Theology of the Body 2012/09/03

"Adam and Eve were naked before they realized they were naked. In the state of original innocence, they looked upon each other in wonder and gratitude. In this way, they shared the vision of their Creator, who saw all that he had made and declared it 'very good' (Gen. 1:31).

"'Nakedness' signifies the original goodness of creation in God's eyes. …[T]hrough [God's vision] we see the high value of man and woman and the purity of sex and the body. …[T]here was no opposition between the physical and the spiritual. There was also no opposition between male and female — the two existed in unity. Adam and Eve looked at each other … with the eyes of their hearts.

"Shame limits our ability to see each other fully. But … Adam and Eve were unashamed. They were not afraid to open up to each other, to become vulnerable. They saw and knew each other intimately … . Because they were complementary — Adam's masculinity and Eve's femininity completed each other — they had a special understanding of the meaning of their bodies. They became gifts for each other.

"At the beginning, Adam and Eve shared a particular understanding of their bodies as gifts. This is the gift-giving or 'nuptial' meaning of the  body.

"As Christ reminds us, God is the Creator, man is the creature. … Why does God create? Why did he call all things from nothingness into being?

"Because he is love (1 John 4:8).

"We do not find [the word 'love'] in the creation story. But the narrative tells us repeatedly, 'God saw what he had made, and it was very good.' …[O]nly love gives birth to goodness and delights in what is good (1 Cor. 13). Creation is a gift.

"… With any gift, there is a relationship established between the giver and the receiver. We see this relationship most clearly in the creation of man — God gave us his image, and this puts us in a unique position with him. Among all creatures, only man is really capable of giving and receiving a gift.  Only man can understand that creation is a gift, and offer himself to God in return.

"Creation is God's gift, bestowed on man. But man is not only the recipient of a gift — he is also a gift himself — with the freedom to give himself to another."

The question has occurred to me: What would have happened if Adam and Eve had not lost their original innocence, if they had not sinned? Could nakedness without shame have continued  when there were children with parents, brothers and sisters, and extended human community? If so, the nuptial meaning of the body would not have meant that each person was a gift to every other person in the same way that Adam and Eve were to each other. But would nakedness have meant some non-sexual, less than total, degree of gift?