Of all the Bible stories none has fallen into such a disrepute as the one about the Garden of Eden. It has become the butt of ridicule in coffee-table books on human origins. Worse, men of the cloth have become ashamed of it. Even Catholic divines, who should know better, prefer not to think of it and certainly not of Adam and Eve as two concrete beings who initiated the human race. Contrary to the widespread belief, it is not paleontology that poses the really serious objections. Recent studies of human origins leave plenty of room to the rise, through a single couple, to the race called homo sapiens sapiens, or the race truly human and not merely by appearance. The most serious difficulty to the story of Adam and Eve comes from the reluctance to face up to the morale of that story, a story profoundly moral. Not for modern man the divine plan that all men had to share in the Fall so that all may be the recipient of God's overflowing love which is his mercy. It is in this perspective that the reason behind that story is discussed, in addition to comparatively minor questions such as the location, the time, and the length of the sojourn of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is not the believer in the essentially literal truth of the Garden of Eden who should feel uneasy about it, but the proud modern man who wants human justice but not divine mercy, though he badly needs it.

By Fr. Stanley L. Jaki

ISBN 978-1-892539-10-6  •  32 pages  •  softcover