] (see also paragraphs 339, 342, 345 which refer to the “six days”)

Also, the Catechism says at least parts of the Genesis story uses “figurative language” here:

1. The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.

It’s all online here.

Phil P

 

[savedfamily]

…I don’t doubt what the CCC says…what I mean is …should one be …thankful to them…or “angry” at them, etc…thanks.

 

[PhilVaz]

<< what I mean is …should one be …thankful to them…or “angry” at them >>

Thankful or angry? I thought you meant literal / historical vs. figurative / symbolical. Sorry, got evolution on my brain again.

There’s that saying “Oh happy fault…”

From the Mass on Holy Saturday: “Oh happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!”

Phil P

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

savedfamily:

Just wondering what should one’s attitude be toward our first parents, Adam & Eve. Please enlighten me…Thanks!

Extreme annoyance ​

 

[JimG]

One might be annoyed that they commited original sin, thus putting a dent into the human condition.

But even had they not sinned, that is no guarantee that we their descendants would not have sinned. We all still have free will, after all.

And it did result in so great a saviour…