I was intrigued to read both Ken Brown’s post on the Twilight series and Daniel McClellan’s erudite response. I confess right up front that I have not read any of Ms Meyer’s books. I have seen the film of Twilight, and I must say that at no point did I sit up and think “that’s a Mormon film” although my knowledge of Mormonism is also lamentably small. (Though I did think that it was very much a girls’ film, and a very slow one as well.)
However, and the reason for venturing a comment, is one comment from the original article that Ken pointed to
This [story of the Fall] isn’t, however, the story as Moses told it or as Christian saints and sages have understood it. As a Mormon, Mrs. Meyer departs from the traditional Christian understanding of that event, and the nature of her departure appeals to rather than repels her readers.
Christians understand Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God, their “original sin,” or Fall, as the beginning of man’s distance from God, a distance that man could not restore on his own, but that required the incarnation and sacrifice of a divine, sinless Savior to accomplish. Mormons reject this interpretation. … asserting that, not only was the Fall not a bad thing, it was actually a good, even necessary thing for human salvation.
As far as Mormon beliefs go, Daniel rejects this characterisation of them. I note, in addition, that we seem to be dealing with a writer who believes that Moses wrote Genesis, and so someone who may not be open to any creative re-examinations of the text.
But the main point I want to make is this: the idea of a necessary Fall is embedded within Christian tradition. One mediaeval carol, much sung at this time of year, is Adam lay ybounden.
Ne had the apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Ne had never our ladie,
Abeen heav’ne queen.Blessed be the time
That apple taken was,
Therefore we moun singen.
Deo gracias!
No doubt some will struggle with the mariological expression of the idea. A similar point is made in a more christological manner in the main Easter liturgy of the Western Church:
O happy fault,
O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!
Essentially the carol and the Exsultet alike proclaim that the state of redeemed humanity is greater than that of created humanity before the Fall. This is also, if I have understood it rightly, the thrust of the Eastern language of divinisation. In union with Christ we are drawn not simply into the presence of God, as in the old story Adam and Eve strolled around the garden with him, but into the very life of the triune God, no longer a little lower than the angels.
In a post a few weeks back, I suggested that the idea of Fall needed significant reinterpretation in the light of modern science concerning both the nature of the cosmos and the role of evolution in relation to human life. It seems to me that that idea of a final status which is creation completed, is also here in the idea of the felix culpa, the necessary sin of Adam. It is not only an ancient Christian idea, but one which is profound and significant for modern re-expressions of our faith.
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Doug-
Thanks for very well stated comments. I don’t know how well I communicated my thoughts on the fall, but the idea in our tradition is that it was a decision that was made in the interest of humanity’s progress. That it became expedient is not necessarily a “good thing,” and for that reason I rejected the above characterization, but the fall was definitely not a mistake. There is a verse in the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 2:25) that reads, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.” Thank you for bringing those hymns to my attention, as well.
Well I’ll jump on the bandwagon. I took started a comment, which grew too long and turned into a post, here.
Just one more point though: I also hesitated over that line about “as Moses told it or as Christian saints and sages have understood it,” but gave it a pass. Judging my Daniel’s remarks, I probably shouldn’t have been so lenient on Granger.
Some interesting thoughts on the Fall and science can be found from time to time on the Engtangle States blog – eg http://www.entangledstates.org/2009/11/the-extent-of-the-fall.html?cid=6a00d83451b57769e2012875d2cd2f970c
Now I must away and learn how to spell “Entangled”.
Yep, I like Nick’s blog. I think an entangled spelling is quite appropriate
Adam lay y’bounden is one that can happily vanish from the repertoire. Praise the Lord for the fall and all the ensuing havoc, because Mary got to be Queen of Heaven (or did we just make that last bit up? can’t actually remember that from the Bible). Both morally and theologically wrong.
I think that would depend on whether one sees it as an eschatological statement about all humanity sharing in Christ’s kingship, or simply a Marian doctrine. I am choosing to read it in the former way.
…and I the latter…!
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