HCE, Job and the Guilt of Everyman, Part 2 (second of seven parts) , by Ann Cavanaugh

In tackling the question of guilt it is important to sort out what I refer to as guilt with a small g and Guilt with a large G. Guilt (with a small g) as that which describes human immorality and all manner of harmful behavior to self and other. That behavior for which we can have a sense of regret and a need for reconciliation/forgiveness which can serve to advance our awareness and ethical development. It is Guilt written with a large G that is, as I see it, capable of holding us hostage from our own goodness. This is the Guilt that functions to advance the belief in the individual, and humanity at large, as participating in the results of an ahistorical event of our “first parents.” That behavior which purportedly caused the original separation from God and the good; resulting in the belief in the fundamental impurity of the individual human and the human race and the need for redemption. Now this is one rendering of the Genesis story, and there are others, but it is undeniably the one that has had major influence over generations, Christian and otherwise. 

This story of our Fall from original purity through our own willfulness, or what? innate darkness? is capital G Guilt. But are we only tempted if we have the capacity to be tempted? And if so, from where does this come? If we contain the potential to act with impurity then impurity is something we have within us and this would predate The Fall. How does free will square with innocence? Rather than concluding that Eve was tempted what could change if she was identified with being curious and persuaded? One can’t help but consider the argument that this so called Fall was the result itself of a set up or test orchestrated for a purpose beyond understanding. It leads to separation from the natural world and the world of our inner instincts and then later we find this same God, who originally banished his first created children, in a covenant relationship with another of his children (Job) where this child/man is also being tested/tortured to prove yet another point. And is that point one He needs to verify for himself? Wouldn’t that beg the question that there is something about this human creature which is beyond His innate knowing? Or was the enactment more an opportunity for an “I told you so” with His son (in Job the angelic realm is referred to as sons of God and Satan is among them). These are all vital questions prompted by this story that get at the essence of who and what is God but also who and what is man and the question of what essentially constitutes a vital relationship of religious belief.